'Louise et Louis', French-Canadian edition of 'Hank and Honey' (1950). Translation: "What are you doing, Jean?" - "Fishing!" - "Have you caught anything yet?" - "I can't catch fish here... no hook!".
Bernard Segal was an American modernist painter and cartoonist, who also worked under the pen name Seeg. He was the creator of the comic strip 'Honey and Hank' (1946-1958), also known under the title 'Elsworth'.
Early life and career
Bernard Segal was born in 1907 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended Cincinnati University and the Cincinnati Art Academy. In the 1920s and 1930s, he lived in New York City, where he attended The Art Students League and worked in a number of artistic styles.
Honey and Hank / Elsworth
During World War II, Segal worked as a cartoonist for a government newspaper paper called 10-Shun, published in Greensboro, North Carolina. He assumed the pen name Seeg and created the newspaper comic strip 'Honey and Hank'. This family gag-a-day comic about a loving couple was syndicated as a daily and Sunday strip by the New York Herald Tribune from 9 September 1946 until 12 October 1958. In 1949, it was retitled to 'Elsworth', referring to Honey and Hank's infant son, who now became the title character. Still, some newspapers kept running the comic under its original title. In Québec, the series ran in French as 'Louise et Louis'.
Later career and death
Segal also illustrated a number of books published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, as well as Bible stories. In the 1950s, the artist moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and became a member of the New Hope Modernist movement. He worked with esteemed artists like furniture designer George Nakashima, novelist Louis Stone and modernist painter Charles Frederic Ramsey. Segal made his most notable work in the 1960s, producing paintings and collages in an abstract expressionist style, with subjects varying from pure abstractions and cubist figurative works to people in everyday situations and landscapes. He was also known for his abstract mixed media collages from strips of paper and magazine clippings. Bernard Segal taught art at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. He passed away in 1986.
'Louise et Louis'. French-language version of 'Elsworth'. Translation: "School is over. No more crayons, books, teachers who play big games with us. Yippie! Summer vacation! Playing every day!" - "The big kids have all the fun!".