Pen name, Denberg

When Dennis Eisenberg was in college 40-some years ago, he aspired to be an editorial cartoonist. Post-college life, though, has its squiggly twists and turns and Eisenberg, through what he would later call great luck, became a magazine and newspaper art director and designer. 

But like any true artist, he continued to draw, “but just for fun,” he said a few years ago. 

Eisenberg began drawing in earnest again during the Covid shutdown. His self-titled “pandemic project” explored topics making headlines across newspapers and the internet: Covid’s toll, the Black Lives Matter movement, immigration, the George Floyd protests. He drew single-panel editorial cartoons and what he called “illustrated reportage.”

“This work has been extremely rewarding, and I would very much like to finally follow that long-ago college dream,” he wrote to us in early March 2023. 

“Perhaps we can put our heads together and figure something out,” he said. “I think it would be a lot of fun.” And so it was. What followed was “Reports from the field,” a collaboration that bridged the soberness of news coverage and whimsy born of a prolific imagination. 

Dennis Eisenberg was 61 when died of heart failure Oct. 13. He will be missed, for his warmth, his spirit and his verve.

Thank you, Denberg, for bringing color and humor to our pages.