I was saddened to hear of the passing of Johnny Hart, at his home in Endicott, NY, at the age of 76. Many of you are probably wondering, who was Johnny Hart?He created one of my favorite cartoon strips of all-time, "B.C." I remember as a kid collecting many of the strips from the newspaper (which has long-since vanished) and also getting many of the B.C. books of the strip. He also co-created the popular strip, "The Wizard of Id."
B.C. was a group of eclectic characters, such as B.C., Thor, Peter and Clumsy Carp. It was set in prehistoric times, but it definitely had a 20th Century attitude among them. Mr. Hart was also a Christian, and was criticized at times for putting his deeply held beliefs into some of his cartoons.
Johnny Hart died on Saturday, and his wife said he suffered a stroke at his drawing table. For more on Johnny Hart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Hart
Thanks for the great comic strip, Mr. Hart. I'll miss those great characters you created.
Godspeed.
B.C. was one of my favorites as a kid. I, too, bought a few of the collections in paperback.
ReplyDeleteI found it very nice that Mr. Hart was able to later integrate his religious beliefs into the strip without it losing much of its humor. Of course, some people see ANYTHING of a Christian nature and just lose it, disregarding whatever other merits may be there. Too bad.
I absolutely agree, Suldog. I loved the way Johnny Hart wrote his cartoons. He put some subtle (and not so subtle) messages in them, and they were so well done. It was always good to see, and it added to my enjoyment of his strip.
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