Johnny Hart--RIP

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

Johnny Hart, the creator of the BC comic strip, has died. The BC strip always seemed a cut above many other strips to me.Link

[shadroch]

Man,that is eerie.I just bought a piece of his Wizard of Id work today.

I enjoyed his work,my condolences to his family.

[Jeffro.]

That suuuuuuuucks.

 

I love B.C. I loved Hart's sarcastic, dry humor. Great stuff

[comicparadox]

I hope the newspaper syndicate doesn't resort to recycling old strips, a la Peanuts. Personally, though I used to enjoy "BC", the religious overtones became too much for me. See Mark Evanier's POV for a good read on the issue.

[Wally's Comics]

I will miss his work.

 

He was one of the best.

 

 

RIP

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

I hope the newspaper syndicate doesn't resort to recycling old strips, a la Peanuts. Personally, though I used to enjoy "BC", the religious overtones became too much for me. See Mark Evanier's POV for a good read on the issue.

 

That's interesting. It was the religious overtones that gave the strip its depth and uniqueness, in my opinion.

[comicparadox]

Unique indeed.

Much as Trudeau's Doonesbury is carried on the editorial pages of some papers, proselytizing belongs in the religious section of the paper, not in the comic strips. IMHO.

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

Unique indeed.

Much as Trudeau's Doonesbury is carried on the editorial pages of some papers, proselytizing belongs in the religious section of the paper, not in the comic strips. IMHO.

 

I'd have a hard time comparing the two like that. The majority of Hart's work were simply interesting reflections on life that had no proselytizing or religious overtones. Those that did tended to be near major Christian holidays and were often subtle and understated. Trudeau's work seems to me to be much more overt, unmistakably so.

 

Some recent BC's:

 

Overtly religious, but not confrontational:

 

Barely religious:

 

Typical Hart strips:

[mica]

Great stuff

[Jeffro.]

 

Typical Hart strips:

 

 

Strips like this one are why I'm a huge B.C. fan. I can't get enough of that kind of humor.

[adams]

His religious rants were too much for me.

Made me skip his strip altogether.

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

Did you mean religious ants?

 

 

 

 

[selegue]

BC was one of my favorite strips decades ago. I clipped and saved the dailies, drew my own versions, bought the paperback collections, and really enjoyed the dry humor. Over the years the strip became less and less funny to me. I'm not just talking about the proselytizing, which didn't help, but it simply became (for me) dull and humorless. The ultimate shark-jump was to introduce those anachronistic ethnic stereotypes, Anno Domini and Conahanty.

 

Adding insult to injury, BC -- along with the Flintstones -- is probably a major reason why many (most?) Americans believe that humans coexisted with dinosaurs. You've really got to read the strip as a post-holocaustal future for it to make any sense.

 

The strip you chose is a good example of why I gave up -- it's not funny to me at all! Humor is in the eye of the beholder though. I'm not trying to talk anyone out of liking the strip.

 

Jack

 

Did you mean religious ants?

 

 

 

[shadroch]

Could it simply be that as you aged and (hopefully) matured,you were not as amused by the same things you were as a teen-ager?

I used to read five or six pages of daily comics a day,now I bvarely read one a week.I'm fairly sure its my taste that have changed,not the collective comic world.

[selegue]

Could it simply be that as you aged and (hopefully) matured,

 

That may be the flaw in your argument!

 

you were not as amused by the same things you were as a teen-ager?

 

 

Could be -- but I can't believe that I would have found the BC strip I quoted or many of the other current ones funny when I was a kid. I changed AND the strip changed.

 

I used to read five or six pages of daily comics a day,now I bvarely read one a week.I'm fairly sure its my taste that have changed,not the collective comic world.

 

 

I read virtually every comic strip in any paper I pick up. Once every six months is usually enough to keep up with most of the soap-opera strips. I'm amused by some (Pearls Before Swine), repelled by some (Cathy most days), and amazed at how bizarre others have become (Mary Worth!). Slylock Fox is about the only one I can ignore. Non Sequitur I like enough to get daily by email.

 

Jack

[SolitaireOne]

Yes, his clever humor will be missed...

[UnrulyAppendage]

I hope the newspaper syndicate doesn't resort to recycling old strips, a la Peanuts. Personally, though I used to enjoy "BC", the religious overtones became too much for me. See Mark Evanier's POV for a good read on the issue.

 

That's interesting. It was the religious overtones that gave the strip its depth and uniqueness, in my opinion.

 

I am with you on that