April 09, 2007

Cartoonist Johnny Hart died on Saturday, at home, at his storyboard. Best known for B.C., he was also co-creator of Wizard of Id. .
  • Previous MoFi Johnny Hart thread - I don't thing I'll waste a period
  • Good riddance to bad trash.
  • ZOT!
  • fish tick!!! That hit me like a Fat Broad hitting a snake.
  • I have read the comic off and on throughout the years. Yes, he is a born again Christian. No, I am not a born again Christian. But I actually respect him for trying to put what is important to him into his work in an effort to reach people. It is a good thing. He also does it knowing that it might alienate some of his readers. Just because I disagree with someone's message doesn't mean I don't respect them for trying to say something through his art. People seem to think it is courageous when artists get political as long as they share the artist's viewpoint. When they don't share the viewpoint, people seem to like to condemn the artist for inappropriately wielding his/her power.
  • I like to think that few would share the viewpoint of outright condemnation of others' beliefs.
  • Meh. I won't miss either of these strips. They were getting more insane all the time, and were complete crap anyways. They took up space from decent comics that can't get the page space. The guy should have retired years ago. Now, the wait to see if his strips become zombie strips like so many others by dead cartoonists. Take a look at the eulogy over at the Comics Curmudgeon.
  • Heh, to be honest, I haven't paid any attention to Johnny Hart or his comics for years - and was totally unaware of his born-again Christianity or cheap shots at other religions. Was going from memories long-ago... 70's to be exact. Guess I missed that thread, fish tick!!
  • Hey, smt- I have great memories of B.C. (clams got legs! etc.), not to mention frimmin' at the jimjam, frippin' on the krotz! I am just uncomfortable with what later years brought. /maladroit
  • You know, he used to be pretty funny back in the 60s. He had quite a few personal demons to overcome, though, and maybe X-ianity helped him deal with them. Still, I wish his strips had remained funny even without the alkyhol. But they didn't.
  • Never liked these comics. Still sorry he's dead. But if you gotta go (and we all do, right?), then while doing the thing you love is the way to do it.
  • It is pretty hard core that he died at the drawing board. Mad props for that.
  • I like to think that few would share the viewpoint of outright condemnation of others' beliefs. Don't kid yourself.
  • Clams got souls!
  • I loved B.C. and found it refreshingly original--until Hart's focus shifted. I was offended by the prostelytizing in recent years, and just stopped reading the strip, which probably should have just been moved next to the Billy Graham column in the daily paper. The world desperately needs more shared laughter and less divisive religious thinking!
  • Billy Graham's in US papers? Whatever happened to the separation of church and (fourth power of the) state? OK, I'm just glad it wasn't Tony Hart who had died.
  • Huh. Shows how well I keep up. I remember Hart from his early days. Some of his stuff was funny. Never did read any of his bore-n again stuff, apparently. frimmin' at the jimjam, frippin' on the krotz! Not a bad thing to have on your headstone. MonkeyFilter: Clams got legs! evidence of evolution right there
  • damn tags
  • As a lover of the cartoony thang, I should say I liked "B.C". and "Wizard" a lot, when I read them years ago. I like the round noses, the big feet, and the talking snakes/rocks/clams/etc. His in-your-face religious right-wing stuff wasn't good, but hey - what is. There are baby-young comic strips who use that approach as a reason to exist. That's messed up. Besides, kicking out comics everyday for 50 years is a hell of an effort for anyone. That alone gets a standing O from me. And, I like to think he'll come to terms with those religious inconsistencies sooner than I will, anyway. It is pretty hard core that he died at the drawing board. Mad props for that. Word. RIP Mr. Hart.
  • Perhaps he just thought of the World's Funniest Punchline. Though, probably not.
  • B.C. was never in a paper I read, so I don't have an opnion of it one way or the other. But I always enjoyed Wizard of Id, or at least, it never made it to the list of comics I didn't bother reading. Godspeed, Mr. Hart.
  • Even so, .
  • His strips will live on, zombie-like, after his death, instead of making way for new artists and strips.
  • Fuckin' hate that.
  • What?? He's become a brand! That's the closest thing we've got to getting into heaven, these days.
  • Que sera sera.
  • Skrik, I agree... but pro-Christian stuff abounds in the dailies. Sunday's front page featured a large photograph of preparations for a "cross walk"--a practice I find masochistic and abhorrent, though not so hideously graphic as what some cultures engage in, such as voluntary crucifixion for public spectacle. Our paper regularly runs a "What I Believe" column which invariably is written by fundies and which rarely, if ever, contains free thought. Under the Bush regime, "Church" and "State" have become increasingly commingled, and the original intents of the so-called Founding Fathers distorted to serve political expediency.
  • It's just a comic strip.
  • It's just a comic strip That's what Flemming Rose was trying to say...
  • As lame as Christian cavemen may have been--it's still heaps better than Mallard Fillmore. (no link for you, Ducky!) And "The King is a Fink!" is a slogan that could use resurrecting. *toddles off to don Lone Haranguer Costume, get MapQuest directions to Pennsylvania Avenue*
  • Well -- that was an odd coincidence. Rest well, Mr. Parker. .
  • Odd coincidence, indeed. .
  • Is it something about comic strip authors? Sparky, these guys - what gives?
  • As lame as Christian cavemen may have been--it's still heaps better than Mallard Fillmore. Yeah, I don't mind its politics, but there's just something too you-kids-get-off-my-lawn about it.