B.C. - The End of an Era
In comic strip news, Johnny Hart, creator of B.C. and co-creator of The Wizard of Id passed away a few days ago on the 7th. He was drawing in his studio when he suffered a stroke. Hart was an old-time player in the industry, having started B.C. in 1958. He also was one of the rare cartoonists who single-handedly wrote and drew every single strip throughout the decades.
– Click to enlarge.
As usual, the syndicate is in fear of losing revenue if they allow the strip to end. So B.C. will continue forth. Apparently, Hart’s family have been helping with the strip for a few years by pulling drawings from a computer database. So the new comic strips will be digitally cut-and-pasted from old art. Hmm, it sounds like a laborious process compared to just drawing the characters. And I have no idea who’s going to write the strips.
Comic strips are such a personal expression of the cartoonist, that sometimes the predecessor inadvertently kills the strip. We’ll just have to see how B.C. fares in the coming years. Even if it plummets, that’s no guarantee the newspapers will do anything but keep printing them.
But here’s to Johnny Hart and his decades of contribution! Thanks for drawing funny cavemen leaning on rocks!
