Monday, April 09, 2007

Farewell, Mr. Hart

Johnny Hart, creator of the comic strip B.C., passed away yesterday at the age of 76. According to his wife, he died from a massive stroke, as he was working at his storyboard. Hart was not only the creator of B.C., but also he co-wrote the strip The Wizard of Id with Brant Parker.

I grew up reading B.C., along with other great strips like Peanuts, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Haggar the Horrible, Blondie, Dennis the Menace, and some others that I can barely recall at this distance. While some modern strips (Calvin & Hobbes, Dilbert and Mutts come to mind) have captured my affection, most of the strips today are lacking humour. I find such strips as Cathy and Garfield more annoying than funny.

And Mr. Hart was rare in that he dared to flout the P.C., anti-Christian denizens of today's media by allowing his belief in Christianity to not only appear, but to appear as a positive force in his strips, despite pressure from editors and fringe groups of professional victims. For example, his strip for today must be read, as it accurately sums up the Easter experience.

Michelle Malkin has a wonderful tribute to Mr. Hart up on her site, as does Captain Ed Morrissey over at Captain's Quarters.

God bless you, Johnny Hart. Go in peace.

Hat tip to Captain Ed Morrissey.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Johnny was a GREAT guy! I really appreciate and admire his stand for the Lord. I feel blessed to have known him personally and also feel blessed that he endorsed my cartoon book GOOD MEDICINE (religious "FAR SIDE"-type cartoons). Since he was a fellow Christian, I KNOW that he is with Jesus now in Paradise (ref. 1 John 5:13), since the Bible talks about a believer being present with the Lord when they are absent from the body (ref. 2 Cor. 5:8)! Please pray for his wife's (Bobby) and family's comfort at this time. He will be TRULY missed, but I look forward to the time when I can hang out with him in Heaven and reminisce about cartooning times here on earth. Johnny believed in what Jesus said in the Bible in John 3:16; "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." I feel that upon entering Heaven, Jesus may have said to Johnny something similar to "Welcome Home, thy good and faithful servant!"