Johnny Hart

[Mitch]

While it's hardly made the headlines, one of the greatest and most influential cartoonists in history, Johnny Hart, has passed away just the other day. Creator of the comic strip BC, which ran a nearly fifty year stretch having started back in 1958, as well as the artist and co-author of The Wizard of Id, Johnny Hart put more into his comics than many of us could ever dream. He died at his drawing table of a stroke while working on another strip, devoted to the last.

His courage to incorperate his own opinions, as well as an overtly Christian message in his work was something I always enjoyed, especially in the face of a media who often would like to do nothing more than make us think there is no such thing as a God at all. But most of all, I admired his wit and humility. To work so hard to make someone laugh, even people you would never meet, or ever hear from, is a feat I wish more of us could aspire to. A groundbreaker in the realm of comic creator's rights, as well as in polite social commentary, Johnny Hart will be missed terribly, as I do not think we will see another man of his integrity come to the funny pages for years to come.

Thank you, Mr. Hart, for all the laughs, and for everything else you did for people you didn't even know.

http://www.creators.com/news/10.html

[Morgan Evanar]

I thought Johnny Hart was unfunny and I loathed BC and the heavy handed religious slant in his later strips. I rejected his strips for the reasons you liked them. In fact, I found them obnoxious.

At least he died doing what he loved.