4/19/07: RightWingTrashMan: Johnny HartYes, we’re still catching up with events that we missed on vacation—which include the Easter Sunday death of Johnny Hart. You’ve probably already read many fine obituaries of the cartoonist behind “B.C.” and “The Wizard of Id.” Sadly, Hart counts as a conservative merely for his insistence on doing the occasional “B.C.” comic based on his Christian beliefs. It’s not hard to find sneering Leftist hipsters who mock the cartoonist just for his devotion to Jesus Christ. As Rosie would say, “Google it.”
The
Los Angeles Times even refused to run any of Hart’s comics with a Christian message. That didn’t stop him from writing, at the very least, special “B.C.” strips for the major Christian holidays. Hart misfired with one strip that could’ve reasonably been seen as anti-Semitic. Otherwise, his expressions of faith were unfairly ridiculed. It was a matter of him having the wrong faith, of course.
But let’s also celebrate the Johnny Hart who took on big issues even before his 1977 religious conversion. Back in the ’60s—and long before the topic was fashionable—Hart sketched a simple “B.C.” strip where a white snake and a black snake devour each other. He also had plenty of strips based on nihilistic humor. When the Prehistoric Pessimist Society cave was defaced with positive graffiti, caveman Peter dismissed it as the work of Leftists. That joke worked way back then.
And while the cast was neglected in recent years, early “B.C.” strips featured great comic creations such as Clumsy Carp, Thor, and the early feminist tensions of The Skinny Cute One and The Fat Naggy One. Don’t forget Wiley the Unwashed One-Legged Poet, who at least got to develop into Hart’s alter-ego in expressing Christian praise.
And on a personal note: We were working on a storyboard once, and needed to draw a cave. It seemed like a good idea to rip off the man who drew the best caves in the history of comics. So off we strolled to a huge book store in Manhattan, forgetting that it was 1992. We went to the Children’s section thinking we could find a collection of “B.C.” strips, but there wasn’t anything but variations on
Heather Has Two Mommies—and the original, of course, which we really don’t have anything against. In fact, we can’t wait to see the movie.
Anyway, there wasn’t a single “B.C.” collection to be found in the entire store. That’s when we began buying the paperbacks whenever we saw them in used-book stores. They certainly spoke to us politically, most often through the questionable character of Peter—who usually conned the other characters in his guise as the local psychiatrist, weather man, and other professions.
We’ll remember Hart best for the comic strip where the caveman B.C. comes across a sign that proclaims, “Do Not Read This Sign.” He peers at the small print to see, “Peter’s Sign Co.”
B.C. strolls away, declaring, “Must be getting a government subsidy.”
Make it your own: Despite the best efforts of the
Los Angeles Times, it’s now easy to enjoy the Gospel of Johnny Hart—including
that early good stuff.
