Johnny Hart, creator of BC, reportedly died at his drawing table from a massive stroke.
I’ve enjoyed his work for years. For some reason I always got a kick out of one strip I read years ago, in which Pete is extolling the virtues of a new invention that perform an entire host of unrelated tasks, including rotating your tires. And BC asks him, “Can it stampede a herd of crippled yaks?” Pete admits it can’t. “Then what good is it?” asks BC. To this day I will still occasionally ask if something can stampede a herd of crippled yaks. No clue why. It’s just one of those jokes that’s purely individual, lodging in the cerebral cortex.
Also, speaking as a Jew, I never had any problem with his more controversial strips that were intended to be articles of his faith. Talk about overreaction. It was his strip to do with as he pleased. If he wanted to depict a menorach morphing into a cross, then, y’know, fine. Whatever. Considering the type of material that’s been the subject matter of such strips as Doonesbury and For Better or Worse, it’s a little late to start claiming the comics pages should be free of controversy. Considering Judaism has survived five thousand years of assorted nations trying to destroy its practitioners, I certainly think we could survive a couple of Sunday comic strips.
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