President John F. Kennedy said, "There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third." Cartoonist Johnny Hart does what he can with the third. And what he does is tremendous. For Johnny Hart's B.C. brings laughter to more than 100 million readers worldwide.
"As far back as I can remember, I drew funny pictures which got me in or out of trouble depending on the circumstances," recalls the successful comic strip creator.
But Johnny never really considered cartooning as a serious profession until he graduated from Union-Endicott High School. At 19, he met Brant Parker, a young cartoonist who became a prime influence in his life and later became a partner in the Wizard of Id, another of Johnny's comic creations. From the time of their first meeting, cartooning became the driving force which motivated Johnny to work toward the day when lie would join the fraternity of cartoonists he idolized.
Shortly after the two cartoonists met, Hart enlisted in the Air Force and began producing cartoons for Pacific Stars and Stripes. During a military assignment that took him to Georgia, he met and married Bobby. The couple lived on a small Georgia farm, where the budding artist sold his first free-lance cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post after his discharge from the military in 1954.
Since free-lance work alone did not financially sustain the couple, he took a position in the art department at General Electric while continuing to sell cartoons to magazines such as Colliers and True. During the two years he spent at G.E., Johnny began reading Peanuts by Charles Schulz. Schulz's work inspired him to attempt a comic strip of his own.
"Caveman gags, for reasons which I still cannot explain, were an obsession in those days," Johnny remembers. "One day, a friend jokingly suggested I create a strip revolving around prehistoric times."
Hence, in 1958, B.C. was born - and rejected by five syndicates before being accepted for newspaper syndication. Today, Johnny Hart's B.C. and its renowned cast of prehistoric merrymakers appear in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide and is distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Through the years, the celebrated B.C. has appeared on products ranging from drinking glasses to greeting cards, has been published in book form in five languages, adapted for television, chosen to represent many major companies in national advertising campaigns and illustrated sports events for the 1972 Olympics.
Since the early days of his career, Johnny's dream of joining the distinguished company of fellow cartoonists has more than come true. He has been lauded by his peers and praised by the public. He has won numerous awards for B.C. which include: Best Humor Strip in America, National Cartoonist Society, 1967; The Reuben, Cartoonist of the Year, National Cartoonist Society, 1968; The Yellow Kid Award, International Congress of Comics, 1970; NASA public service award for outstanding contributions, 1972; Adamson Award, Swedish Museum of Comic Art, 1975; and the Seger Award, King Features, 1981.
"The comic strip field is an exciting one. It principally is made up of people who have refused to grow up and who offer marvelous fantasies to those who wish they hadn't," Hart contends.
Hart draws B.C. in his Endicott, N.Y., studio. Endicott is the town where he was born and presently lives with Bobby. They have two daughters, Patti and Perri.
