''B.C.'' is a daily American
comic strip created by
cartoonist Johnny Hart
John Lewis Hart (February 18, 1931 – April 7, 2007) was an American cartoonist noted as the creator of the comic strips '' B.C.'' and ''The Wizard of Id''. Brant Parker co-produced and illustrated ''The Wizard of Id''. Hart was recogni ...
. Set in
prehistoric times, it features a group of
cavemen
The caveman is a stock character representative of primitive humans in the Paleolithic. The popularization of the type dates to the early 20th century, when Neanderthals were influentially described as "simian" or " ape-like" by Marcellin Bo ...
and
anthropomorphic animals from various
geologic era
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochr ...
s.
''B.C.'' made its newspaper debut on February 17, 1958, and was among the longest-running strips still written and drawn by its original creator when Hart died at his drawing board in
Nineveh, New York, on April 7, 2007. Since his death, third-generation descendant
Mason Mastroianni has produced the strip, with ''B.C.''
syndicated by
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...
.
Publication history
''B.C.'' was initially rejected by a number of syndicates until the
New York Herald Tribune Syndicate
The New York Herald Tribune Syndicate was the syndication service of the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Syndicating comic strips and newspaper columns, it operated from c. 1914 to 1966. The syndicate's most notable strips were ''Mr. and Mrs.'', '' ...
accepted it, launching the strip on February 17, 1958. Hart was assisted with ''B.C.'' by gag writers Jack Caprio and Dick Boland (who later joined Hart and cartoonist
Brant Parker on ''
The Wizard of Id
''The Wizard of Id'' is a daily newspaper comic strip created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart. Beginning November 16, 1964, the strip follows the antics of a large cast of characters in a shabby medieval kingdom called "Id" ...
'').
When the Herald Tribune syndicate folded in 1966 due to the demise of its parent newspaper, ''B.C.'' was taken over by the
Publishers Syndicate. That syndicate changed hands and names frequently —
Publishers-Hall Syndicate
Publishers-Hall Syndicate was a newspaper syndicate founded by Robert M. Hall in 1944. Hall served as the company's president and general manager. Over the course of its operations, the company was known as, sequentially, the Hall Syndicate (1944 ...
, the
Field Newspaper Syndicate
The Field Newspaper Syndicate was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated independently from 1941 to 1984, for a good time under the name the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate. The service was founded by Marshall Field III and was part of ...
,
News America Syndicate
The Field Newspaper Syndicate was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated independently from 1941 to 1984, for a good time under the name the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate. The service was founded by Marshall Field III and was part of F ...
, and finally
North America Syndicate — eventually becoming part of
King Features
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial ...
.
[Storch, Charles]
"Hearst To Buy Murdoch Syndicate,"
''Chicago Tribune'' (December 25, 1986). At that point, in 1987, Hart changed distributors to
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...
, becoming one of Creators' first syndicated strips.
After Hart's death in 2007, the strip began being
produced by Hart's grandsons Mason Mastroianni (head writer and cartoonist) and
Mick Mastroianni (writer for both ''B.C.'' and Hart's other creation, ''
Wizard of Id
''The Wizard of Id'' is a daily newspaper comic strip created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart. Beginning November 16, 1964, the strip follows the antics of a large cast of characters in a shabby medieval kingdom called "Id" ...
''), and Hart's daughter Perri (letterer and colorist). (The Mastroianni brothers also created an original strip, ''Dogs of C Kennel'', in 2009.)
Cast of characters
For a visual glossary, se
Meet The Actorsat John Hart Studios.
Character inspiration
Hart was inspired to draw cavemen (and many other creatures) through the chance suggestion of one of his coworkers at
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
, and took to the idea "because they are a combination of simplicity and the origin of ideas." The name for the strip "may have been suggested by my wife, Bobby," Johnny recalls.
Hart describes the title character as similar to himself, playing the "patsy." The other major characters — Peter, Wiley, Clumsy Carp, Curls, and Thor — were patterned after friends and co-workers. The animal characters include
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s,
ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...
s and an
anteater,
clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...
s, a
snake
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...
, a
turtle
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...
and
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
duo, and an
apteryx (presented in the strip as being the sole surviving specimen, and hence self-aware of its being doomed to
extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
).
Human characters
* B.C.: An orange haired, humble, naïve slob and eternal patsy. B.C. occasionally makes nighttime rounds as his alter-ego, "The Midnight Skulker."
* Peter: A yellow haired, self-styled genius and the world's first philosophical failure, founder of the "Prehistoric Pessimists Society" and the "Truth Pedestal," and the discoverer of oil. Peter is patterned after Hart's friend, Peter Reuter; the two had been co-workers at General Electric.
* Thor: A brown-haired, smart, witty self-proclaimed ladies' man; inventor of the wheel and the comb. Thor was patterned after another of Hart's friends from GE, Thornton Kinney.
* Jane: a bossy cavewoman who enjoys clobbering snakes. Until August 29, 2019, Jane was referred to in the strip as the "Fat Broad".
She is named after Johnny's wife Bobby's mom Janie Indiana Finch.
* Grace: a quiet but intellectual giant in a world of crude men. Until August 29, 2019, Grace was referred to in the strip as the "Cute Chick".
She is named after Johnny's mom Grace Anna Brown.
* Wiley: a peg-legged, superstitious, unshaven, woman-fearing, water-hating poet and coach of the local
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
and
football teams, not to mention the first bartender. Wiley was patterned after Hart's brother-in-law, Wiley Baxter, who lost his leg in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
* Clumsy Carp: a nerdy, bespectacled
ichthyologist and perpetual klutz, clumsy enough to trip over a shadow, yet with some unusual skills, such as his ability to make and stack "water balls" (similar to snowballs). Clumsy Carp was patterned after Hart's childhood friend, Jack Caprio.
* Curls: a master of sarcastic wit. Curls was patterned after Hart's friend from high school, Richard (Curly) Boland.
* Grog: pure
Id, a caveman's caveman; a primitive, semi-evolved wild man with a limited vocabulary and enough strength to knock the sun out of the sky using a golf ball.
*The Guru: an unnamed, bearded wise man living like a hermit atop a mountain, whence he dispenses wisdom and sarcasm.
Animals and other non-human characters
* John the Turtle and the Dookie Bird: this prehistoric odd couple are inseparable friends, especially when making their annual trek south for the winter. The Dookie Bird rides on John's back when they travel.
* The Snake: the put-upon, mortal enemy of Jane (and her club).
* The Anteater: eats ants with a sticky, elastic tongue and a ''ZOT!'' sound. Hart actually drew something of a
hybrid
Hybrid may refer to:
Science
* Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding
** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species
** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...
—with the long ears of an
aardvark
The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlik ...
and the bushy tail of a
giant anteater
The giant anteater (''Myrmecophaga tridactyla'') is an insectivorous mammal native to Central and South America. It is one of four living species of anteaters, of which it is the largest member. The only extant member of the genus ''Myrmecophag ...
. (This character was the inspiration for Peter the
Anteater, the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...
team
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.
As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...
mascot. Also served as the inspiration for the mascot of the now disestablished US Navy fighter squadron VF-114 the "Aardvarks".)
* Maude: an
ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...
, a nagging wife with a smart-alec son (Johnny) and a quarrelsome, straying husband.
* Jake: ant husband of Maude, who is always threatening to run off with Shirley.
* Queen Ida: the queen ant, an unfeeling and abusive dictator. Queen Ida was based on Hart's wife Bobby, whose given name was Ida. She was featured every year on her birthday, December 3, until Mrs. Hart's death in 2018. (Th
December 3, 2019 stripfeatured a parting message from the Queen to her subjects.)
* The Dinosaur: big but not too bright—a sort of
sauropod with spinal plates like a
stegosaurus
''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...
. Sometimes called Gronk, which is the only sound he makes (although he can talk fluently in recent strips).
* The Clams: talking
clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...
s with legs, among other appendages. (Clams are also the preferred unit of currency in ''B.C.'')
* The Apteryx (
kiwi
Kiwi most commonly refers to:
* Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand
* Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders
* Kiwifruit, an edible berry
* Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency
Kiwi or KIWI may also ref ...
): a "wingless bird with hairy feathers," as he invariably introduces himself.
* The Turkey: makes his yearly appearance at
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
time, eluding the mighty hunters.
* Oynque: the turkey's porcine partner in crime, rarely seen without his trademark mud puddle.
* Wolf: the newest ''B.C.'' character August 24, 2009; a blissfully deviant domestication of
Precambrian fur. Man's first friend.
* Various incidental ants, including a schoolteacher and her students.
* Raptors:
velociraptors that try to eat the other characters.
There are also several odd inanimate characters, including a talking Daisy and his/her friend, a talking Rock.
Seldom-used or one-shot human characters
Although the strip seldom expands its human cast outside of the established group of characters, there are a few exceptions.
* Anno Domini, or A.D., introduced during a weeks-long journey by Peter to discover the new world, which he successfully accomplished. His name is arguably a riff on B.C.'s name. He dresses as a caveman very much like the rest of the characters, but has a thick mustache and a stereotypical Italian accent, assuming a bit of a take on
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
. He befriends Peter in the "new world."
* Conahonty, a Native American Indian, who also appears in the "new world" storyline, and befriends Peter. He is a friend of A.D.'s, and speaks rather stereotypical broken English. He dresses more like a somewhat stereotyped Indian than a caveman, and at one point even specifically states that he is an American Indian. He and A.D. were not frequently seen after Peter returned from his epic journey. The two are the most oft-appearing non-regular human characters in the history of the strip other than the Guru, due to the strip's tight focus on its core cast of humans. His name is a spoof of the name
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
.
* Peter's Pen Pal, An unseen person whom Peter corresponds with by tossing "floating stone tablet" letters into the ocean and receiving answers at a later time.
Setting
The characters live, for the most part, in caves, in what appears to be a barren, mountainous desert by an unidentified sea. Background detail is often limited to a simple horizon line broken up by the occasional silhouettes of a stray volcano or cloud. "Retail stores", "shop counters", and "businesses" are symbolized by a single boulder, labeled (for instance): "Wheel Repair", "Advice Column", "Psychiatrist", etc. The February 5, 2012, strip gives a nearby location of N 53° 24' 17" W 6° 12' 3", which is in present-day
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
Originally, the strip was set firmly in prehistoric times, with the characters clearly living in an era untouched by modernity. Typical plot lines, for example, include B.C.'s friend, Thor (inventor of the wheel and the comb), trying to discover a use for the wheel. Thor was also seen making calendars out of stone every December. Other characters attempt to harness fire or to discover an unexplored territory, like Peter trying to find the "new world" by crossing the ocean on a raft. Animals, like the dinosaur, think such thoughts as, "There's one consolation to becoming extinct—I'll go down in history as the first one to go down in history." Grog arrived in early 1966, emerging from a miniature glacier which melted to reveal what Wiley called "Prehistoric man!"
''B.C.'', like Hart's ''Wizard of Id'', is a period
burlesque with a deliberately broad, non literal time frame. As time went on, the strip began to mine humor from having the characters make explicit references to modern-day
current events,
inventions, and
celebrities
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...
. Increasingly familiar visual devices, like the makeshift "telephone" built into a tree trunk, also started to blur the comic's supposed prehistoric setting and make it rife with intentional
anachronisms. One of the comic's early out-of-context jokes, from June 22, 1967, was this one:
:Peter: "I used to think the Sun revolved around the Earth."
:B.C.: "What ''does'' it revolve around?"
:Peter: "The United States!"
Another early example: Near
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
time, the apteryx, dressed as
Santa Claus, modified his usual spiel: "Hi there, I'm an Apterclaus, a wingless toymonger with batteries not included!" A devout Christian, Hart included didactic references to the
death and resurrection of Jesus
The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord ...
in
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
installments. ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' columnist and comics critic
Gene Weingarten
Gene Norman Weingarten (born October 2, 1951) is an American journalist, and former syndicated humor columnist for ''The Washington Post.'' He is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Weingarten is known for bot ...
suggested that ''B.C.'' is actually set not in the past but in a dystopic, post-apocalyptic future.
Format and style
''B.C.'' follows a gag-a-day format, featuring (mostly) unrelated jokes from day to day, plus a color Sunday strip. Occasionally it will run an extended sequence on a given theme over a week or two. It also follows the convention of Sunday strips with a short, setup/payoff joke in the first two panels, followed by an extended gag, which allows newspapers to trim the opening panels for space. The principal cast is small and varied, with each character imbued with a developed personality. "The art style, like that of
Charles Schulz
Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wi ...
's ''
Peanuts
''Peanuts'' is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ''Peanuts'' is among the most popular and infl ...
'', masks sophisticated minimalism with a casually scratchy veneer," according to comics historian
Don Markstein
Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...
.
[''B.C.'']
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on August 27, 2015.
Dry humor, prose,
verse,
slapstick,
irony, shameless
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s and wordplay, and
comedic devices such as ''Wiley's Dictionary'' (where common words are defined humorously with a twist, see
Daffynition
A daffynition (a portmanteau blend of '' daffy'' and '' definition'') is a form of pun involving the reinterpretation of an existing word, on the basis that it sounds like another word (or group of words). Presented in the form of dictionary defin ...
) make for some of the mix of material in ''B.C.'' Example: "Rock ''(verb)'': To cause something or someone to swing or sway, principally by hitting them with it!"—from an early 1967 strip. Or: "Cantaloupe ''(noun)'': What the father of the bride asks after seeing the wedding estimate!"
There are
running gags
Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...
relating to the main cast and to a variety of secondary, continuing characters. One such periodic recurring gag has Peter communicating with an unseen pen-pal on the other side of the ocean, writing a message on a slab of rock that he floats off into the horizon. It is invariably returned the same way, with a sarcastic reply written on the reverse side. These segments use silent or "pantomime" panels (indicating that time has elapsed; night falls and dawn rises) between the set-up and the delayed punch line—typical of Hart's idiosyncratic use of "timing" in ''B.C.''
Controversies
The ''B.C.'' daily strip from December 7, 2006, attracted criticism for defining ''infamy'' as "a word seldom used after Toyota sales topped 2 million." The day was the 65th anniversary of the Japanese military's
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
, and the punchline of the strip refers to
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
's "
Infamy Speech
The "Day of Infamy" speech, sometimes referred to as just ''"The Infamy speech"'', was delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, to a joint session of Congress on December 8, 1941. The previous day, the Em ...
" which requested from Congress a
declaration of war against Japan. The day's strip was pulled from at least one newspaper, the ''
San Antonio Express-News''. The paper's managing editor said the comic was "a regressive and insensitive statement about one of the worst days in American history."
On July 21, 2009, the strip presented a gag that involved the supposed suggestion of animal abuse. John Hart Studios received many angry responses from readers and issued an apology on their website.
Religious aspect
Late in the run of the strip, and following a renewal of Hart's religious faith in 1984, ''B.C.'' increasingly incorporated religious, social, and political commentary, continuing until Hart's death in 2007. References to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, anachronistic given the strip's supposed setting and the implications of its title, became increasingly frequent during Hart's later years. In interviews, Hart referred to his strip as a "ministry" intended to mix religious themes with secular humor. Though other strips such as ''
The Family Circus
''The Family Circus'' (originally ''The Family Circle'', also ''Family-Go-Round'') is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and, since Bil's death in 2011, is currently written, inked, and rendered (colored) by his son, Jef ...
'' and ''
Peanuts
''Peanuts'' is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ''Peanuts'' is among the most popular and infl ...
'' have included Christian themes, ''B.C.'' strips were pulled from comics pages on several occasions due to editorial perception of religious favoritism or overt proselytizing.
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
strips in 1996 and 2001, for example, prompted editorial reaction from a handful of U.S. newspapers, chiefly the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' and written and oral responses from
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish and
Muslim groups who were offended that Hart would include his own Christian beliefs in his strip. The American Jewish Committee termed the Easter 2001 strip, which depicted the last words of
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
and a
menorah transforming into a cross, "religiously offensive" and "shameful", and accused Hart of promoting
supersessionist theology. A 2003 strip depicting a character using an
outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket toilet, but other forms of dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may also be used ...
with a
crescent
A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself.
In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...
symbol on the front, slamming the door shut, and declaring, "Is it just me, or does it stink in here?" was interpreted by some as carrying an anti-
Islam message. Hart responded to the controversy, saying "This comic was in no way intended to be a message against Islam — subliminal or otherwise.... It would be contradictory to my own faith as a Christian to insult other people's beliefs." The ''Los Angeles Times'' consequently relegated strips which its editorial staff deemed objectionable to the
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
pages, instead of the regular comics pages.
''B.C.'' in other media
*The characters were featured in two
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
television specials
A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...
. ''B.C.: The First Thanksgiving'', first aired on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
in 1973, was directed by
Abe Levitow, and featured the voice talents of
Daws Butler
Charles Dawson Butler (November 16, 1916May 18, 1988) was an American voice actor. He worked mostly for the Hanna-Barbera animation production company where he originated the voices of many familiar characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry H ...
(as B.C. and Clumsy),
Don Messick as Peter and Thor,
Bob Holt as Wiley and Grog, and
Joanie Sommers
Joanie Sommers (born Joan Drost, February 24, 1941) is an American singer and actress with a career concentrating on jazz, standards and popular material and show-business credits. Once billed as "The Voice of the Sixties", and associated with to ...
as Fat Broad and Cute Chick.
*''B.C.: A Special Christmas'' first aired on
HBO in 1981, and starred the comedy team of
Bob and Ray
Bob and Ray were an American comedy duo whose career spanned five decades, composed of comedians Bob Elliott (1923–2016) and Ray Goulding (1922–1990). The duo's format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, suc ...
as the voices of Peter and Wiley, respectively.
*The characters appeared in animated commercials for the U.S. federal agency
ACTION
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
in the 1970s and for Monroe shocks in the late 1980s. They were also licensed by
Arby's
Arby's is an American fast food sandwich restaurant chain with more than 3,300 restaurants system wide and third in terms of revenue. In October 2017, ''Food & Wine'' called Arby's "America's second largest sandwich chain (after Subway)".
Arby ...
restaurants in 1981, which issued a collector set of 6 ''B.C.'' cartoon character drinking glasses. In the last half of the 1960s, the BC characters were used in commercials for Marathon gasoline.
*''B.C.'' was turned into two
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s for the
ColecoVision
ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision.
The console offered a closer exp ...
home video game system,
Atari 800
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...
,
Commodore 64 and the
MSX home computers: ''
B.C.'s Quest for Tires'' and ''
B.C. 2: Grog's Revenge''.
Hometown
Influences from ''B.C.'' are found throughout Johnny Hart's home of
Broome County,
New York. A
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...
event, the
B.C. Open, took place every summer in
Endicott, New York
Endicott is a village in Broome County, New York, United States. The population was 13,392 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Binghamton Metropolitan Statistical Area. The village is named after Henry B. Endicott, a founding member of the End ...
, through 2005 (the final scheduled B.C. Open in 2006 was disrupted by
flooding
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...
, prompting a change of venue to the
Turning Stone Resort & Casino
Turning Stone Resort Casino is a Native American resort casino owned and operated by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York (OIN) in Verona, New York.
The facility opened on July 20, 1993, and offers golf amenities (on- and off-site golf course ...
in central New York state). Each year Johnny would bring in a group of cartoonists to play in the Pro-Am.
Jim Davis,
Mike Peters,
Mort Walker
Addison Morton Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips ''Beetle Bailey'' in 1950 and ''Hi and Lois'' in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips. ...
,
Paul Szep
Paul Michael Szep (born July 29, 1941) is a Canadian political cartoonist. He was the chief editorial cartoonist at the ''Boston Globe'' from 1967 to 2001 and has been syndicated to hundreds of newspapers worldwide. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice ...
,
Dik Browne
Richard Arthur Allan Browne (August 11, 1917 – June 4, 1989) was an American cartoonist, best known for writing and drawing ''Hägar the Horrible'' and ''Hi and Lois''.
Biography
Browne attended Cooper Union and got his start at the '' New Yo ...
,
John Cullen Murphy
John Cullen Murphy (May 3, 1919 – July 2, 2004) was an American illustrator best known for his three decades of work on the ''Prince Valiant'' comic strip.
Early life and education
Born in New York City, Murphy spent his childhood in Chicago a ...
,
Dean Young,
Stan Drake,
Brant Parker,
Lynn Johnston
Lynn Johnston (born May 28, 1947) is a Canadian cartoonist and author, best known for her newspaper comic strip '' For Better or For Worse''. She was the first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award.
Ea ...
, and entertainer
Tom Smothers
Thomas Bolyn Smothers III (born February 2, 1937) is an American comedian, composer and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick.
Early life
Smothers was born in 1937 at ...
would put on a free show for the community, drawing and signing autographs for golf and cartooning fans.
The Broome County parks department features Gronk the dinosaur as their mascot, and Thor riding a wheel graces every
Broome County Transit bus. In the past, Hart has also left his mark, free of charge, on the logos of the
Broome Dusters
The Broome Dusters were an ice hockey team in the North American Hockey League. They played in Binghamton, New York, United States at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. The team logo was designed by Johnny Hart, artist of the comic stri ...
and
B.C. Icemen hockey teams.
Awards
*Best Humor Strip in America,
National Cartoonist Society, 1967
*The Reuben, Cartoonist of the Year, National Cartoonist Society, 1968
*, Cartoonist of the Year,
International Congress of Comics, Lucca, Italy, 1970
*Cartoonist of the Year, France, 1971
*NASA Public Service Award, for outstanding contributions to NASA, 1972
*Best Feature Animation Award, National Cartoonist Society, "B.C. The First Thanksgiving," 1973
*The Golden Spike Award – Best Animated Television Commercial, International Society of Radio and Television Broadcasters, "B.C. 'A' We're the ACTION Corps", 1974
*The Silver Bell Award, Best Animated Television Commercial, Advertising Council, "B.C. Tickets for ACTION", 1974
*"The Sam" Adamson Award, Best International Comic Strip Cartoonist, Swedish Academy of Comic Art, 1976,
*The Elzie Seger Award, Outstanding Contributions to the Art of Cartooning, King Features, 1981
*The Golden Sheaf Award and Special Jury Award, The Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival, Canada,"B.C. A Special Christmas", 1982
*Best Newspaper Comic Strip, National Cartoonist Society, 1989
Collections and reprints
(All titles are by Johnny Hart; published by
Fawcett Gold Medal unless otherwise noted. )
*''Hey! B.C.'' (1959) (also Funk & Wagnalls trade pb
)
*''Back to B.C.'' (1961) (also G. P. Putnam's Sons trade pb
)
*''B.C. Strikes Back'' (1962) (also G. P. Putnam's Sons trade pb
)
*''Hurray for B.C.'' (1963)
*''The Sunday Best of B.C.'' (1964) G. P. Putnam's Sons
*''What's New, B.C.?'' (1968)
*''B.C. Big Wheel!'' (1969)
*''B.C. Is Alive and Well'' (1969)
*''Take a Bow, B.C.'' (1970)
*''B.C. Life is a Seventy-Five Cent Paperback'' (1970) This book was retitled every time the price went up: 75¢, 95¢, $1.25, $1.75, and $1.95 in the U.S.; and 50p and 60p in Great Britain.
*''B.C. on the Rocks'' (1971)
*''B.C. Right On'' (1973)
*''B.C. Cave In'' (1973)
*''B.C. One More Time'' (1973)
*''B.C. Dip in Road'' (1974)
*''B.C. It's a Funny World'' (1974)
*''B.C. Truckin on Down'' (1975)
*''B.C. Great Zot I'm Beautiful'' (1977)
*''B.C. Color Me Sunday'' (1977)
*''B.C. The Second and Third Letters of the Alphabet Revisited'' (1977)
*''B.C. Loneliness Is Rotting on a Bookrack'' (1978)
*''B.C. Where the Hell Is Heck?'' (1978)
*''B.C. The Sun Comes Up, the Sun Goes Down'' (1979)
*''I, B.C.'' (1980)
*''B.C. A Special Christmas'' (1981) Firefly Books
*''B.C. No Two Sexes Are Alike'' (1981)
*''B.C. A Clam for Your Thoughts'' (1981)
*''B.C. But Theriously, Folkth...'' (1982)
*''B.C. Star Light, Star Bright, First...'' (1982)
*''B.C. Out One Ear and In the Other'' (1983)
*''B.C. I Don't Wanta Hear About It'' (1984)
*''B.C. Life Goes On'' (1984)
*''B.C. A Rag and a Bone and a Yank of Hair'' (1985)
*''B.C. Lover's Leap'' (1985)
*''B.C. Why Me?'' (1986)
*''Here Comes B.C.'' (1987) Budget Books
*''B.C. Rides Again'' (1988) Andrews McMeel
*''Return of B.C. Rides Again'' (1989) Andrews McMeel
*''B.C.'' (1990) Andrews McMeel
*''Johnny Hart's Growingold with B.C.: A 50 Year Celebration'' (2007) Checker Books
*''I Did It His Way: A Collection of Classic B.C. Religious Comic Strips'' (2009) Thomas Nelson
On September 21, 2015, Go Comics began reprinting B.C. under the title "Back to B.C.".
References
External links
John Hart Studios– official site for John Hart Studios
Creators.com: B.C.– official site from Creators Syndicate
{{DEFAULTSORT:B.C. (Comic Strip)
American comic strips
Fictional prehistoric characters
Prehistoric people in popular culture
Comics set in prehistory
Gag-a-day comics
Christian comics
1958 comics debuts
Comics characters introduced in 1958
Comics adapted into animated films
Comics adapted into video games
Religious controversies in comics