Johnny Hart

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For other persons named John Hart, see John Hart (disambiguation).

A B.C. strip by Johhny Hart.

Johnny Hart (born February 18, 1931 in Endicott, New York) is an American cartoonist noted for having created and drawn the comic strip B.C. which has appeared daily in newspapers since February 17, 1958. Hart also co-created and writes the comic strip The Wizard of Id, which is drawn by Brant Parker. Id has been distributed since November 9, 1964.[1]

Hart's first comic was published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1954.[2] He also was published in Collier's Weekly and other magazines of the period.[3]

In the 1990s, Hart became an evangelical Christian, as did his wife Bobby, and began to reflect his beliefs in B.C., persisting despite criticism from some newspaper editors and readers. This has caused some controversy in the past. For example, on March 31, 1996, the Los Angeles Times refused to publish Hart's Sunday strip because it showed the character Wiley writing a poem about Christ, which the newspaper associate editor Narda Zacchino said "contained a definite religious message that we viewed as inappropriate for the comic pages" (Los Angeles Times 4/16/1996). Readers quickly complained, forcing the Times to publish the strip on April 6, 1996, in a story the Times itself did about the controversy. Another controversy occurred about the April 15, 2001 strip, which showed a menorah being transformed into a Christian cross, accompanied by "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." "Hart insisted he was trying to honor Jews as well as Christians, but the burned-out candles of the menorah seemed to tell Jews that their religion was defunct" [4].

[edit] Awards

He has been recognized for his work with the National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1967 for BC, their Reuben Award in 1968 for B.C. and The Wizard of Id, their Elzie Segar Award in 1981, their Animation Award in 1973, and their Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1989 for BC.