'B.C.'.
Born in Endicott, New York, John Lewis Hart graduated from Endicott High School in 1949. He served his military time in Korea, and during this period, he published his first drawing in Stars and Stripes. Demobilized in 1953, he began collaborations with the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and Bluebook. Johnny Hart is best known for his comic strip 'B.C.', about humorous life in the stone age which started its run in newspapers on 17 February, 1958.
'B.C.', 2004.
In 1960, Hart developed a new strip idea, which he worked out together with the cartoonist Brant Parker: 'The Wizard of Id', a strip about a forsaken kingdom ruled by a cruel and nasty king who was flanked by his knight, Brandolph and the Wizard. It was distributed for the first time in 1964 by Publishers-Hall Syndicate. Hart eventually hired Jack Caprio and Dick Boland to assist him on his comic projects. In 1997, Brant Parker's son Jeff Parker took over the artwork of 'The Wizard of Id'.
'B.C.'.
Johnny Hart was an author who mixed dazzling and often sarcastic humor and hilarious originality. In 1981, Hart received the National Cartoonists Society's Elzie Segar Award for his work. Hart converted to fundamentalist Christianity in the later years of his life and drawing career, which led to more controversial cartoons and subsequent criticism. John Hart worked on his 'B.C.' comic strip up until the day he died in April 2007, AD. The strip is continued his grandsons Mason and Mick Mastroianni and his daughters Patti Pomeroy and Perri Hart.
Charles M. Schulz wrote the foreword to the B.C. compilation book 'Hey! B.C.' (Fawcett, 1959).
Johnny Hart had a strong influence on many gag comic artists. In the United States he inspired Joe King and Tom K. Ryan, while in Canada John Kricfalusi is one of his followers. In Europe, he found followers in Belgium (Luc Cromheecke, Got), France (Claire Bretécher), Italy (Massimo Mattioli), The Netherlands (Frank Hollander) and Serbia (Zoran Kovacevic). Roger Brunel once drew a porn parody of 'B.C.'. In Australia, Hart influenced Martin Brown.
Cartoon by Johnny Hart.
www.johnhartstudios.com
Johnny Hart artwork on Ger Apeldoorn's blog