Creationist Cartoonist Dies, World Celebrates

Post Noob Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 57

Johnny Hart, 'B.C.' creator, dies at 76
By MARY ESCH, Associated Press Writer

Cartoonist Johnny Hart, whose award-winning "B.C." comic strip appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide, has died. He was 76.

Hart died Saturday while working at his home in Endicott.

"He had a stroke," his wife, Bobby, said Sunday. "He died at his storyboard."

"B.C.," populated by prehistoric cavemen and dinosaurs, was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers with an audience of 100 million, according to Creators Syndicate Inc., which distributes it.

"He was generally regarded as one of the best cartoonists we've ever had," Hart's friend Mell Lazarus, creator of the "Momma" and "Miss Peach" comic strips, said from his California home. "He was totally original. 'B.C' broke ground and led the way for a number of imitators, none of which ever came close."

After he graduated from Union-Endicott High School, Hart met Brant Parker, a young cartoonist who became a prime influence and co-creator with Hart of the "Wizard of Id" comic strip.

Hart enlisted in the Air Force and began producing cartoons for Pacific Stars and Stripes. He sold his first freelance cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post after his discharge from the military in 1954.

He won numerous awards for his work, including the National Cartoonist Society's prestigious Reuben Award twice for Cartoonist of the Year.

Later in his career, some of Hart's cartoons had religious themes, a reflection of his own Christian faith. That sometimes led to controversy.

A strip published on Easter in 2001 drew protests from Jewish groups and led several newspapers to drop the strip. The cartoon depicted a menorah transforming into a cross, with accompanying text quoting some of Jesus Christ's dying words. Critics said it implied that Christianity supersedes Judaism.

Hart said he intended the strip as a tribute to both faiths.

"He had such an emphasis on kindness, generosity, and patience," said Richard Newcombe, founder and president of Creators Syndicate in Los Angeles.

Newcombe said Hart was the first cartoonist to sign on when the syndicate was created 20 years ago. "Traditionally, comic strips were owned by syndicates," Newcombe said. "We were different because we allowed cartoonists to own their own work. It was because of Johnny's commitment to this idea that made us a success."

Newcombe said "B.C." and "Wizard of Id" would continue. Family members have been helping produce the strips for years, and they have an extensive computer archive of Hart's drawings to work with, he said.

When "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz died in 2000, United Media, which held the rights to the strip featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy, started running old panels of the cartoon.

Besides his wife, Hart is survived by two daughters, Patti and Perri. He was a native of Endicott, about 135 miles northwest of New York City, and drew his comic strip at a studio in his home there until the day he died.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Nineveh Presbyterian Church.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:53 am

Quote:

Creationist Cartoonist Dies, World Celebrates

I don't read anything in the article about the "world celebrating", care to elaborate?

Grand Poster Joined: Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 1138

I suppose his work was controversial now and then, but it was a good strip in general.

Post Noob Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 57

MockingGods wrote:

Quote:

Creationist Cartoonist Dies, World Celebrates

I don't read anything in the article about the "world celebrating", care to elaborate?

what aren't you celebrating? Laughing

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:30 am

Machiavelli wrote:

MockingGods wrote:

Quote:

Creationist Cartoonist Dies, World Celebrates

I don't read anything in the article about the "world celebrating", care to elaborate?

what aren't you celebrating? Laughing

No celebrations from me. I will always side with the cartoonists, even the likes of Jack Chick.
Rob Lieffield, however, I'll piss all over that fucker's headstone.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:30 am

Machiavelli wrote:

MockingGods wrote:

Quote:

Creationist Cartoonist Dies, World Celebrates

I don't read anything in the article about the "world celebrating", care to elaborate?

what aren't you celebrating? Laughing

Are you inferring that as an atheist, I should celebrate another human’s death when they happen to differ ideologically from myself?

Post Noob Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 57

MockingGods wrote:

Machiavelli wrote:

MockingGods wrote:

Quote:

Creationist Cartoonist Dies, World Celebrates

I don't read anything in the article about the "world celebrating", care to elaborate?

what aren't you celebrating? Laughing

Are you inferring that as an atheist, I should celebrate another human’s death when they happen to differ ideologically from myself?

pretty much

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:19 pm

Machiavelli wrote:

MockingGods wrote:

Machiavelli wrote:

MockingGods wrote:

Quote:

Creationist Cartoonist Dies, World Celebrates

I don't read anything in the article about the "world celebrating", care to elaborate?

what aren't you celebrating? Laughing

Are you inferring that as an atheist, I should celebrate another human’s death when they happen to differ ideologically from myself?

pretty much

While I might celebrate the death of a particular ideology, it's highly improbable I'd ever celebrate someone’s death in a spiteful manner. If there’s any celebrating to be done, I’d choose to celebrate those lives who make a profoundly positive difference, and not those unfortunate lives chained to our superstitious nature.

Post Noob Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 57

don't do it in a spiteful manner, do it in a happy way!

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:40 am

Machiavelli wrote:

don't do it in a spiteful manner, do it in a happy way!

It’s hard to imagine a happy celebration of a person's death could be anything but spiteful. It’s possible to have a happy celebration when a person dies, but in my opinion, it’s not possible to celebrate a person’s death without a sense of spite. In other words, you’re not celebrating the fact that they lived, but the fact that they, with their disagreeable ideology are gone, and that is spiteful. This is an example of feeling good about, “they got what was coming to them”, or feeling good when you see bad things happen to people you don’t personally like or disagree with. I try to avoid this aspect our reciprocal nature.

Just Arrived Joined: Apr 10, 2007 Posts: 6

I attack ideas, not people. Him dying means nothing.

Post Noob Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 57

MockingGods wrote:

Machiavelli wrote:

don't do it in a spiteful manner, do it in a happy way!

It’s hard to imagine a happy celebration of a person's death could be anything but spiteful. It’s possible to have a happy celebration when a person dies, but in my opinion, it’s not possible to celebrate a person’s death without a sense of spite. In other words, you’re not celebrating the fact that they lived, but the fact that they, with their disagreeable ideology are gone, and that is spiteful. This is an example of feeling good about, “they got what was coming to them”, or feeling good when you see bad things happen to people you don’t personally like or disagree with. I try to avoid this aspect our reciprocal nature.

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:04 am

There isn't any reason to waste spite on a guy like Hart. All he did was make a living from drawing stuff that projected his Christian outlook, just like Charles Schultz, the Peanuts guy.

Wanna use spite on a cartoonist, spend it on plagarizing douchebags like Todd "Goliath" Goldman.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2416213
http://digg.com/celebrity/Todd_Goliath_Goldman_Art_Thief
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/11776280.html
http://www.angryzenmaster.com/2007/04/09/todd-goliath-hack/

Confident Learner Joined: Nov 18, 2006 Posts: 67

Don't let these nay-sayers get you down. I celebrate when xians are killed by the very thing they claim does not exist. Reality.

See you in heaven John Hart.

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:58 am

Machiavelli wrote:

As usual, honest discussions of ethics get me no where. I really would've liked a discussion and not quips. Oh well, that’s typical.

That said, I did see something very interesting on the Science Channel the other day about the early days of Darwin (which sort of fits with this discussion). As you can imagine, in the early days of evolutionary theory, the “creationists” were even more vocal about a potential obstruction to their beliefs, and there had never been a larger obstruction then Darwin’s theory. At the time, there was a scientist named Kelvin (perhaps you recognize his name for the unit we use to measure temperature, especially solar temperatures), who was very dedicated to his Godly world view of a supernatural creator. Much like today, he was convinced that Darwin must be wrong because a purely natural world view was disturbingly unimaginable. Kelvin, as his name suggests, was very interested in the science of the sun and as such proposed that Darwin’s theory was in fact wrong, because the sun couldn’t possibly have been present long enough to account for the time/many generations on which Darwin’s theory depended. At the time, nuclear radiation had yet to be discovered, so Kelvin concluded the fuel that powered the sun was indeed coal, yes, that's right COAL. As such, he determined a very young age for the sun, which in turn made Darwin’s theory untenable. Believe it or not, Kelvin’s incorrect hypothesis caused most of the scientific community of the time to totally discount Natural Selection. It wasn’t until years later, with the discovery of radioactivity, that Darwin’s theory became vindicated as an accurate representation of our natural reality.


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