Johnny Hart dies

I was saddened to read about Johnny Hart passing away this weekend. I read his comic strips periodically and especially liked B.C.

Here are some notes I found on Daily Cartoonist today.
Johnny Hart passes away from stroke at age 76 (UPDATED)
Johnny Hart, age 76, has died Saturday from a stroke at his drawing board in Nineveh, NY. Johnny is the creator of B.C. and The Wizard of Id.

From an Washington Post story about Johnny’s history:
John Lewis Hart, a firefighter’s son, was born Feb. 18, 1931, in Endicott, N.Y. As a child, he said he drew “funny pictures, which got me in or out of trouble depending on the circumstances.”

After high school, he served in the Air Force in Korea and produced cartoons for Pacific Stars and Stripes.

The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers and True magazines later published his freelance cartoon submissions while Mr. Hart worked in the art department at General Electric in Johnson City, N.Y. While at GE, he created “B.C.” and based many of the characters and their quirks on his friends and family.

“I tried to reduce my cartoons to the fewest words and the least clutter in the drawing,” he said in 1997. “The simpler you do things, the more genius is required to do it. I used to take ideas as far back as I could take them — back to their origin. So cave men became my favorite thing to do because they are a combination of simplicity and the origin of ideas.”

His survivors include his wife, Bobby Hatcher Hart; two daughters; a brother; a sister; and two grandsons.

UPDATE: Kathy Kei at Creators confirms that the strip will continue, but the details about how and who are still being ironed out.

Although I'd miss new comics I disagree that the strips should continue without Hart. I know the syndicates are recycling Peanuts since Charles Schulz died in 2000 and I don't mind the way it's been done with Peanuts thus far, but finding another artist to take over the strip would be the wrong thing to do. If the syndicates need to keep B.C. and Wizard of ID in the papers they should consider running them as "classic" like they do with Peanuts.

Or maybe give a new strip get a shot and in some markets that may actually happen.

Only time will tell. From where I'm sitting you hate to see the old comics end, especially if it's a strip you liked and you hate to see them end because their creators have actually died but at the same time, you want new comics to get a shot.

Because if I had a batch ready to send in I would want that shot.

No offense to the Hart family of course.