Hart, Johnny

▪ 2008

John Lewis Hart 

      American cartoonist

born Feb. 18, 1931 , Endicott, N.Y.

died April 7, 2007, Nineveh, N.Y.

created a formidable following of more than 100 million readers as the creator in 1958 of the comic strip B.C., which focused on prehistoric cave dwellers and anthropomorphic animals and plants while being laced with puns and clever satire about modern society. In an effort to expand his commentary, in 1964 Hart, together with Brant Parker, launched The Wizard of Id strip. Like B.C., The Wizard, which featured a megalomaniac in a medieval kingdom, relied on sight gags and puns, but it also lampooned politics. In later years Hart's evangelical Christianity seeped into the strip, and critics decried his depiction of a menorah morphing into a cross. Hart claimed that the images were meant to honour the two faiths. Both comic strips were expected to be continued by family members of Hart and Parker, who died eight days after Hart, at the age of 86.

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