Sunday Funnies -- The Cartoonist And The Creator

This is a Holy Week tribute to Johnny Hart, the creative cartoonist behind the “B.C.” cartoon strip and the “Wizard of Id.” He died of a stroke four years ago, ironically, on Easter Day. This is a long post, but once you read it, you’ll realize why I choose this time to honor such a man.

Hart had a wry sense of humor that made millions laugh since 1958. “B.C.” was considered the most widely read comic strip on the planet.

Johnny’s conversion to Christianity is an interesting story and came about because of the faithfulness of someone who brought their beliefs to the workplace.

Although a churchgoer as a child, he left the faith and eventually found fame and fortune as a cartoonist.

In 1977, he bought a 158-acre property in Nineveh, New York. He couldn’t get cable and a neighbor introduced him to a father-son pair of satellite TV dish salesmen who agreed to wire his place up.

A complicated job, it took the pair over 2 months. As believers, they used Christian television channels on as “test stations” while they triangulated satellites. When Hart commented, the two offered to change the channel, but he didn’t take them up on the offer. He began to watch … and listen.

One Sunday, he and his wife drove by a local church that reminded him of his childhood. He leaned over and asked, “Would you like to go to church?” His wife Bobby said, “No, not really.” Johnny prayed that God would change her heart; and in just two weeks, she asking Johnny to go to church. They began to discover a relationship with God. Johnny later even served as a children’s Sunday school teacher.

Hart’s faith began to infect his comic strips. During Christmas and Easter, he was always blatant about his beliefs. They worked their way into many other strips – since his faith defined his work. But it wasn’t without controversy.

In fact, in 2001, the Jewish Anti-defamation league chastised him for his strip that showed a seven-branch menorah. Each panel featured one of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. The cartoon concludes with the menorah transformed into a cross.

That’s bold stuff to put on newspaper strips. “I wanted everyone to see the cross in the Menorah,” he said. “It was a revelation to me that has tied God’s chosen people to their spiritual kin, the disciples of the Risen Christ,”

He took on abortion and evolution in ways that were simply masterful.

A simple argument to tear through the walls of ignorance.

To Hart, the most gratifying thing he ever did professionally was to turn his work into ministry. “I was almost beginning to get tired of my work until that happened,” he said.

I think it most fitting that God would choose Easter Day to take him. Here is his final Easter strip that ran while still alive.