An open letter to Johnny Hart’s family

Family Hart,

I’m sorry to hear about Johnny’s death. Really. Johnny and I haven’t always agreed, and I would have cheered his retirement, but death is another thing entirely. And anyway, Johnny did some things very well: He knew how to draw simple cavemen, and, uh, he knew how to draw more simple cavemen. He was also a religious zealot who overstayed his welcome on the comics pages by about 30 years, but hey, technically speaking, I guess he was good at that, too. And surely there’s some Bible-loving grandma out there who buys her Akron Beacon-Journal every morning because of him. So, there’s that.

But listen. I’ve got to level with you here: The Associated Press said that instead of “B.C.” dying with Johnny, you’ll be taking over. The art won’t even change because you’ve got an extensive computer archive of his drawings, according to the story. Really now, this is madness. I know other comic strips have been passed along, but they all suck. Do you ever read and enjoy “Blondie” or “Family Circus”? Really? You do? Oh, well then. I guess my point is still proven.

I beg you: You need to let “B.C.” go the way of the caveman. Johnny hasn’t written an original joke since 1961, and the strip has shown it. Nobody’s being fooled. His strip is taking up valuable space in 1,300 newspapers -- space that could be occupied by new strips by young and enthusiastic writers, space that could begin wooing young readers to newspapers before they die off completely, space that Johnny has had more than his fair share of. If you take the strip over, you’ll surely feel an obligation to continue it as a honor to Johnny -- and in doing so, you’ll be afraid of making changes, afraid of taking it in a direction of might have disapproved, and therefore will continue to do what he did. Which is this:

Every day. Every damn day. Same set-up. Same joke. Same, same, same. Do you want to do this? This uninspired tribute? Because honestly, I’m telling you, we don’t want any more of it. We’re done. We’ve had our fill. Johnny had a good run, and it’s time to let that go. It’s time to let someone else have a try.

Thanks.

Posted by Jason Feifer at April 9, 2007 09:40 AM