I learned yesterday that Johnny Hart, the author of the B.C. Comic Strip, died on the weekend at his drafting table, of a stroke at age 76. I have a number of favorites among his many cartoons, but a stand-out one for me is the one where a character visits the dictionary and looks up “manger,” which was defined as “a feeding trough large enough to hold the bread of life.”
As a kind of tribute, I’ve abbreviated his January 14, 2007 strip:
You chose well, Johnny. Farewell, we’ll miss you.
oh man. I didn’t know. thanks for the post. I especially think of one Easter cartoon that showed blood flowing down a hill from a cross into a river. a character standing in the river was looking down at his clothes- the parts that were touched by the blood were bleached white. My dad was visiting and stopped to read the strip on my frig. He didn’t understand and asked me to explain it to him. My father had never before, nor has ever since, asked me anything about my faith or Christianity. I’ll always remember Johnny Hart for that moment.