Bonus toon: Tried to locate the original here but finally gave up when I got back to early March, so I'm passing this Steve Sack gem along courtesy of FDL:
Funny. Note the expressions on their faces.
Funereal toon: As an added feature, we note the recent passing of Johnny Hart and Brant Parker, creators of "B.C." (Hart) and "Wizard of Id"(Hart and Parker).
Hart and Parker were among a group of cartoonists who, starting in the 1950s, popularized the four-panel-and-a-gag strip that set the style for two generations of newspaper comics and has finally gotten "Cathy" buried in the classified section of the Oregonian where it belongs. Other strips of the era dabbled in religious--invariably Christian--themes and images, from "Peanuts" to "The Family Circle," but none took it as far, or in such a heavy-handed, often intolerant and tasteless manner, as "B.C." and "Id."
Fittingly, this strip, with all the nuance and playful, self-effacing humor of a Cal Thomas op-ed piece, appeared during the week of Parker's death.
Unlike "Peanuts" fans, who saw their favorite strip go into "Classic Peanuts" limbo following the death of Charles Schultz, now living on only in endless merchandizing and Met Life advertising, those remaining fans of "B.C." and "Id" can take what comfort there is from knowing that both will last forever, chemically inert and non-biodegradable like plastic six-pack rings in a landfill, from the inventory of images stockpiled on Hart's hard drive.
I leave the final obituary remarks to The Comics Curmudgeon.
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