I'll admit that when B.C. creator Johnny Hart died on April 7, 2007, I wrote the strip off.
I assumed, of course, that Hart had come to a Clarles M. Schulz/Peanuts agreement with his syndicate, wherein when he died, the strip would die with him. But it did not. An usurper took the pen and carried B.C. on after Hart's death.
In protest, I stopped reading the strip.
Now I'm reconsidering. And not only because Mason Mastroianni, the strip's current writer and artist, is one of Hart's grandsons. Primarily, I've come back to the strip because Mastroianni has worked hard to recapture his grandfather's quirky sense of humor and how to integrate it with his characters.
Once again, I have to blame my brother Jeff for getting me hooked on B.C. He had many of the books, and because they were there to be read, I read them. I really, really wanted B.C.'s buddies to believe him that clams had legs. I really wanted to know how the dookey bird and the turtle came to be friends. And I really wanted to know why Thor sticks with his inventions, even though he's not yet perfected the wheel. And thanks to Mastroianni -- and my re-examination of the strip after Hart's death -- I can continue to seek answers to those questions.
One of the questions I might ask is why did this come about:
While it's fun to see Hart's characters come to life on the screen, I have to wonder why the animators and writers let Ralph Bakshi inspire them so much. I like Wizards as much as the next guy, but trying to put those kinds of characterizations into Hart's characters is a bit dificult to swallow.
Indy and Harry
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And another book blog is complete.
Oh, Louis Untermeyer includes a final collection of little bits -- several
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History of Joseph Smith, by His Mother, by Lucy Mack Smith. 354 pages.
History of Pirates, A: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas, by Nigel Cawthorne. 240 pages.
Peanuts by the Decade, the 1970s; by Charles Schulz. 490 pages
Star Bird Calypso's Run, by Robert Schultz. 267 pages.
There's Treasure Everywhere, by Bill Watterson. 173 pages.
Read in 2024
Blue Lotus, The, by Herge. 62 pages.
Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Big Shot, by Jeff Kinney. 217 pages.
Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism, by Bob Edwards. 174 pages.
Forgotten 500, The; by Gregory A. Freeman. 313 pages.
I Must Say: My Life as A Humble Comedy Legend, by Martin Short and David Kamp; 321 pages.
Number Go Up, by Zeke Faux. 280 pages.
Red Rackham's Treasure, by Herge. 62 pages.
Secret of the Unicorn, The; by Herge. 62 pages.
Sonderberg Case, The; by Elie Wiesel. 178 pages.
Tintin in Tibet, by Herge. 62 pages.
Ze Page Total: 1,735.
The Best Part
Kerplunk! by Patrick F. McManus
Admittedly, I myself was getting a little tired of the advances in technology. It used to be that all the different kinds of wackos sat out in their little isolated cabins or apartments somewhere. Each went through an entire lifetime without seeing another wacko of his particular ilk. Now a wacko can get on the Internet and find the other nine wackos in the world who are just like him.
McManus goes on to say they get to gether to decide what to blow up, but given the Unabomer lived in an isolated cabin as a Luddite and still managed to blow things up, there's a little flaw in McManus' logic. Nevertheless, I see where he's going with this.
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