Growingold With BC: A Celebration Of Johnny Hart
When he died, in April 2007, Hart had drawn the newspaper strip B.C. for 50 years. Hence, this overview of his career is timely, although not quite what his fans might consider an ideal tribute. Hart himself chose the hundreds of weekday strips in it (oddly, almost no Sunday installments are included) and grouped them by decade but omitted specific dates and any annotation. Other background information is sparse, just a terse biography and profiles of Hart's buddies who inspired the strip's characters. Although the early strips are more crudely drawn, they're fresher, with the concept of discovery kept to the fore as the comical cavemen invent everything from fire and the wheel to baseball and golf. Hart never lost his appealingly casual drawing style, but by the 1970s, B.C. had become formulaic. Its anachronisms no longer seemed intentional but a matter of laziness, as when characters supposedly living long before the birth of Christ celebrated Christmas (surprisingly, none of Hart's controversial Christian-themed strips appear). Still, this generous sampler should please Hart's faithful audience. Flagg, Gordon