Thursday, November 10, 2011

FAMILY CIRCUS CARTOONIST DIES

Bil Keane died Tuesday. He is the well-known cartoonist of the delightful Family Circus in the "funny papers".

I carry great respect for Mr. Keane's talent. His material actually was funny.

I brushed past this man in the mid-80's when I was writing a manuscript entitled, The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense. During the months of that process Family Circus popped out one morning with the little one inquiring, I know about the Father and the Son, but what is the Holy Spearmint?

I so loved that particular cartoon as it clearly fit the theme of the book. I wrote Mr. Keane for permission to copy the cartoon in the book. The book eventually went to print without it.

Months later--too late--I received a note from Mr. Keane stating I surely could use his cartoon; that he was impressed someone of faith would see the humor in that specific drawing.

Family Circus was my favorite cartoon of the newpaper industry. I almost got to use it in my book.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was saddened by this news the other day. Family Circus was one that I have always enjoyed.

Ironically, one of the reasons I started reading it when I was a "tween" was because it was a one frame cartoon and I hated reading at that time. What a good reason to like a cartoon!

Plus it was funny! Neat that you had ties with Bill! Maybe the next edition you could talk to his son who has taken over for the cartoon.