The Old Days are Gone

A long time ago, there was only one page in the entire newspaper I would read: the comics page. On Sunday it was even better, because there were three pages of full-colour comics plus the KidSpot and Ripley's Believe it or Not.

At first I read them all equally, but after a while I started to develop a preference. Life's Like This! was an early favourite, due to its Singaporean flavour and consistent humour. (I never liked the name change to Chew On It. To me, the Chew On It strip was the little one-panel gag accompanying the front page column, not the big five-panel comic in the last page of the Life! section. Ah, well.) I liked Sherman's Lagoon, because it was silly and funny and, come on, it had sharks stealing pants. I started reading too late to miss Alley Oop, but there was Beetle Bailey and Peanuts and then there was On the FastTrack which, as I later found, was by Kevin & Kell creator Bill Holbrook.

And there was B.C., and there was Wizard of Id.

B.C. I don't remember very well, thanks to the whoever up there in the press office who decided to overhaul the funny pages and cut a lot of the old favourites. I remember there were cavemen, and there were funny statements which nevertheless made you think. I distinctly remember that one strip - one of the characters, the one with one leg, tells the others that what is defined as Truth is decided by the majority. The others unanimously disagree with him, declare that their opinion is the truth since they are in the majority, and unknowingly prove his point.

Wizard of Id is still fresh in my memory because, well, it still runs today. (Just as well - I think I would boycott the papers if they cut it out.) This one was set in a medieval world, but not without anachronisms. It was the origin for such lovable characters as the King (a.k.a. the fink), Spook, Bung, Sir Rodney and, of course, the Wizard. The one strip I remember best is when someone asks the Wizard if he is "a good wizard." The Wizard responds in the affirmative and, to prove it, turns the questioner into a frog. After all, "No one else can do this!"

Both those strips were funny and set in a past age, but also dealt with real and contemporary issues. They also had another commonality - Johnny Hart drew B.C., and was the writer for Wizard of Id.

Hart died on Saturday, April 7, while working at his drawing table.

Rest in peace, Mr Hart.