10 years ago: The death of Johnny Hart

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psalms 116:15

On April 7, 2007, Johnny Hart went to be with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ at the age of 76. Mr. Hart created the comic strip B.C. in 1958 and co-created--with Brant Parker--the comic strip The Wizard of Id in 1964, both of which were enjoyed by this blogger.

Mr. Hart developed strong Christian convictions from the mid-1980s on, and increasingly wove Christian themes into his work. Some newspapers, which had no problem publishing comic strips with overtly political content, found Mr. Hart's expression of his Christian views in B.C. to be unacceptable, so in the name of tolerance and liberalism, they practiced censorship, and refused to print some of the B.C. strips. Mr. Hart, however, refused to cower before the god of political correctness.

Mr. Hart was still active when he had a fatal stroke at his drawing table. Fortunately, his work survives him.