B.C. is Alive and Well

B.C. is Alive and Well
Author: Johnny Hart

I like to read cartoon collections as sort of a "palate cleanser'' between novels. A little something to lighten the mood or make an abrupt genre change seem a bit less severe to my brain. :) This year I have made a goal to read more books off my own shelves or to revisit favorite nostalgia reads (books I read years ago and enjoyed). Keeping that goal in mind, I jumped back in time to the prehistoric era for my palate cleansing. The B.C. cartoons by Johnny Hart always made me smile when I was a teenager (and another of his cartoons Wizard of Id was also a favorite). I wanted to see if I still found the cartoons funny now that I'm a bit (ha! a lot, actually) older. And the answer is YES! :) The topics that Hart pokes fun at in B.C. are still quite relevant -- relationships, society, feminism, therapy, politics, business, love, greed, the environment...... Basic human foibles and situations are timeless, and so are these cartoons.

B.C. features six cavemen, two cavewomen and an assortment of animals discovering the world around them, forming society, inventing necessities and, of course, forming the first neuroses. One caveman writes poetry and is afraid of water. Another likes to observe fish by sticking his head in the river. Then there's an inventor, the group therapist, the average guy...and of course the gang's sarcastic jerk. :) One cavewoman is young and sexy, and the other is older and....larger. Add in ants with marital problems, a suicidal aardvark, a turtle with his bird BFF, and a large dinosaur, and you get a wide range of humor.

B.C. first appeared in the late 1950s and was syndicated in many newspapers up until Hart's death in 2007. Hart also created the popular Wizard of Id cartoons.

I'm seriously enjoying re-reading these cartoons. I will definitely be re-reading Wizard of Id as well. Hart's humor is still relevant even all these decades later. Love it!

Gronk!!