RIP Bll Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

http://bit.ly/s5XgoF

(And if you think I'm only posting this in hopes others here will post the dirty, out-of-context parodies of the strip, you're right).

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Not Me is the chief suspect.

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Awesome.

And RIP

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Quite possibly the worst comic strip ever.

RIP.

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Ida Know is good about not snitching

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

I don't know if you can post from The Other Family. I've tried in the past, but that was years ago. The last time I went to that site I fell over from laughing so hard.

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Actually, I think we know EXACTLY what happened. Today's strip:

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Evil thing first:
Will they line his funeral procession route with black lines that meander through town?

Honor thing now:
If you ever read Keane's comics before Family Circus, they are pretty risque. Even the early years of FC, had a dark vein of thought. The father was angrier...sneaking booze into football games, being lazy, getting angry over sports. At some point, it switched to kids saying dumb things.

Also while "Billy" often did the guest animation, "Jeffy" actually grew up to do the drawing and writing. It's interesting because about five years ago, the Billy character became more of a "prick" in the comic...maybe mimicking "Jeffy's" memories of his golden child brother. There was a Sunday one where Jeffy is seen pestering Billy and the Dad to let them drive somewhere with them. The "punchline" is Jeffy had no idea where they were going. The underlying context is the art, though, showing a grim-faced Billy obviously pissed that jeffy was in the car with them.

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

One the real Jeffy took over the strip, the in-circle Jeffy became the target of pretty much everyone in the Keaneverse. The man might have some issues to work through.

And yeah, the early FCs were edgy as all get out. The dad (who looked different from and had a different name than the current dad) was often potrayed hungover, the parents threw wild parties all the time and Dolly asked Mommy to play Mack the Knife at a recital, among other examples.

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Ok, I am sort of glad I am not the only one here who noticed the same stuff about jeffy....there definitely is some family stress there.

I also wonder if Keane's tone in the strip changed when his family moved from Philly to the Phoenix suburbs? He grew less sarcastic once away from a big city?

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

Agreed. But The Other Family? Fucking brilliant.

 

Re: RIP Bill Keane (creator of Family Circus comic strip)

He actually came to Arizona before he started the strip. Moved to Paradise Valley in '59, started the Family Circus in '60.

I'm not going to pretend I love the strip -- in fact, I have an "Other Family" version on my desk cubicle at work. (One of the only vaguely SFW ones, involving Jeffy and John Wayne Gacy.) But I'll say this -- years ago a producer was leaving my station in Phoenix to move to Los Angeles. She was a big Family Circus fan. One of my co-workers contacted Bil Keane to see if he could sign something as a going away present. He responded by sending an oversized comic with the whole FC family -- including Not Me, as I recall -- waving goodbye to her and wishing her good luck in Los Angeles. He didn't know anybody involved. It was just an incredibly classy, generous thing to do.

So, RIP to a good guy.

I expect a wildly circuitous funeral procession, marked with a dotted line.