I received an email from Greg Hatfield of Checker Book Publishing who is announcing that they will be releasing a book collection of B.C. strips (500 total) this August entitled, GrowinGold with B.C.: A 50 Year Celebration by Johnny Hart. The cover art is an original Johnny Hart drawing that he did for the book before he passed away.
With the recent passing of the great cartoonist, Johnny Hart’s GrowinGold with B.C. is a lasting tribute to a body of work that encompassed over five decades and garnered many awards over the years. Hart, himself, had worked on the book, up until his untimely passing over the 2007 Easter weekend. He had personally selected the nearly 500 cartoon strips of B.C. that comprise the book and provided the original cover art. Hart also provided never-before-seen concept art from the strip’s beginnings in the 1950’s and gave insight as to how the characters were named (usually after family friends).
I’m glad to hear about this. I never got to read the older, pre-Christian B.C. (is that an oxymoron?) and would love the opportunity.
This is a perfect way for people to read comics whose creators have passed on. Instead of remaining in newspapers as reruns or as legacy strips, they can be collected as books. Complete runs of comics (Krazy Kat, Peanuts, Gasoline Alley, Dennis the Menace, et al.) allow new readers to access classic strips and fans to revisit old favorites. AND, it clears the way for more comics in the newspaper.
I hope newspapers will take notice of said volumes and try to provide something readers can’t get anywhere else: something new.
This sounds great.