Beloved “Family Circus” Creator & AZ Resident Bil Keane Has Died at 89… Thanks for the Wholesome Family Laughs, Bil, & Rest in Peace (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on November 9, 2011
As a long-time Arizona resident, talented “Family Circus” cartoonist Bil Keane has been one of my state’s favorite sons for decades. His gentle, family-inspired comic strip has resonated with readers and touched millions of hearts across the world, as Keane focused expertly on the simple, charming humor of one American family.
The low-key, spot-on antics of children Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, and P.J., their parents, and their pets have been featured in nearly 1,500 newspapers across the globe for a half century.
Sadly, Keane died yesterday at age 89 of congestive heart failure.
In touristy, downtown Scottsdale in Arizona, many framed, autographed “Family Circus” cartoons grace the walls of the Sugar Bowl, a favorite old-time ice cream parlor of residents and of Keane’s. Many of the cartoons featured the Sugar Bowl itself, such as this one:
This “Family Circus” comic of a typical family car ride after grocery shopping captures the spirit of Keane’s brainchild — traditional family interactions and values mixed with silly humor. This was published on Sunday, February 11, 1968 — I copied it from an old Pittburgh Press newspaper that a colleague recently gave me after cleaning through his mother’s home in Pennsylvania. The newspaper is still in decent condition and the comic is still funny and accurately mirrors how children behave in the car, despite both the newspaper and the cartoon being more than 40 years old. Click the image to enlarge.
I love this one:
And this one:
Rest in peace, Bil, and thank you so much for the wholesome, hilarious laughs all these years.
You were a gem and will be missed. God bless you.
‘Family Circus’ Creator Bil Keane Dies at 89
From Associated Press, ‘Family Circus’ creator Bil Keane dies at 89:
PHOENIX (AP) — Bil Keane’s “Family Circus” comics entertained readers with a simple but sublime mix of humor and traditional family values for more than a half century. The appeal endured, the author thought, because the American public needed the consistency.
Keane, who started drawing the one-panel cartoon featuring Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, P.J. and their parents in February 1960, died Tuesday at age 89 at his longtime home in Paradise Valley, near Phoenix. His comic strip is featured in nearly 1,500 newspapers across the country.
Jeff Keane, Keane’s son who lives in Laguna Hills, Calif., said that his father died of congestive heart failure with one of his other sons by his side after his conditioned worsened during the last month. All of Keane’s five children, nine grandchildren and great-granddaughter were able to visit him last week, Jeff Keane said.
“He said, ‘I love you’ and that’s what I said to him, which is a great way to go out,” Jeff Keane said of the last conversation he had with his father. “The great thing is Dad loved the family so much, so the fact that we all saw him, I think that gave him great comfort and made his passing easy. Luckily he didn’t suffer through a lot of things.”
Jeff Keane has been drawing “Family Circus” in the last few years as his father enjoyed retirement.
Keane said in a 1995 interview with The Associated Press that the cartoon had staying power because of its consistency and simplicity.
“It’s reassuring, I think, to the American public to see the same family,” he said.
Although Keane kept the strip current with references to pop culture movies and songs, the context of his comic was timeless. The ghost-like “Ida Know” and “Not Me” who deferred blame for household accidents were staples of the strip.
The family’s pets were dogs Barfy and Sam, and the cat, Kittycat.
“We are, in the comics, the last frontier of good, wholesome family humor and entertainment,” Keane said. “On radio and television, magazines and the movies, you can’t tell what you’re going to get. When you look at the comic page, you can usually depend on something acceptable by the entire family.”
Jeff Keane shared the sentiment, saying “Family Circus” had flourished through the decades because readers continue to relate to its values of family moments.
From Herald Sun, Family Circus cartoonist Bil Keane dies at age 89:
CARTOONIST Bil Keane, who created the “Family Circus” comic strip, has died at age 89.
He died today of congestive heart failure at his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, an affluent town outside of Phoenix.
“He went very peacefully,” his son Jeff told The Arizona Republic. “And he seemed very happy to see his children one more time.”
Keane began his comic strip in 1960, telling stories he said were largely based on his own home life.
He and his wife Thelma, who died in May 2008, had five children, daughter, Gayle, and sons Glen, Jeff, Chris and Neal.
“Things have changed greatly over the years,” Jeff Keane, 53, said. “Phones now fit in pockets, TVs are plasma TVs. But the thing that hasn’t changed is the feelings of having family around you. That was always important to my dad.”
[...]
According to King Features Syndicate, which publishes the strip, it is the most widely syndicated cartoon panel in the world, appearing in 1500 newspapers.
From CBS News, “Family Circus” cartoonist Bil Keane dies:
Keane said the strip hit its stride with a cartoon he did in the mid-1960s.
“It showed Jeffy coming out of the living room late at night in pajamas and Mommy and Daddy watching television and Jeffy says, ‘I don’t feel so good, I think I need a hug.’ And suddenly I got a lot mail from people about this dear little fella needing a hug, and I realized that there was something more than just getting a belly laugh every day.”
Even with his traditional side, Keane appreciated younger cartoonists’ efforts. He listed Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” among his favorites, and he loved it when Bill Griffith had his offbeat “Zippy the Pinhead” character wake up from a bump on the head thinking he was Keane’s Jeffy.
Keane responded by giving Zippy an appearance in “Family Circus.”
In later years, Keane continued to produce “Family Circus” with the help of his youngest son, Jeff. Keane sketched out the ideas, characters and captions and sent them to Jeff for inking.
Born in 1922, Keane taught himself to draw in high school in his native Philadelphia. Around this time, young Bill dropped the second “L” off his name “just to be different.”
He worked as a messenger for the Philadelphia Bulletin before serving three years in the Army, where he drew for “Yank” and “Pacific Stars and Stripes.” He met his wife, Thelma (Thel), while serving at a desk job in Australia.
He started a one-panel comic in 1953 called “Channel Chuckles” that lampooned the up-and-coming medium of television. (In one, a mom in front of a television, crying baby on her lap, tells husband: “She slept throught two gun fights and a barroom brawl then the commercial woke her up.”)
He moved to Arizona in 1958 and two years later, started a comic about a family much like his own. Keane and his wife had a daughter, Gayle, and sons Glen, Jeff, Chris and Neal, one more son than in his cartoon family.
“I never thought about a philosophy for the strip it developed gradually,” Keane told the East Valley Tribune in 1998. “I was portraying the family through my eyes. Everything that’s happened in the strip has happened to me.
“That’s why I have all this white hair at 39 years old.”
When his wife died in May 2008, Keane called her “the inspiration for all of my success. …When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, `Aren’t you the mommy in ‘Family Circus?’”
She also served as his business and financial manager.
Arizona and Keane had a mutual influence on each other. Keane’s work can be found all around from children’s centers to ice cream shops.
Likewise, Arizona could also be found in Keane’s work.
A 2004 comic saw the family on a scenic lookout over the Grand Canyon with the children asking, “Why are the rocks painted different colors” and “What time does it close?”
Although Keane drew the funnies, his work was not necessarily intended to be comical.
His goal was this: “I would rather have the readers react with a warm smile, a tug at the heart or a lump in the throat as they recall doing the same things in their own families.”
From Comic Book Resources, “FAMILY CIRCUS” CREATOR BIL KEANE DIES AT 89:
The man who defined parental stress, childhood mischief and dotted lines for America’s newspaper comics page has passed. Bil Keane, creator of the “Family Circus” comic strip, has died of congestive heart failure at the age of 89.
A self-taught artist who had previously published strips for the Philadelphia Bulletin, Keane first found national success with the syndicated, TV-themed comic “Channel Chuckles” which ran from the mid ’50s to the mid ’70s. However, like many newspaper cartoonists before him, Keane found his greatest success when he drew on his own life to make comics. Shortly after moving to Arizona with his family in 1959, the artist launched the uniquely circular gag strip “The Family Circus,” basing its rambunctious yet kind-hearted children on his own kids and the harried mother on his wife and business partner Thel.
The feature proved a massive success, lasting over 50 years and reaching a circulation of 1500 newspapers for a considerable amount of its run. In that time, Keane himself became very involved in the cartooning and comics community by serving as president of the National Cartoonists Society from 1981 to 1983 as well as acting as emcee of the Society’s annual awards banquet for 16 years. Over the life of “Family Circus,” the artist collaborated and crossed over with a wide variety of other strips and cartoonists including Stephan Pastis of “Pearls Before Swine” and “Zippy the Pinhead” creator Bill Griffith.
[...]
Keane also drew fans across the spectrum of comics with acclaimed cartoonist Lynda Barry speaking to the strip in a recent New York Times Magazine profile. “I grew up in a house that had a whole lot of trouble,” she recalled. “As much trouble as you could imagine. In the daily paper, there were all these comic strips, and there was one that was a circle. It seemed like things were pretty good on the other side of the circle. No one’s getting hit. No one’s yelling.”
Thel Keane proceeded her husband in passing in 2008. Bil Keane is survived by their five children including his son Glen, an acclaimed animator for Disney pictures including “The Little Mermaid,” and his youngest Jeff who has served as inker on “Family Circus” for many years and is expected to continue the strip moving forward.
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