"Family Circus" creator Bil Keane dies at 89

I wonder if his son will continue the comic?

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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.

"It was a different type of comic, and I think that was my dad's genius — creating something that people could really relate to and wasn't necessarily meant to get a laugh," he said. "It was more of a warm feeling or a lump in the throat."

Keane's friend Charles M. Schulz, the late creator of "Peanuts," once said the most important thing about "Family Circus" is that it is funny.

"I think we share a care for the same type of humor," Schulz told The Associated Press in 1995. "We're both family men with children and look with great fondness at our families."

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 motif, 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."

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 her husband: "She slept through 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."

Thelma Keane died of Alzheimer's disease in 2008 and was the inspiration for the Mommy character in the comic strip.

When his wife died, 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?"

Jeff Keane said those memories endure.

"He was just our dad. The great thing about him is he worked at home, we got to see him all the time, and we would all sit down and have dinner together. What you see in the 'Family Circus' is what we were and what we still are, just different generations."

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I hope not. Family Circus is creepy and stupid.

I feel kinda bad I've never heard of Family Circus before...

^Ignorance is bliss. The most WASPish cartoon family you can imagine, illustrating conservative 1950s-era 'values.' Quite endearing.

^don't forget the 546453212374 different 'dotted line showing where Billy walked' cartoons. Which was funny. Once. That was in 1963.

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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.

Let me decipher this.

Entertained = Annoyed
Simple = Retarded
Humor = Kid's Say the Darnedest Things but even less funny.

I wonder if Pearls Before Swine will have a comic on this.

Owlish wrote:

Ignorance is bliss. The most WASPish cartoon family you can imagine, illustrating conservative 1950s-era 'values.' Quite endearing.

Yeah, all that liberal white guilt butthurt bullshit is what was wrong with the comic.

Not the fact that it has never once been funny. Chris could write a better joke.

When is a "celebrity" I give a shit about going to die? Even though Nihilist is no longer Admin, is our bet over whether James Hetfield or Dave Mustaine will die first still on?

C'mon Dave! If you die before James, you can die saying you did one thing without copying him!

Owlish wrote:

^Ignorance is bliss. The most WASPish cartoon family you can imagine, illustrating conservative 1950s-era 'values.' Quite endearing.

Keane was Catholic.

Penguin wrote:

Owlish wrote:

^Ignorance is bliss. The most WASPish cartoon family you can imagine, illustrating conservative 1950s-era 'values.' Quite endearing.

Keane was Catholic.

What does that have to do with We Ate Savory Pancakes?

Jersey Circus is better, anyway.

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is our bet over whether James Hetfield or Dave Mustaine will die first still on?

C'mon Dave! If you die before James, you can die saying you did one thing without copying him!

Both of them are has-beens who haven't made anything worth listening to since 1991.

And most of Hetfield's best work was written by Dave Mustaine (guitar parts by Exodus) anyway.

I imagine Mustaine will bite the dust first, if only because he has a bit more self-respect than Hetfield. The musicians that insist on embarrassing themselves usually stick around a lot longer.

No, Hetfield will be with us forever, getting fatter and older, yet still trying to squeeze his ass into tight black jeans for those black and white "let's all wear aviator sunglasses and stare at the camera" promotional shots that Metallica have used for every album they've made since the Black Album.

I don't like Family Circus. It's not funny.

I've reached the point where I can say I don't like a man's life's work, even after he dies. Huh.

And now I must link to these:

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Penguin wrote:

Owlish wrote:

^Ignorance is bliss. The most WASPish cartoon family you can imagine, illustrating conservative 1950s-era 'values.' Quite endearing.

Keane was Catholic.

Because it's impossible to create a work which espouses moral or societal ideals to which the author wouldn't even measure up.

WASP stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Please note the key word there. Protestant.

Owlish wrote:

Because it's impossible to create a work which espouses moral or societal ideals to which the author wouldn't even measure up.

Have you ever even read a Family Circus comic? Even once?

The only thing wrong with it was that it was the Chris91 of the comics page, only without the rage to liven things up once in awhile. It didn't represent anything you're talking about, unless you somehow see the very idea of depicting a white nuclear family as somehow inherently unrealistic, reprehensible or offensive. Family Circus wouldn't even be able to pull that off; Keane would've found some way to make even that completely boring, and inoffensive beyond the ten seconds of your life wasted on reading the comic.

In short, what are you on about, seriously.

Lapin wrote:

WASP stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Please note the key word there. Protestant.

Thank you.

Unfunniness aside, one of the family's dogs was named Barfy. I'm pretty sure that the word "barf" was around back in the 1950s and 60s. How did he not notice that?!

EDIT: Yep, it was. Actually, the online dictionary says it originated from that era.

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"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."

Do I really have to fucking spell it out.

What you have to fucking spell out is why "this comic is as bland and inoffensive as possible" should mean "KILL WHITEY." Also, you're still wrong about the WASP thing.

What about Family Circus has anything to do with 50s-era family values? It's exactly what it says on the tin: It's about a family. The kids say stupid things. Are you pissed off that the parents aren't going through a messy divorce because it turns out that the black kid is their illegitimate half-brother or something?

You're talking about this guy as if he's Jack Chick. And he wasn't. Get over it.

Kirby wrote:

Unfunniness aside, one of the family's dogs was named Barfy. I'm pretty sure that the word "barf" was around back in the 1950s and 60s. How did he not notice that?!

EDIT: Yep, it was. Actually, the online dictionary says it originated from that era.

That was intentional, yeah? I thought it was a 'joke'.

Reepicheep-chan wrote:

Kirby wrote:

Unfunniness aside, one of the family's dogs was named Barfy. I'm pretty sure that the word "barf" was around back in the 1950s and 60s. How did he not notice that?!

EDIT: Yep, it was. Actually, the online dictionary says it originated from that era.

That was intentional, yeah? I thought it was a 'joke'.

I always assumed it was a portmanteau of "bark" and "arf", but I guess it could have also been intentional. ^^;

I have occasionally found the strip funny. Usually, it's just banal, but because it's on the comics page, it gets read anyway.

I'll just leave this here.

Lady Anne wrote:

I have occasionally found the strip funny.

This is why no one will ever love you.

Same Tard as Above wrote:

because it's on the comics page, it gets read anyway.

I know dat feel.

It's right next to Dilbert and Pearls Before Swine in the paper I tend to read (I don't actually get a newspaper, I was born after 1980, I sometimes find a Louisville paper lying around), so my expression usually goes from

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to

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I never got Family Circus- I thought it was only grandfathered onto the comics page (that's the only reason Peanuts stuck around- WE GET IT; Charlie Brown's life sucks and the world exists to make him miserable. Got any gags newer than, oh, me?) But going a bit farther, most of the comics page is pretty inscrutable- Sylvia ran in the Chicago Tribune for years and years despite having terrible artwork and lettering and no discernible humor of any kind.

I mean, Keane was 89. That's good innings for anyone.

Penguin wrote:

What you have to fucking spell out is why "this comic is as bland and inoffensive as possible" should mean "KILL WHITEY." Also, you're still wrong about the WASP thing.

No I don't, because that's not what I said...like, at all.

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What about Family Circus has anything to do with 50s-era family values? It's exactly what it says on the tin: It's about a family. The kids say stupid things. Are you pissed off that the parents aren't going through a messy divorce because it turns out that the black kid is their illegitimate half-brother or something?

It's about a "traditional" family, which obviously must consist of two married white people with their 3.5 kids plus pets. Dad works, mom stays at home, they all go to generic church on Sundays, and it's all about the kids. Always. Except for the fact that none of this is traditional in any sense, and yes, I do find the author's suggestion that this constitutes wholesome family entertainment rather exasperating.

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You're talking about this guy as if he's Jack Chick. And he wasn't. Get over it.

Again, no I didn't. Sounds like you're reading more into my comment than is actually there. All I did was draw attention to the fact that it plays into the myth of the wholesome white-bread American family. Why does that get you so riled up?

Owlish wrote:

Penguin wrote:

What you have to fucking spell out is why "this comic is as bland and inoffensive as possible" should mean "KILL WHITEY." Also, you're still wrong about the WASP thing.

No I don't, because that's not what I said...like, at all.

Quote :

What about Family Circus has anything to do with 50s-era family values? It's exactly what it says on the tin: It's about a family. The kids say stupid things. Are you pissed off that the parents aren't going through a messy divorce because it turns out that the black kid is their illegitimate half-brother or something?

It's about a "traditional" family, which obviously must consist of two married white people with their 3.5 kids plus pets. Dad works, mom stays at home, they all go to generic church on Sundays, and it's all about the kids. Always. Except for the fact that none of this is traditional in any sense, and yes, I do find the author's suggestion that this constitutes wholesome family entertainment rather exasperating.

Quote :

You're talking about this guy as if he's Jack Chick. And he wasn't. Get over it.

Again, no I didn't. Sounds like you're reading more into my comment than is actually there. All I did was draw attention to the fact that it plays into the myth of the wholesome white-bread American family. Why does that get you so riled up?

It gets him riled up, because, look at him. He's penguin, he gets riled up at everything.