A Life Lesson From a B.C. Comic Strip

Those who have known me for any length of time, know that I am a  huge fan of comics and animation. In my past professional life, I would often draw some analogies from these comics and attempt to apply them to my daily situation. One of my favorite artist to draw inspiration from was not Charles M. Schultz’ Peanuts as one might guess, but rather Johnny Hart’s B.C.

As I mentioned when Johnny Hart passed away in April 2007, my favorite B.C. strip was published on August 25, 1961. On the surface the strip is straightforward. An ant takes a devastating fall out of a tree. Peter comments that it’s a miracle that the ant is able to survive a fall like that. Cut to the last panel and we see the ant, staggering as it says, “I hope I can make it to the cemetery.”

As a young boy, I laughed hysterically at this strip, but decades later as an adult I gleamed a different message from the comic. As an adult, I’ve often passed, what I took to be, the concept message of that strip along to others whenever I had a chance. Simply because someone appears to be functioning doesn’t mean they truly are. It doesn’t mean they’re not in pain.

After talking about that strip for years, I finally contacted JohnHart Studios in April 2015 and asked for a copy of the strip. The problem was that I didn’t remember the date of the strip and I described it as the ant falling from a rock or cliff. I didn’t hear back from them until December of that year. That’s when Johnny Hart’s oldest daughter, Patti Hart, contacted me to say that my email had “slipped through the cracks,” but they’d found the strip and it was available for purchase. I placed my order and a signed strip arrived 3 weeks later. It was printed on 11”x14” paper and is framed in my home office. It’s my daily reminder to make slow, but deliberate  judgments about people, places and things.

I’m pleased to have this bit of memorabilia from my youth and I value the life lessons I drew from it.