Bill Keane, creator of The Family Circus, died this week. In some ways I love the Family Circus. I read it every day. But I've probably spent more time making fun of the Family Circus than enjoying it as a comic. Love him or laugh at him, anyone who devotes their life to the pursuit of comics deserves a lot of respect in my book. And now that I think of it, I've probably laughed harder at how bland Family Circus is than I have at just about anything else in newspaper comics... So, in a way, it is kinda the funniest strip in the paper. Maybe Bill Keane is the most unintentionally funny cartoonist of all time?
Anyway... Last year the incomparable Levon Jihanian did these two amazing Family Circus inspired pieces for the Bound & Gagged book (available in my store - i know that's crass, but just wait till the real book publishers start exploiting his death). Levon is a genius. These are bleak masterpieces. And in their own way, a tribute to Keane's work.
"It’s an affectionate send-up of the testosterone-soaked images of both singers by real fans, replete with lyrics-as-dialogue and all of the familiar iconography for both men. It’s less a poke at them than it is a parody of romance comics, overly-sensitive emo indy comics, and self-obsessed diary strips."
"Neely took the idea of identical Popeyes battling each other from an old issue of his comic and turned it into a visceral examination of the ways in which our own id can lead to self-negating behavior."
