Bill 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 Nov. 8 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.
You can read all about it here....
I report this only because Keane was a faithful Roman Catholic. Schultz began as a Lutheran and by the end of his life had no church home yet for most of his career as a cartoonist his Christian faith infused itself into his work. Keane even more so.
Those who complain that Christians have no sense of humor need to read the old Peanuts or Family Circus strips (Family Circus goes on in Bill's son Jeff). Faith and humor are not opposed. I mean real humor. Not the vulgar, biting, mean-spirited, and inevitably overtly sexual comedy that seems to predominate things now. The good humor that puts down no one and raises everyone up...
Christians are and should be people of this good humor. I have for most of my ministry kept a joke board outside my office. In my first parish it began because of the tension and conflict I inherited upon becoming Pastor there. I felt humor could be therapeutic. I still think it is. Nearly all the cartoons are overtly religious, often making a point but in a funny way, for the cause of orthodox Christian faith and life. I love that our Synod President can tell a good story and a good joke. We need to laugh a bit more at ourselves and I have found that one way to unite people is self-deprecating humor (remember Reagan's popularity and famous wit?). So it is with sadness that one more good humor man is gone and I pray the Lord will supply us with more... we need them!
6 comments:
I'd like to have a large framed copy of the exhausted guardian angel, leaning against Billy's bedroom wall as Billy sleeps safe and securely in his bed at night. Surrounding the image are about ten little vignettes of the preceeding day where Providence had to protect little Billy.
"I mean real humor. Not the vulgar, biting, mean-spirited, and inevitably overtly sexual comedy that seems to predominate things now. The good humor that puts down no one and raises everyone up..."
So true. Bill Keane and Charles Schultz exemplifed the best that gentle humor has to offer. They will be sorely missed.
Last month Pastor Peters was dreaming
that he was teaching one of his
youth confirmation classes.
He woke up and sure enough, he was.
In his seminary days Pastor Peters
sang in the seminary chorus to kill
time, and now he has become a deadly
weapon.
Pastor Peters met his wife at his
first parish. The congregation was
so small, that when he began his
first sermon with the words, "Dearly Beloved", she thought it
was a proposal and shouted YES.
"The congregation was
so small, that when he began his
first sermon with the words, "Dearly Beloved", she thought it was a proposal and shouted YES."
Well that made my day, too cute!!
Oh I agree with you Pastor Peters. We are close to the same age. I have noticed in my lifetime how American humor on TV and in movies has gone from clean and situationally funny to harsh, put-down, mean-spirited, and sexual. I don't care for it either. Thanks for pointing this out. I've always been a fan of Peanuts and Family Circus.
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