Bil Keane: Social Commentator

I was reading a copy of the newspaper that someone had discarded and I thought, "Hey, I haven't read the comics in a while. I wonder what they've been up to." At the top of the page was the ubiquitous Family Circus. My main connection with the Family Circus comes from my grandparents sending us a copy of the family circus calendar with all of the relatives birthdays and anniversaries already marked as part of our christmas present (except this year for some reason, hmmm...) The calendar would immediately be hidden on the back of the pantry door to stop us from bursting out laughing every time we entered the kitchen.

I figured the comic would still contain some benign "observation" on "family" "life." Instead, Bil Keane has risen above his sophmoric tendencies to the level of social commentary. You'll have to make due with a description since King Features Syndicate has an iron grip on web publishing for 2 weeks. The comic has Billy telling his playmates that, "We'll be the good guys and you can be the insurgents." I wanted to follow Billy's dotted line around the neighborhood and instead I got a severely-ADHD boy commenting on international conflicts. This is the last time you let me down Bil Keane!

While vainly trying to find the above strip, I stumbled across Comics Curmudgeon who offers up much better commentary on the funny pages than I just did. And now I will leave you with a more enjoyable comic from Playboy's own Mr. Shel Silverstein. For context, its from an article he wrote when Playboy sent him to spring training.



Isn't that dude completely radical? He wrote the lyrics for both "A Boy Named Sue" made famous by Johnny Cash and "Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. And since I haven't filled my reminiscing quota for this entry, my elementary school art teacher used to read us poems from "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "A Light in the Attic" at the end of class. I liked 'em so much I had half the poems memorized.

Ahh, rememberies...