B.C. (comic strip)

Lore & Background

B.C. was initially rejected by a number of syndicates until the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate accepted it, launching the strip on February 17, 1958. Hart was assisted with B.C. by gag writers Jack Caprio and Dick Boland. When the Herald Tribune syndicate folded in 1966, B.C. was taken over by the Publishers Syndicate, which changed hands and names frequently before Hart moved the strip directly to Creators Syndicate in 1987, becoming one of its first syndicated strips.

After Hart's death in 2007, the strip began being produced by Hart's grandsons Mason Mastroianni (head writer and cartoonist) and Mick Mastroianni (writer), and Hart's daughter Perri (letterer and colorist). The Mastroianni brothers also created an original strip, Dogs of C Kennel, in 2009.

The cast includes human characters such as B.C., Peter, Tho

Reader's Guide

B.C. holds significance as one of the longest-running American comic strips still produced by its original creator at the time of his death. Its prehistoric setting allowed Hart to explore the origins of human ideas and institutions with simplicity and humor. The strip's characters were often patterned after Hart's friends and co-workers, giving it a personal touch. B.C. also inspired the mascot of the University of California, Irvine (Peter the Anteater) and the US Navy fighter squadron VF-114. After Hart's death, the strip continued under his grandsons, maintaining its place in syndication through Creators Syndicate. The strip's legacy includes its influence on popular culture and its enduring presence in newspapers for over six decades.

Did You Know?

• B.C. was initially rejected by a number of syndicates before the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate accepted it.
• The character Thor was patterned after Hart's friend from General Electric, Thornton Kinney.
• The Anteater character inspired the mascot of the University of California, Irvine and the US Navy fighter squadron VF-114.
• After Hart's death in 2007, the strip was produced by his grandsons Mason and Mick Mastroianni and his daughter Perri.

A Prehistoric Strip's Rocky Road to the Page

Johnny Hart's daily comic strip B.C. traces its roots to a casual suggestion from a coworker at General Electric, where the idea of cavemen struck him as a perfect blend of simplicity and the birthplace of all ideas. The name itself may have come from his wife Bobby. Despite the strip's charm, it faced a gauntlet of rejections from multiple syndicates before the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate finally gave it a home, launching it on February 17, 1958. Hart leaned on gag writers Jack Caprio and Dick Boland during those early days. The strip's syndicate history is a patchwork of corporate upheaval: when the Herald Tribune folded in 1966, B.C. passed through the Publishers Syndicate, then Publishers-Hall, the Field Newspaper Syndicate, News America, and North America before landing under King Features. In 1987, Hart made a deliberate switch to Creators Syndicate, becoming one of their earliest strips. That arrangement carried the comic through Hart's passing in 2007 and into the hands of his family.

A Cast Borrowed from Life

Hart built B.C.'s ensemble by looking around his own world. The title character, an orange-haired, perpetually clumsy slob who serves as the strip's eternal patsy, was modeled loosely on Hart himself. Peter, the yellow-haired self-proclaimed genius and founder of the Prehistoric Pessimists Society, drew from Hart's GE coworker Peter Reuter. Thor, the brown-haired ladies' man who supposedly invented both the wheel and the comb, was patterned after another GE friend, Thornton Kinney. Wiley, a peg-legged, superstitious poet who coaches local baseball and football teams and holds the title of first bartender, was inspired by Hart's brother-in-law Wiley Baxter, who lost a leg in World War II. Clumsy Carp, the bespectacled ichthyologist who can trip over a shadow yet stack water balls, came from Hart's childhood friend Jack Caprio. Curls, the sarcastic wit, was based on Hart's high school buddy Richard Boland. Even the female characters carry personal names: Jane honors Hart's mother-in-law Janie Indiana Finch, while Grace is named for his own mother, Grace Anna Brown.

Passing the Chalk to the Next Generation

Johnny Hart died at his drawing board in Nineveh, New York, on April 7, 2007, making B.C. one of the longest-running daily strips ever sustained by its original creator. The comic did not disappear with him. His grandson Mason Mastroianni stepped in as head writer and cartoonist, while his other grandson Mick Mastroianni took on writing duties for both B.C. and Hart's second strip, The Wizard of Id. Hart's daughter Perri handles lettering and coloring, keeping the visual voice alive. The Mastroianni brothers also launched their own original strip, Dogs of C Kennel, in 2009, extending the family's cartooning legacy. Under Creators Syndicate, B.C. continues to appear in newspapers nationwide. The family's stewardship has also included touching personal touches: Queen Ida, the ant dictator based on Hart's late wife Bobby, was featured every year on her birthday, December 3, until her passing in 2018. The December 3, 2019, strip delivered a final farewell message from the Queen to her ant subjects, a quiet, bittersweet nod to a family loss woven into the strip's prehistoric world.

A Prehistoric World with Real-World Ripples

B.C.'s cast of animals and oddities has a reach that extends far beyond the newspaper page. Hart's anteater—a hybrid he drew with aardvark ears and a giant anteater's bushy tail—became the direct inspiration for Peter the Anteater, the University of California, Irvine's team mascot, and also influenced the naming of the now-defunct US Navy fighter squadron VF-114, the Aardvarks. Within the strip's own world, clams serve as the preferred unit of currency, and the apteryx is presented as the sole surviving specimen of his species, acutely aware that he is doomed to extinction. The Dinosaur is a curious hybrid of sauropod body and stegosaurus spinal plates, usually limited to the single word Gronk, though in more recent strips he has spoken fluently. Grog, the pure-Id caveman strong enough to knock the sun out of the sky with a golfball, shocked Peter by speaking full sentences in a January 1977 strip. Even the turkey, who makes his annual Thanksgiving appearance while evading hunters, has a porcine sidekick named Oynque, rarely seen without his trademark mud puddle.