Obviously, Keane's death does not come as a shock. Many probably assumed Keane had already died – as you already know, I myself had wondered, in the face of declining comics, if he actually had died and it had been kept a secret. My colleague Andy Mulkerin sent me the following gem from a couple years back, along with a theory: "I bet this actually marked his real death -- it was like when Paul McCartney died and they started putting clues into all those records."
I kinda feel bad for those conspiracy theories now, and kinda don't: such a thing certainly didn't seem impossible.
It also crossed my mind that Keane would never die, an idea which may or may not have been inspired by this:
I kinda feel bad for those conspiracy theories now, and kinda don't: such a thing certainly didn't seem impossible.
It also crossed my mind that Keane would never die, an idea which may or may not have been inspired by this:
I've read several sweet and enlightening obituaries about Keane, including this one from the Associated Press, and this one from the New York Times . Apparently, Keane felt that the comic really "hit its stride" with an instance involving the ever babyish, pajama-clad Jeffy saying to his parents, "I don't feel so good, i think i need a hug."
"And suddenly," Keane said, "I got a lot of mail from people about this dear little fella needing a hug, and I realized that there was something more than just getting a belly laugh every day."
Looking at strips from that period, that turning point is pretty clear, as the slight darkness from the very early strips disappeared. Keane did not, until relatively recently (it seems), completely abandon humorous for heartwarming. For the truly unfunny dailies of the last 10 years, I continue to blame Jeff, who never quite hits Bil's trademark sweetness sweet spot.
As Jeff himself puts it, "It was a different type of comic, and I think that was my dad's genius — creating something that people could really relate to and wasn't necessarily meant to get a laugh...It was more of a warm feeling or a lump in the throat."
As Jeff himself puts it, "It was a different type of comic, and I think that was my dad's genius — creating something that people could really relate to and wasn't necessarily meant to get a laugh...It was more of a warm feeling or a lump in the throat."
Which is, of course, why people like my grandmother considered the Family Circus to be the highlight of the funny pages, and why people like my sister and myself never tired of mocking grandma for her terrible, unfunny taste. Grandma always complained that she didn't get The Far Side or Bloom County, and that any animated character created after 1965 was "ugly." The Family Circus on the other hand, she said, was "nice."
That i eventually came around to the nicest comic of all time is in no small part due to the fact that, during family visits, i read and re-read Grandma's hardback FC collections out of pure boredom. Grandma is now in her mid 90s. That she outlived Keane seems improbable, and since my love of the Family Circus seems so closely associated with my love of my grandma, Keane's death makes my grandma's seem considerably more imminent. So, I'd better go call her, and then enjoy that i can still go back and actually, genuinely enjoy the same heartwarming unfunny comics that made, and still make, her happy.
And here's one i think she'd probably enjoy:
