Bil Keane, creator of the popular, and family friendly comic called “Family Circus” has passed away. He was 89 years old. His comic incorporated many situations that happened to him and his family in real life. Some of the characters were based on members of his actual family.
Bil Keane started producing his comic, “Family Circus”, in 1960. Today, his comic strip has been featured in around 1,500 newspapers all across the United States. I cannot think of another comic that is so wholesome, heartwarming, and family friendly. “Family Circus” gave readers a mix of traditional family values, and humor.
He was born in 1922, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Aloysius and Florence Keane. His first name appears on his birth certificate as “Bill”, but he decided to drop the second l “just to be different”. He served three years in the army, and met his wife, Thelma, (who went by “Thel”), while he was in Australia, and serving at a desk job.
In 1958, they moved to Arizona, and started a family. Bil and Thel had one daughter, named Gayle, and four sons, named Glen, Jeff, Chris, and Neal. The children grew up to produce nine grandchildren. In 2008, Thel died of Alzheimer’s disease, at the age of 82. And now, Bil has passed away at the age of 89.
It would be impossible to entirely separate the family life of Bil Keane from the situations that were illustrated in the “Family Circus” comic. His wife, Thel, was the inspiration for the character called “Mommy”. He has said that she so closely resembled the character that people would stop her in grocery stores, and ask her “Aren’t You the mommy in ‘Family Circus’”?
In real life, Bil and Thel had five children. In the comic, there is a daughter named “Dolly”, and three sons named “Billy”, “Jeffy”, and “P.J.”. I don’t think it would be easy to try and sort out exactly which of his children inspired the situations depicted in a particular comic strip.
However, Bil Keane has said that everything shown in the “Family Circus” comic has come from real life events. In fact, he jokingly blamed those events for causing his hair to turn white when he was 39 years old.
For example, some of the “Family Circus” comics are based on things that his children said, or asked, when the family was on a trip to the Grand Canyon. The first cartoon showed the character “Jeffy”, who woke up after being put to bed, walked to where his parents were watching TV in the living room, and requested a hug.
He also added pets for the cartoon family. There were two dogs, (named “Barfy” and “Sam”), and a cat, (named “Kittycat”). He also added some imaginative characters that every family would recognize. “Ida Know” was a ghost like character that only the children could see.
“Who spilled this drink?”, asked Mommy
“Ida Know!”, answered some of the Family Circus kids.
“Ida Know” would be seen running away. There was another ghostlike character named “Not Me” who functioned in the same way. It was little touches like these, in addition to the family style theme of the “Family Circus” comic, that made it so popular. Bil Keane will be missed by countless fans.
Image by Michael Donovan on Flickr