Deborah Lipp

Over the weekend, cartoonist Johnny Hart died. He was the creator of both B.C. and the Wizard of Id, and continued with B.C. until his death.

In later life, Hart published cartoons that were anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, and racist. Making him a funny subject for me to eulogize. But here I go.

My father buys lots and lots of cartoon collections. Peanuts, Tumbleweeds, Pogo, Krazy Kat, Doonesbury, Zits, you name it. And we kids would read them all. You have a dull afternoon, a pile of cartoon books, you’re set. I think I absorbed those cartoons through my skin.

And one of the bits I remember best, one of the truly funniest things that stands out among all the funny things, was from B.C. I mean, I don’t think I could quote from many of the hundreds and hundreds of cartoons I read, but I can tell you all about one thing:

Clams got legs.

I can only find one real example online (below the fold).

This looks like the original to me. That first reveal unfolded over lots of cartoons, and the recurring theme stayed funny for years. One that sticks in my mind is “Clams got knobby knees.”

And yeah, he turned out to be a self-righteous asshole in later life. But what I take away is…

Clams got legs.