• Source: Bil Keane

William Aloysius Keane (October 5, 1922 – November 8, 2011) was an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus. He began it in 1960 and his son Jeff Keane continues to produce it.




Early life and education


Keane was born in Crescentville, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, and attended parochial school at St. William Parish and Northeast Catholic High School. While a schoolboy, he taught himself to draw by mimicking the style of the cartoons published in The New Yorker. His first cartoon was published on May 21, 1936, on the amateur page of the Philadelphia Daily News. While in high school, he signed his work "Bill Keane", but omitted the second L from his first name early in his career, in order "to be distinctive".




Career


Keane served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, during which he drew for Yank and created the feature "At Ease with the Japanese" for the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes.
From 1946 to 1959 Keane worked as a staff artist for the Philadelphia Bulletin, where he launched his first regular comic strip Silly Philly. His first syndicated strip, Channel Chuckles, a series of jokes about television, premiered in 1954 and ran until 1977. In 1959, the Keane family moved to Paradise Valley, Arizona. Keane's daily newspaper panel The Family Circus premiered on February 29, 1960. He was president of the National Cartoonists Society from 1981 to 1983 and was the master of ceremonies at the Society's annual awards banquet for 16 years.
From 1981 to 1983, Keane published the gag strip Eggheads in collaboration with his son Jeff, who now draws and writes The Family Circus. Like his father, Jeff Keane has been president of the National Cartoonists Society, serving four years thereat.




Personal life


While stationed in Australia he met Thelma "Thel" Carne. They were married in Brisbane, Queensland in 1948 and settled in Roslyn, Pennsylvania. They had five children: Gayle, Neal, Glen, Christopher and Jeff. Glen is an animator and has drawn much notice for his work for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Jeff is a cartoonist and took over his father's comic strip upon the latter's death. Thel, the inspiration for Mommy in The Family Circus, died on May 23, 2008 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Keane and his wife owned a second residence in Laguna Beach, California.
Bil Keane died on November 8, 2011, at his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, near Phoenix, at age 89. The cause of death was given as congestive heart failure. A Catholic, he was buried beside his wife in the Holy Redeemer Cemetery of Phoenix, Arizona.




Awards


Keane received the National Cartoonists Society's Award for Best Syndicated Panel four times, in 1967, 1971, 1973 and 1974. In 1981, he was awarded the Inkpot Award. In 1982, he was named the Society's Cartoonist of the Year and received the Reuben Award, the Society's top honor. That year he also received the Elzie Segar Award for his unique contribution to the cartooning profession.
In 1998, Keane became the tenth recipient of the Arizona Heritage Award, joining—among others—Barry Goldwater, Sandra Day O'Connor, Mo Udall and Erma Bombeck. In 2002 Keane was honored with the Silver T-Square Award from the National Cartoonist Society for "outstanding dedication" to the Society and the cartooning profession. In 2008, he received the Sergio Award from the Comic Art Professional Society.




Friends


Keane was close friends with humorist and newspaper columnist Erma Bombeck. He provided illustrations for Bombeck's book Just Wait Until You Have Children of Your Own! (1972), and considered himself instrumental in convincing Bombeck and her family to move to Arizona near his home. He was a pallbearer at Bombeck's funeral in 1996.
Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine, acknowledged he was good friends with Keane and Keane's son, Jeff. Pastis has parodied The Family Circus in his own strip several times, and Keane wrote a satirical "attack" on these jokes as a foreword for Pastis' Pearls collection Macho Macho Animals.
In the comic strip switcheroo of 1997, Keane switched strips with Scott Adams of Dilbert . Adams said, "Bil was a misunderstood creative genius who knew how to write for his target audience. He was also a great guy. I was a big fan."
Keane also counted fellow cartoonists Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts) and Mell Lazarus (Miss Peach, Momma) as close friends.
In 1994, the characters from The Family Circus made a "guest appearance" in Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead comic strip. Griffith said, "I remembered Bil's affection for Zippy, so I decided to bite the bullet and call him to ask if, instead of me parodying his strip, he'd agree to jam with me..." Keane drew his characters in Griffith's strip, with dialogue written for them by Griffith. Then, on March 7, 1995, Zippy made an appearance, drawn by Griffith, in a Family Circus panel. Griffith said that Family Circus was "the last remaining folk art strip" and that "It's supposed to be the epitome of squareness, but it turns the corner into a hip zone."




Books






= Family Circus collections

=




= Special compilations

=
The Family Circus Treasury, foreword by Erma Bombeck (1977)
The Family Circus Album, foreword by Charles Schulz (1984)
The Family Circus is Us (1990)
Family Circus Library, Vol. 1 by The Library of American Comics (2009)
Family Circus Library, Vol. 2 by The Library of American Comics (2010)




= Other cartoon collections

=
Channel Chuckles (1964)
Jest in Pun (1966)
Pun-Abridged Dictionary (1968)
More Channel Chuckles (1971)
It's Apparent You're a Parent (1971)
Deuce and Don'ts of Tennis (1975)
Eggheads written by Bil Keane and Jeff Keane (1983)




= Illustrated books

=
Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own! written by Erma Bombeck and Bil Keane (1971)
Hey, Father! written by Jeanne Marie Lortie, illustrated by Bil Keane (1973)
Daddy's Surprise Day written by Gale Wiersum, illustrated by Bil Keane (1980)
Ask Any Mother written by Jean B. Boyce, illustrated by Bil Keane (1991)
Just Ask Mom written by Jean B. Boyce, illustrated by Bil Keane (1996)
Just Like Home written by Jean B. Boyce, illustrated by Bil Keane (2001)




Footnotes






References


Keane, Christopher (2010). Adding to the Act. The Family Circus: Daily and Sunday Comics. Vol. 1962–1963. IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60010-657-6.
Harvey, R.C. (November 16, 2011). "A Ringmaster Dies Bil Keane 1922-2011". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2012-11-15.




External links



Bil's biography at the Family Circus Website
Bil Keane biography at King Features Syndicate
Feature article on Bil Keane at St. Anthony Messenger Magazine Online
Bil Keane Cartoon collection of original cartoon artwork from 1954–1966 at Syracuse University's Special Collections Research Center.

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