Keane, William (Bil)
Born: October 5, 1922, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: November 8, 2011, Paradise Valley, Arizona
Vocation: Cartoonist, Illustrator
Geographic Connection to Pennsylvania: Philadelphia,
Philadelphia County; Roslyn, Montgomery County
Keywords: Erma Bombeck; Channel Chuckles; The Family Circus;
Northeast Catholic High School; Philadelphia Bulletin, Daily News;
Reuben Award; Silly Philly
Abstract: Born in Philadelphia on October 5, 1922, Bil Keane is
a self-taught cartoonist who is best known for The Family Circus. His
family, consisting of wife Thel (married in 1948), sons Neal, Glen,
Christopher, and Jeff, and daughter Gayle, were his inspiration. He currently
resides in Arizona and continues to base The Family Circus on his
own family.
Biography:
William (Bil) Keane was born on October 5, 1922, in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and he grew up to attend Northeast Catholic High School. It was
during these years that Keane formed his artistic style by reading and
mimicking the cartoons in the New Yorker magazine. During school he
would draw caricatures of his teachers for amusement. Keane’s early years
proved to be essential in providing him with a start.
While in eighth grade,
Keane had his first cartoon published in a newspaper. On May 21, 1936, the
Philadelphia Daily News ran one of his works on its amateur page, paying
the aspiring cartoonist $1 for his efforts. Around this same time, young Keane
started working with his friends on a satirical magazine called The Saturday
Evening Toast. It was at this point that Keane became the man “Bil Keane”
who we know today, dropping the second “l” because he wanted to be different.
After
high school, Bil Keane worked as a messenger for the Philadelphia Bulletin before
joining the army in 1942 during World War II. During his service, Keane
continued to hone his skills. He drew for Yank magazine and also created
the series At Ease with the Japanese for the Pacific Stars and
Stripes while stationed in Tokyo, Japan.
Upon his return to the United
States in 1945 after the end of the war, Keane went back to working for the Bulletin
drawing non-daily “spot comics” and caricatures for the paper’s entertainment
section. Keane also started working on the Sunday paper, drawing a weekly strip
entitled Silly Philly, a comic featuring a William Penn-based kid and
his adventures. He also editing the weekly “Fun Book” supplement.
The seeds
for The Family Circus were planted in 1948 when he married Thelma Carne.
He had met his Australian bride while abroad during the war. Together they
moved to Roslyn, Pennsylvania, to start their life together. However, the first
Circus cartoon would not be created for another twelve years. Prior to
that, Keane continued to cartoon and illustrate. In 1954, he started writing
and drawing Channel Chuckles, a television humor cartoon that ended up
being distributed for twenty-three years. In those intermediary years, Keane
also sold single-frame “gag cartoons,” like those he grew up imitating from The
New Yorker, to many major magazines of the time.
In 1958, Keane quit the Bulletin
and moved his wife and five kids to Arizona, where he still resides today.
Over the next two years Keane worked on Channel Chuckles and his other
cartoons from home with his family under foot. In February of 1960, the first Family
Circus cartoon was published under the name The Family Circle. It
was called the Circle for six months until the magazine of the same name
objected. The cartoon then became The Family Circus, as it is still
known today.
Based on his life at home, The Family Circus follows the
daily lives of Bil, his wife Thel, and their children, Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, and
P.J. Keane’s goal with The Family Circus was to mimic the every-day life
of the average American family. He has admitted that reader laughter is not his
primary goal. If the reader reflects, relates, and simply smiles then Keane
feels that he has done his job. Since its humble beginnings in 1960, The
Family Circus has spawned well over sixty books, totaling more than
fourteen million paperback copies in print, and three animated specials, A
Special Valentine with The Family Circus (1978), A Family Circus
Christmas (1979), and A Family Circus Easter (1982), all of which
were considered successes. In 1982, the National Cartoonists Society awarded
Bil Keane with the Reuben Award as the “Cartoonist of the Year” for his work.
To this day, The Family Circus continues to rate highly in newspaper
surveys, continuing to validate Keane’s self-taught, slice-of-life approach and
to cartooning.
In his real life, Bil Keane has four sons, Neal, Glen,
Christopher, and Jeff, and a daughter, Gayle. His son Jeff inks and colors The
Family Circus based on Keane’s sketches and is the heir apparent to his
father’s legacy. His wife Thel is his editor and consultant. Glen is an
animator at Disney and has had a hand in the creation of Ariel (The Little
Mermaid), The Beast (Beauty and the Beast), Pocahontas, and Tarzan.
Bil
and Thel Keane continue to live in Arizona, and Bil Keane continues to create The
Family Circus without showing any signs of slowing down. In an interview,
he jokes, “If asked when I will retire I say "probably about 11 o'clock
tonight. But, hopefully, I'll be back at the ol' drawing board in the morning
and happy to be there!" While all of his children have moved away from
home, they visit regularly and his nine grandchildren continue to provide
inspiration for the Circus.
Works:
Comics
•
At Ease with the Japanese (c.1942-1945)
•
Silly Philly (1947-1960)
•
Channel Chuckles (1954-1977)
•
The Family Circus (1960-Present)
Books Illustrated
•
Bombeck, Erma and Bil Keane. Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your
Own! New York: Doubleday, 1971.
•
Lortie, Jeanne Marie. Hey, Father! Blewett Printing Company,1973.
•
Wiersum, Gail. Daddy’s Surprise Day. Golden Press, 1980.
•
Boyce, Jean B. Ask Any Mother. 1991.
•
Boyce, Jean B. Just Ask Mom. Publisher’s Distributing Company,
1996.
•
Boyce, Jean B. Just Like Home. Evans Book Inc., 2001.
Animated Specials
•
A Special Valentine with The Family Circus. Dir. Walt Kubiak. Writ.
Bil Keane. Prod. Cullen-Kasden Productions. NBC, 1978.
•
A Family Circus Christmas. Dir. Walt Kubiak. Writ. Bil Keane. Prod.
Cullen-Kasden Productions. NBC, 1979.
•
A Family Circus Easter. Dir. Walt Kubiak. Writ. Bil Keane. Prod.
Cullen-Kasden Productions. NBC, 1982.
Sources:
•
Keane, Bil. “About the Cartoonist.” KingFeatures.com. 1 Dec.
2000. 31 May 2007..
•
Keane, Bil. “Life and Times of Bil What’sisname.” FamilyCircus.com.
7 Oct. 2004. 31 May 2007.
<http://www.familycircus.com/mylife/mylife.html>.
•
Lause, Kevin. "The Family Circus." St. James Encyclopedia
of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 2.
Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 61-62. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Web. 13 Sep. 2011.
•
Tobin, Suzanne. “Comics: Meet the Artist.” Washingtonpost.com: Live
Online. 1 Mar. 2002. 1 Jun. 2007
This biography was prepared by Eric Brune, Summer 2007.
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