Jeff and Christopher Keane #SDCC 2013

Everyone knows The Family Circus.  Just like you, I grew up reading it as a kid.  The daily one panel in black and white and the Sunday color panels were a must read.  Even when I didn’t understand the humor I still wanted to read it.

My best friend and I spend hours and hours in each other homes playing. We have known each other since kindergarten and were friend since 2^nd grade - maybe even earlier. His father worked for the prestigious Philadelphia Inquirer.  This was back when being a reporter meant researching and reporting and not recycling rhetoric and citing blogs like today.

I can remember quite clearly a small item framed on a wall in their house. It was a drawing.  Somewhat unassuming except when you looked at it, it looked familiar.  Even when I was 9 or 10 years old I recognized the style.  It was a personalized cartoon from Bil Keane.  He drew my friend’s family in a one panel, just like Bil Keane drew his own family every day for the newspaper.

It was years before I asked how my friend ended up in that frame, in that cartoon, on that wall.  It’s a simple enough story. Bil Keane and his father knew each other.   They crossed paths and got to know each other well enough for a drawing to be done.  I really don’t know if they were good friends or just nodding acquaintances.

On Thursday at SDCC, I saw that Bil’s sons would be at the National Cartoon Society’s booth.  With fond memories, I headed over to the booth and got both Jeff and Christopher to sign one their father’s books.

We chatted and I asked if they knew my friend’s father; it was an off chance. How many of your parent’s friend, especially work friends, do you know?  They admitted they didn’t know the name. They did have great memories of being Back East and later Arizona; something we had in common.

We chatted a little more; just small talk.  I left, slightly nostalgic and thinking about my friend in that frame, in that cartoon, on that wall.

AH