Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Where's PJ by Bil Keane Bil Keane. Cartoonist. Born William Aloysius Keane, he is best known for his newspaper comic "The Family Circus" which began in 1960 and continues in syndication. He taught himself to draw while attending high school by mimicking the style of cartoons published in "The New Yorker." His very first cartoon was published on the amateur page of the "Philadelphia Daily News" on May 21, 1936. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, drawing for "Yank" and creating "At Ease with the Japanese" for the Pacific edition of "Stars and Stripes." After the war he worked for the "Philadelphis Bulletin" as a staff artist from 1946 to 1959, where he launched his first regular comic strip "Silly Philly." His first syndicated comic strip, "Channel Chuckles," premired in 1954 and ran until 1977. He served as the president of the National Cartoonist Society from 1981 to 1983 and was the emcee of the Society's annual awards banquet for 16 years. He was a four-time recepient of the National Cartoonists Society's Award for Best Syndicated Panel, winning in 1967, 1971, 1973, and 1974. In 1982, he was named the Society's Cartoonist of the Year and received its top honor, the Reuben Award. He also received the Elzie Segar Award in 1982 for his unique contribution to the cartooning profession and the Silver T-Square Award from the National Cartoonist Society in 2002 for his outstanding dedication to the Society and the cartooning profession. In 1998, he became the tenth recepient of the Arizona Heritage Award. He published numerous books containing "Family Circus" collections and contributed his illustrations to the books "Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own!" (1971) "Hey, Father!" (1973), "Daddy's Surprise Day" (1980), "Ask Any Mother" (1991), "Just Ask Mom" (1996), and "Just Like Home" (2001). He died as a result of congestive heart failure. Cartoonist. Born William Aloysius Keane, he is best known for his newspaper comic "The Family Circus" which began in 1960 and continues in syndication. He taught himself to draw while attending high school by mimicking the style of cartoons published in "The New Yorker." His very first cartoon was published on the amateur page of the "Philadelphia Daily News" on May 21, 1936. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, drawing for "Yank" and creating "At Ease with the Japanese" for the Pacific edition of "Stars and Stripes." After the war he worked for the "Philadelphis Bulletin" as a staff artist from 1946 to 1959, where he launched his first regular comic strip "Silly Philly." His first syndicated comic strip, "Channel Chuckles," premired in 1954 and ran until 1977. He served as the president of the National Cartoonist Society from 1981 to 1983 and was the emcee of the Society's annual awards banquet for 16 years. He was a four-time recepient of the National Cartoonists Society's Award for Best Syndicated Panel, winning in 1967, 1971, 1973, and 1974. In 1982, he was named the Society's Cartoonist of the Year and received its top honor, the Reuben Award. He also received the Elzie Segar Award in 1982 for his unique contribution to the cartooning profession and the Silver T-Square Award from the National Cartoonist Society in 2002 for his outstanding dedication to the Society and the cartooning profession. In 1998, he became the tenth recepient of the Arizona Heritage Award. He published numerous books containing "Family Circus" collections and contributed his illustrations to the books "Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own!" (1971) "Hey, Father!" (1973), "Daddy's Surprise Day" (1980), "Ask Any Mother" (1991), "Just Ask Mom" (1996), and "Just Like Home" (2001). He died as a result of congestive heart failure. Family Members. Aloysius William Keane. Florence Rita Bunn Keane. Thelma Carne Keane. Thomas Aloysius Keane. Ann Marie Keane Henry. Flowers. See more Keane memorials in: How famous was Bil Keane? What was Bil famous for? Sign-in to cast your vote. Maintained by: Find a Grave Originally Created by: William Bjornstad Added: 9 Nov 2011 Find a Grave Memorial 80145497 Source Hide citation. Add Photos for Bil Keane. Fulfill Photo Request for Bil Keane. Photo Request Fulfilled. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request. Where's PJ? by Bil Keane. Erma Bombeck; Channel Chuckles ; The Family Circus ; Northeast Catholic High School; Philadelphia Bulletin , Daily News ; Reuben Award; Silly Philly. Born in Philadelphia on October 5, 1922, Bil Keane was a self-taught cartoonist who was best known for The Family Circus. His family, consistedof wife Thel (married in 1948), sons Neal, Glen, Christopher, and Jeff, and daughter Gayle, were his inspiration. He died on November 8, 2011 in his home. 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 followedthe 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 admitted that reader laughter was not his primary goal. If the reader reflects, relates, and simply smiles then Keane feltthat he haddone 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. In his real life, Bil Keane hadfour sons, Neal, Glen, Christopher, and Jeff, and a daughter, Gayle. His son Jeff inkedand colored The Family Circus based on Keane's sketches and was the heir apparent to his father's legacy. His wife Thel was 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. 'Family Circus' Creator Bil Keane Dead at 89. Bil Keane, the genius behind one of America's most beloved comics, "Family Circus," died Tuesday at 89-years-old. Keane died of congestive heart failure in his longtime home in Paradise Valley, A.Z. The comic was in circulation for over 50 years and has placements in roughly 1,500 newspapers. The one panel comic started in February 1960 and focused around four kids: Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and PJ. The comic also featured their parents as it made humorous observations from a child's perspective about life. "He said, 'I love you' and that's what I said to him, which is a great way to go out," said Jeff Keane, son of Bil, regarding one of their last conversations, to the Associated Press. "The great thing is Dad loved the family so much, so the fact that we all saw him, I think that gave him great comfort and made his passing easy. Luckily he didn't suffer through a lot of things,” Jeff added. In an interview with the Associated Press in 1995, Bil said he felt the comic was successful because of its “simpleness” and “consistency.” "It's reassuring, I think, to the American public to see the same family," said Bil. "We are, in the comics, the last frontier of good, wholesome family humor and entertainment," Bil added. "On radio and television, magazines and the movies, you can't tell what you're going to get. When you look at the comic page, you can usually depend on something acceptable by the entire family." The comic creator taught himself to draw while he was in high school, and around this time, he dropped the second "L" from his first name "just to be different" the Associated Press reported. His first comic was "Channel Chuckles" and focused on the new invention of television as people were experiencing their first trials of the machine. Keane started the comic after he moved to Arizona in 1958, and molded his characters after his own family. "He was just our dad. The great thing about him is he worked at home, we got to see him all the time, and we would all sit down and have dinner together. What you see in the 'Family Circus' is what we were and what we still are, just different generations,” Jeff said. The last "Family Circus" comic was published Oct. 26. Free CP Newsletters. Join over 250,000 others to get the top stories curated daily, plus special offers!