Media Contact: Anica Wong FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Company: Creators Syndicate
Phone: 310-337-7003
ABC WORLD NEWS: B.C. ARTISTS KEEP US SMILING
NINEVEH, N.Y., March 23 -- ABC World News could have picked any cartoonists in the world for a story on the future of comic strips. They chose Mason and Mick Mastroianni -- two young cartoonists who keep us laughing despite the Great Recession and the New Media Revolution.
In a recent feature story, ABC News reported that Mason and Mick are "determined to keep us smiling" in the B.C. comic strip. "Whatever the challenges, they are still laughing, and there should be a place for that in any economy," said ABC News correspondent John Berman. The report singled out Garfield, Peanuts and B.C., referring to them respectively as "a fat cat, a sad kid and a group of cranky cavemen."
Asked what makes comic strips special, Mason said, "I love their simplicity. I love to put a gag in a certain perspective, to tell a quick story." (http://www.creators.com/comics/bc/54964.html)
Mason, 32, is an Emmy-winning animator. He took over as the artist and head writer of B.C. after his grandfather Johnny Hart passed away in 2007. "One day I was working on visual effects for a movie, and the next day I was drawing Grandpa's strip back in New York," said Mason. "We never talked about who would replace him. We all thought he would live forever."
Mick, 28, has a lot in common with his cartoonist grandfather. "I love writing comic strips. I started writing for B.C. when I was 25 years old," Mick said, "the same age my pops (Hart) was when he started creating the strip."
With that love of the form in their blood, the cartoonist brothers have been hard at work on a new strip, Dogs of C-Kennel, for the past three years. The strip can be found online through Creators Syndicate at www.creators.com.
ABC News was so impressed with C-Kennel that they announced they would post a link to the strip on abcnews.com, and Creators Syndicate will be launching the strip in newspapers and websites later this year.
B.C. and Hart's other comic strip, Wizard of Id, both syndicated by Creators Syndicate, are being promoted as possible feature films and television series by animation producer Mark Simon. "The strips are seeing a resurgence right now," said Simon. "Mason and Mick have added a new youthfulness to the humor of the strips, and younger generations are discovering these classics."
Rick Newcombe, founder and president of Creators Syndicate, said, "Mason and Mick Mastroianni are being recognized as two of the most brilliant cartoonists in the country, so it is no surprise that B.C. is more popular than ever. It was a single Sunday B.C. comic strip that caught the eye of producer Joel Siegel at ABC World News." (http://www.creators.com/pht/bc070509.gif)
Earlier this year, the B.C. title banner was changed to read B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart to reflect the contributions of Johnny Hart’s grandsons. "Johnny passed away almost three years ago. It's the right time for the boys to be properly recognized for the work they are doing," said Hart's widow, Bobby Hart.
Today B.C. appears in more than 1,300 newspapers and websites, and more young people are reading it on the Internet than almost any other comic strip. The strip centers on the naive and affable caveman B.C. and his cavemen cohorts, along with a bizarre array of prehistoric creatures. But the comic strip is not limited by history; any innovation, political event, sport or human endeavor is fair game. Funny is funny.
Mason and Mick and the Hart family know that staying funny also means staying relevant. "We are looking to other avenues, other ways to get our brand out there -- licensing, movies, television, things like that," Mason told ABC News.
With Mason and Mick's creativity and ingenuity, B.C. will continue to push the boundaries of the Age of Technology as their colorful characters corner the market on evolution -- and keep us laughing.
It's A.D. 2010, and the world's funniest cavemen have crossed the digital divide.
Contact: If you'd like more information about these comic strips, please contact:
Patti Hart-Pomeroy
John Hart Studios
607-621-6034
patti@johnhartstudios.com
http://www.JohnHartStudios.com
Jack Newcombe
Creators Syndicate
310-337-7003
www.creators.com
