In this June 21, 2006 file photo, cartoonist Bil Keane, creator of the comic strip “Family Circus,” poses in his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz. A spokeswoman for King Features Syndicate, the comic strip’s distributor, says Keane died Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011. He was 89. (AP Photo/East Valley Tribune, Paul O’Neill)PHOENIX – For more than a half century, Bil Keane’s clever “Family Circus” comics entertained readers with a mix of humor and traditional family values, intentionally simplistic because the author thought the American public needed that consistency.
Keane, who started drawing the one-panel cartoon featuring Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, P.J. and their parents in February 1960, died Tuesday at age 89. His comic strip is featured in nearly 1,500 newspapers across the country.
Claudia Smith, a spokeswoman for the comic distributor King Features Syndicate, confirmed his death but said no other details were immediately available. Keane has a home in Paradise Valley, near Phoenix.
Keane said in a 1995 interview with The Associated Press that the cartoon endured because of its consistency and simplicity.
“It’s reassuring, I think, to the American public to see the same family,” he said.