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Marschall: Another carpenter at work!
Hart: Yeah. Thank you for that one. I don't know, but I kinda got hooked. Bobby was oblivious to all this, and I found myself, when she wasn't around, I'd cut over to that other channel and watch somebody preach. I was really getting hooked on it and one day I asked Bobby, "Do you feel like going over to that little church over in town?" And she says, "No, not necessarily." So I prayed that she would, that God would touch her with this, so it wouldn't be me and not her. One Sunday morning she got up early and said, "Want to go to church?" I said "Yeah!" We hopped out of bed and went over to this little church and when we went in there, these are all people that we've known, because we live around here. It was a real happy little church. We started going there and now we teach Sunday School and we're members and do all that sort of stuff. We created a library in the church, our whole house had become a Christian book library, almost. That's all we do is buy books and tapes and things for the children over there. It's a fun life and where we're going.
Marschall: This the Presbyterian church?
Hart: Yeah. "Why the Presbyterian church?" "It's the only church in town."
Marschall: Is it?
Hart: Yeah. There is actually, just down the road here, a Baptist church and a Methodist church, but we didn't get that far. What we originally set out to do was go to a different church each week and listen to the preaching. I wish we had done that, but somehow we got over here with all these people, these lovely people and . . .
Marschall: But that's where God wants you. When did you start putting Christian or Bible-based spiritual themes in the strip?
Hart: It's been quite a few years, I think, longer than I thought. Maybe 1988 or '89. I can't remember. It started out like when Christmas would roll around -- I can think of things like that; if a holiday comes up, I do something about the holiday. I've been doing that for the life of the strip. So when the religious holidays come up, some people really tick me off; it's like I did something like a Good Friday strip about Jesus. It's Good Friday, so I do something about who the day is about it's about and people like . . . well, the Los Angeles Times wouldn't run it. I found out from somebody.
Marschall: They dropped it? Did they run an explanation? Run an old strip?
Hart: I don't know how that worked. I think they did it this year. I called up Rick [Newcombe] one day and said, "take the strip away from them!" And he said, "Um, woll, woll, OK." [laughs]
But he was saved by the bell -- there was a new comic editor or something who was just hired by the L. A. Times, and Rick wanted to see what was going on; he'd go over there and wait and see and give him a chance, or something.
Marschall: I'm interested in reactions from both ends. Have you gotten any other grief or complaints or letters or drops . . .
Hart: Not any drops that I know of. But I'm like the Pied Piper of the Woodwork-Christians. They're coming out of the woodwork, and they said, "Way to go!"
Marschall: So, you're getting more positive reactions?
Hart: Oh, yeah! Probably 99 percent. Only a handful of crank people say, "I see what you're doing. You're trying to ruin the scientists with your evolution ideas" -- and one of them said, "Keep your God out of my face." These are the guys that have a lot of anger and hatred, who have turned away from God big time. [laughs]
There was always this one guy, a letter-writer, who I tried to reach, to get him with that dynamic thing that makes people realize what it's all about. "Oh my gosh, so this is really it! So that's what it's about!" And I was always searching for this one thing to answer this guy who was so angry and offended and irate about me putting my religious ideas in front of his face. And I'm working, working, and I have a little folder on the side and thinking that one of these days I'm going to get the right thing and I'm going to write back to him and surprise the hell out of him and hit him with this thing. So I pulled the folder out one day . . . and he didn't have any address on his letter! I'd been working on this for three years and I didn't know where the guy is! I've got a lot of material for him if he surfaces.
Marschall: Maybe he'll read this interview or maybe you'll just pray it through and save a stamp in the process.
Hart: There you go. "God, just take this to that guy."
Marschall: Not everyone who has had a conversion can name the moment; sometimes it's gradual, it's not all Saul on the road to Damascus. I take it that that wasn't the way with you? It was a gradual conviction?
Hart: Yeah, yeah.
Marschall: Also, many Christians have had crises or problems that have come to a head that have been solved by their conversion. Did that happen with you? Were you going through anything personal or creative that was solved by . . .
Hart: No, that's my problem. It's really a problem. Why don't I get any of those feelings that I can put my finger on? All I knew are subtle realizations where I can say, now I know what that was, or how I came out of that, but there was nothing dramatic how I was lifted out of something. I look back at things like, why did I get the measles when I was 47 for no reason, when my liver was about gone and the only thing that could possibly rejuvenate a liver is a disease like that in which the liver has to totally reconstruct itself, and it did.
Marschall: Really?
Hart: Like the time I went to New York -- one of those times I went down to the city, I stepped out through a crowd of people because I wondered why they were all standing on the sidewalk. They were at a bus stop. The intersection was crowded, I couldn't get through, and I was in a hurry. I went down the line and all these people were still standing there. I said, "Why these huge crowds?" So I stepped out into the street but somebody grabbed me by the back of the neck and pulled me back onto the curb -- pulled me out of my shoes, just about. And as I went back onto the curb and slammed into a couple of people standing there, I just saw these bus windows strobing by my face. It was about a foot and a half from my face. I would have been smeared all the way down Times Square. And I turned around to thank the person . . . but there wasn't anybody looking at me; everybody was just starting to move.
That has always puzzled me. Who's the guy that did that? Why didn't he just say something? I turned to thank someone who had just saved my life. Now I look back and I say it was an angel. We talk about angels being there and doing these supernatural things. Because who in New York would care if I got all smeared down the streets of Times Square?
Marschall: It would be the opposite! Someone would have pushed you!
Hart: [laughs] And it was sure somebody strong because I had lurched forward and stepped out into the street, and if I had done that, I would have been pasted on the front of that bus. Those people stand there with their feet hanging over the edge so when that bus comes it practically brushes their clothes. Boy, that scared me! Now you look back and say, "Ah, now I know what that was!"
Marschall: Do you think you were saved in that, and maybe a lot of other instances, saved for something?
Hart: Well, I would assume. Otherwise, let me go. [laughs]
Marschall: When you think about things like that, do you see more of a purpose to your life, do you want to add more of an edge to some of the messages you can make?
Hart: Yeah, that makes you think there is a purpose here. Yes, I do think that. I'm not exactly sure what it is -- maybe "what we have here is a failure to communicate" [laughs] -- I'm not very good at picking up on where God is leading me. But the purpose is going to show up.
Marschall: You yield yourself to Him.
Hart: Yeah, really.
Marschall: I think I've never seen you do this -- have you ever done any message strips in Wizard? It's not the vehicle for it, is it?
Hart: It could be. I had done a little, just touched on it. Wizard gags are a lot funnier.
Marschall: I've been asking you about letters you got, most of them are favorable to what I call message strips. What are your ideas about comics as a medium not just for humor? Are you happy with the strips that you've done in that way -- can you see yourself doing comic books and maybe longer stories with religious messages? Do you think comics are a good medium for making those kinds of statements?
Hart: I think so. It reaches a good audience, the kids. You have the gimmick that attracts an audience and you can either . . . you're talking about going for broke, putting out that message in comic books? Yeah, this is one of those things that I've been entertaining . . . like a comic book or even maybe a children's book. B.C. is a comic character but he doesn't have to be on a comic page or a comic book. He could be in a cute, little funny children's book.
