B.C. is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Johnny Hart. Set in prehistoric times, it features a group of cavemen and anthropomorphic animals from various geologic eras. B.C. made its newspaper debut on February 17, 1958, and was among the longest-running strips still written and drawn by its original creator when Hart died at his drawing board in Nineveh, New York, on April 7, 2007. Since his death, third-generation descendant Mason Mastroianni has produced the strip, with B.C. syndicated by Creators Syndicate. Publication history B.C. was initially rejected by a number of syndicates until the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate accepted it, launching the strip on February 17, 1958. Hart was assisted with B.C. by gag writers Jack Caprio and Dick Boland (who later joined Hart and cartoonist Brant Parker on The Wizard of Id). When the Herald Tribune syndicate folded in 1966 due to the demise of its parent newspaper, B.C. was taken over by the Publishers Syndicate. That syndicate changed hands and names frequently — Publishers-Hall Syndicate, the Field Newspaper Syndicate, News America Syndicate, and finally North America Syndicate — eventually becoming part of King Features. At that point, in 1987, Hart changed distributors to Creators Syndicate, becoming one of Creators' first syndicated strips. After Hart's death in 2007, the strip began being produced by Hart's grandsons Mason Mastroianni (head writer and cartoonist) and Mick Mastroianni (writer for both B.C. and Hart's other creation, Wizard of Id), and Hart's daughter Perri (letterer and colorist). (The Mastroianni brothers also created an original strip, Dogs of C Kennel, in 2009.) Cast of characters For a visual glossary, see Meet The Actors at John Hart Studios. Character inspiration Hart was inspired to draw cavemen (and many other creatures) through the chance suggestion of one of his coworkers at General Electric, and took to the idea "because they are a combination of simplicity and the origin of ideas." The name for the strip "may have been suggested by my wife, Bobby," Johnny recalls. Hart describes the title character as similar to himself, playing the "patsy." The other major characters — Peter, Wiley, Clumsy Carp, Curls, and Thor — were patterned after friends and co-workers. The animal characters include dinosaurs, ants and an anteater, clams, a snake, a turtle and bird duo, and an apteryx (presented in the strip as being the sole surviving specimen, and hence self-aware of its being