The Wizard of Id explained

The Wizard of Id
Author:Johnny Hart (1964–2007)
Brant Parker (1964–1997)
Mason Mastroianni (2007–present)
Illustrator:Brant Parker (1964–1997)
Jeff Parker (1997–2015)
Mason Mastroianni (2015–present)
Url:The Wizard of Id
Status:Running
Syndicate:Publishers Newspaper Syndicate/North America Syndicate (1964–1989) Creators Syndicate (1989–present)
First:November 16, 1964
Genre:Humor, Gag-a-day

The Wizard of Id is a daily newspaper comic strip created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart. Beginning November 16, 1964,[1] the strip follows the antics of a large cast of characters in a shabby medieval kingdom called "Id". The title is a play on The Wizard of Oz, combined with the Freudian psychological term id, which represents the instinctive and primal part of the human psyche.

In 1997, Brant Parker passed his illustrator's duties on to his son, Jeff Parker, who had already been involved with creating Id for a decade. In 2002, the strip appeared in some 1,000 newspapers all over the world, syndicated by Creators Syndicate. Hart's grandson Mason Mastroianni took over writing duties on the strip after Hart's death in 2007.[2] [3] The new byline, "B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart," appeared for the first time in another of their strips on January 3, 2010.[4] On December 14, 2015, Jeff Parker also passed his duties on to Mastroianni.[5]

Overview

History

In the early 1960s, Johnny Hart, having already created the successful B.C., began collaborating with his friend, then-unpublished cartoonist Brant Parker, on a new comic strip. (Parker would later create or co-create the strips Goosemyer, Crock and Out of Bounds.) Having already drawn cartoons about the Stone Age, Hart advanced through time to the Middle Ages, taking the idea from a deck of playing cards.[6] The Wizard of Id was first syndicated on November 16, 1964, drawn by Parker and co-written by Parker and Hart.[7]

On November 17, 2014, the strip formally celebrated its 50th anniversary, and a number of other strips, including Beetle Bailey, BC, Ballard Street, Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Mother Goose and Grimm, Pickles, Mutts, Pooch Café, The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee, and Barney Google and Snuffy Smith ran special 50th anniversary commemorative strips (e.g., Beetle called Sarge "a fink," and ended up sharing a dungeon cell with Spookingdorf). Hi and Lois ran an otherwise-ordinary strip with a portrait of the Wizard in the last panel, while Speed Bump ran a cartoon of Harry Potter in a Wizard of Id T-shirt, Family Circus put a greeting on a book (being held upside down), and Blondie showed a greeting written on a cake in the first panel.

Setting

The Wizard of Id deals with the goings-on of the rundown and oppressed mythical kingdom of Id. It follows people from all corners of the kingdom, but concentrates on the court of a tyrannical, dwarfish monarch known only as "the King". The strip's humor occasionally satirizes modern American culture, and deliberate anachronisms are rampant. Technology changes to suit whatever a gag requires; a battle with spears and arrows might be followed by a peasant using an ATM.

In some strips the king is elected to his monarchial position (albeit through rigged ballots). The aspects that stay the same, however, are that Id is in the middle of nowhere, home to a large castle surrounded by a moat. The king and his subjects run an inept army perpetually at war with "the Huns", while the unhappy, overtaxed peasants (or "Idiots") make little money as farmers and stablehands to keep modest lifestyles.

Format

The Wizard of Id follows a gag-a-day format, plus a color Sunday page. There are running gags relating to the main cast, to a variety of secondary, continuing characters, and to the kingdom itself. Occasionally it will run an extended sequence on a given theme over a week or two.

Style

According to Don Markstein's Toonopedia "The strip's humor style—quite contemporary, in contrast to its medieval setting—ranges from broad and low to pure black".[8]

The style in which certain characters are drawn has changed from the early years of the strip to today. For example, the old style of the King's head was more rectangular, he had a crown with identifiable card suits on it (club, diamond, heart), his mustache and beard always hid his mouth, and his beard frequently extended to a curved point when the King was shown in profile (see The Wondrous Wizard of Id, 1970, Fawcett Publications). In the new style, the King's head is more trapezoidal with a slightly smaller and undecorated crown, he has a huge nose (even bigger than Rodney's) which covers his mouth and chin, and when he opens his mouth it appears that his beard has been shaved off. Like Sir Rodney and other large-nosed characters in the comic, he often "breaks the fourth wall" and stares directly at the audience in the final frame of the strip to indicate disgust or embarrassment when the punchline is spoken, accentuating the huge bulbous shape of his nose.

On December 14, 2015, Mason Mastroianni took over the strip from Jeff Parker.[9]

Cast of characters

Main characters

Supporting characters

In addition to the main cast, several recurring jokes have run throughout the life of the comic strip for which certain characters come back from time to time.

In other media

In 1969, Jim Henson and Don Sahlin produced a test pilot for The Wizard of Id. By the time interest was expressed in the concept Henson was deeply involved in other projects and decided to not pursue it any further.[41]

The comic was also adapted into a cartoon short in 1970, produced by Chuck Jones, directed by Abe Levitow and with voices from Paul Winchell and Don Messick.[42]

Paul Williams in the early 1980s touted an Id feature film as upcoming in talk show appearances.[43] "I wanted to do The Wizard of Id as a feature. I went up to Endicott, New York and stayed with Johnny Hart, who became a really good friend, and actually made a deal with Columbia Pictures to do Wizard of Id as a feature. I was going to play the king. Then that whole David Begelman thing happened and it all fell apart."[44]

Characters from the comic were featured in two educational computer games released in 1984, The Wizard of Id's WizMath and The Wizard of Id's WizType.[45]

Awards

The Wizard of Id was named best humor strip by the National Cartoonists Society in 1971, 1976, 1980, 1982 and 1983. In 1984, Parker received a Reuben Award for his work on the strip. Dozens of paperback collections have been published since 1965, and some of the older titles were still in print as of 2010. In 2009, Titan Books began re-publishing the strips and is printing the complete daily and Sunday strips starting with 1971, publishing one annual collection per year.

Collections and reprints

Fawcett Gold Medal

Andrews McMeel

Titan Books

International syndication

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Holtz . Allan . American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide . 2012 . The University of Michigan Press . Ann Arbor . 9780472117567 . 416.
  2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/11/17/the-wizard-of-id-turns-50-here-and-on-the-comics-page-cartoonists-celebrate-the-hartparker-strips-golden-anniversary/ THE WIZARD OF ID' TURNS 50: Here and on the comics page, cartoonists celebrate the Hart/Parker strip's golden anniversary"
  3. Web site: B.C. Team. John Hart Studios. December 21, 2015. en-US.
  4. News: Mason Mastroianni Gains Byline on B.C. Strip . Daily Cartoonist . Alan . Gardner . January 5, 2010 .
  5. Web site: December 2015 Wizard of Id. johnhartstudios.com. December 21, 2015.
  6. http://www.johnhartstudios.com/artists/index.php?page=brant Johnny Hart Studios – Meet The Artists of B.C. and Wizard of Id
  7. https://johnhartstudios.com/meet-the-artists/remembering-brant/ Remembering Brant
  8. http://www.toonopedia.com/wizid.htm The Wizard of Id
  9. Web site: December 2015 Wizard of Id. johnhartstudios.com. December 21, 2015.
  10. Web site: Wizard of ID Aug. 7, 1966 comic strip.
  11. "Wizard of ID Feb 19, 1971 comic strip
  12. "Wizard of ID" 2-23-1992 comic strip
  13. The Wizard of Id December 31, 1965
  14. Web site: Wizard of Id September 6, 2002.
  15. Web site: Wizard of ID June 22, 1998.
  16. Web site: Wizard of Id June 18, 2006.
  17. Web site: Wizard of ID June 20, 1994.
  18. Web site: Wizard of ID June 20, 2004.
  19. Web site: Wizard of Id Comic.
  20. Web site: Wizard of Id May 9, 2010.
  21. Web site: Wizard of Id, 8-16-1994 strip..
  22. Web site: Wizard of ID August 17, 2005.
  23. Web site: Wizard of Id April 2, 2013.
  24. Web site: Wizard of Id February 6, 2016.
  25. Web site: Wizard of Id August 26, 2005 .
  26. Web site: The Wizard of ID December 25, 2003.
  27. Web site: Wizard of ID Comic.
  28. Web site: Wizard of Id May 12, 2013.
  29. Web site: Wizard of ID June 19, 2005.
  30. Web site: Wizard of ID comic.
  31. Web site: Wizard of ID Feb 14, 2016.
  32. Web site: Wizard of Id Classics. August 17, 2020.
  33. Web site: Wizard of Id Classics February 19, 2017.
  34. Wizard of ID November 3, 1969
  35. Beetle Bailey Nov 17, 2014
  36. Web site: Wizard of Id November 29, 2016.
  37. Web site: "Wizard of ID" June 7, 1999.
  38. Web site: 'Wizard of Id' August 28, 1972. August 25, 2022.
  39. Web site: Hart. Parker and. 2022-02-24. Wizard of Id by Parker and Hart for February 24, 2022 GoComics.com. 2022-02-24. GoComics. en.
  40. Web site: Wizard of Id March 18, 2015.
  41. Web site: 3/22/1969 – 'Shoot "Wizard of Id" pilot'.
  42. Web site: The Wizard of Id. YouTube. March 6, 2015.
  43. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/06/03/twinkle-twinkle-little-star/99050813-998e-46a1-86af-8882f7145f5d/ Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
  44. Web site: A Thankful Heart: The Paul Williams Interview, Part 2. March 6, 2013.
  45. Web site: Mental Floss: 8 Things You Might Not Know About The Wizard of Id. June 18, 2018.
  46. Web site: Johnny Hart Studios. Remembering Brant. Johnny Hart Studios. March 8, 2012. 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120218094543/http://www.johnhartstudios.com/artists/index.php?page=brant. February 18, 2012. dead.