I just found out that Bil Keane, the creator of Family Circus, died yesterday of congestive heart failure at the age of 89. I met his son, Jeff Keane, at Toonfest in September of this year. He was on stage, talking about the comic and his dad. With the number of comics in the newspaper that were created by people who have since passed(Hagar the Horrible is now drawn by the creator’s son, whom I’ve met also), I was surprised that Bil was still alive as Jeff talked about him, so that was nice to hear.

While there, I made sure to get a sketch of little Jeffy from Jeff Keane, who as you might have guessed is the inspiration for that kid:

I had told him that I was going to jokingly ask for a sketch of Not Me, and he said there wasn’t much to that character. To my surprise, he added Not Me as well, LOL!