Which comic strip, created by Bil Keane, focuses on parents Bill and Thelma, and kids Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P.J.?
The Family Circus appearing in 1,500 newspapers. Compilations of "Family Circus" comic strips have sold over 13 million copies worldwide. The central characters of "Family Circus" are a family whose surname is rarely mentioned (although the cartoon of August 26, 2013, in which Billy refers to "Grandma Keane" and "Grandma Carne" indicates the same surnames as the author's family). The parents, Bil and Thelma (Thel), are modeled after the author and his wife, Thelma Carne Keane. Their four children, Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P.J., are fictionalized composites of the Keanes' five children. With the exception of P.J., no characters have aged appreciably during
Thelma Keane worked on a local reforestation project. She lived with relatives in Gympie while in high school and returned home to her family on the weekends. Thelma Carne met her future husband, Bil Keane, an American, while working in the United States war bonds office in Brisbane, Australia, during World War II. Bil Keane was a United States Army promotional artist who drew posters and flyers for the war effort. Thelma had been hired as an accounting secretary for the office. Their desks and workstations were next to each other. Cartoonist Bil Keane later spoke of meeting Thelma in the office