What do you think re Doonesbury's BD losing a leg in Iraq?

I stopped reading "Doonesbury" when it stopped being funny. I think that was around 1979 or so.

I'm an avid Doonesbury reader. I thought it was a good story development. I'm anxious to see where this goes.

I have read the Doonesbury strip wherever and whenever.

The Tulsa World used to run it off it's the funny pages, in the back with the want ads, saying it's format was 'too large' for it's comics page, but the editors were really opposed to it's political bent. When readers, including me, asked 'Well, if you think it's a political cartoon, why don't you put it on your editorial pages?'' there followed a long silence that continues to this day. (Eva: is it still in the back?)

I was crushed when, upon arriving in NYC, I found that the NYTimes doesn't run ANY cartoons(!) so I would have to purchase a New York Daily News to see my beloved bunch in action. Thank goodness for the internet and the Doonesbury website.

==
BD's war wounding and near death are the stuff of today's headlines and I would have been surprised if Gary hadn't done something on it. Makes me proud to be a fan. Makes me proud to be an American.

Doonesbury continues to be a sharply drawn commentary on this thing we call the USA with our pomposity, our drug-addledness, our social conventions and inventions all on display and yes, it's funny too, sometimes riotiously so, but after the laughter, there is always something to think on as well.

Joe Nation

Pssst....it's back on the comics page, Joe. Once they started running "Mallard Fillmore" (a typical rightwinger diatribe strip) they put it back. They run the two strips right next to each other. It just makes Trudeau look that much more intelligent. hehhehheh....

I have to agree with this. I stuck with it for longer, but mostly because I was used to reading it. When he started representing George HW Bush as a feather, that's about the time I gave up on it.

And Mallard Fillmore isn't consistently funny to me either.

Well, at the exact same time (and I mean exact), the main character on Get Fuzzy learned his cousin had lost a leg in Iraq. Kinda took the impact away, such as there was, seeing as 2 comics had come up with virtually the same thing.

Kinda makes ya wonder if they all dig from the same vat of creativity.

PS Mallard Fillmore is a completely, 100% right wing diatribe and not funny even if you are a right winger, I suspect.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I am in agreement with Tarantulas. On the few occasions that I've read "Mallard Fillmore," I found it to be painfully un-funny.

Now "Tom Tomorrow" -- that's the funny!

JoefromChicago
Joe, that Tom Tomorrow is funny!

BBB

Oh Wow. I only get to read it on Sunday, and I wondered where it was headed last Sunday, as it was a bit weird. Trudeau is keeping it real, I guess.
He probably realizes that many of us have come to "know" his characters, and that this might be a way for people to really get "a feel" for what's going on in Iraq.
Mallard Fillmore is just nasty, and as obnoxious as President Fillmore was.

Today's boston Globe wouldn't run the strip - said it had language unsuitable to general readership. Can find the strip online, but I haven't yet..... I heard a wonderful commentary on npr about this segment of Doonesbury.

I think it's a very bold statement by Trudeau http://www.uclick.com/client/bos/db/

Just read it, he said s.o.b. Interesting......

Some newspapers pull, edit Doonesbury for language in strip about wounded soldier
By Elizabeth Mckinley, Associated Press, 4/23/2004

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A few newspapers around the country edited Friday's ''Doonesbury'' comic strip to remove an expletive used by a character injured while fighting in Iraq, and at least two newspapers pulled the strip altogether.

In a story line that began Monday, B.D., a football coach-turned-soldier, lost a leg after being reactivated in the Army at the end of 2002.

In Friday's strip, his doctor explains how amputees go through a grieving process that starts with denial, followed by anger.

In the final panel, B.D. curses from behind a hospital curtain, skipping the denial.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip written by Garry Trudeau appears in 1,400 newspapers nationwide. The Anchorage Daily News declined to run the strip, instead publishing a note saying the comic ''contained an unnecessary profanity.''

The (Nashville) Tennessean also declined to run the comic. Editor Frank Sutherland said in a column that it uses language ''we consider inappropriate for newspaper use.''

The Green Bay News-Chronicle in Wisconsin edited out the mild expletive.

''I'd have a hard time printing that phrase as a direct quote in a news story, let alone as part of a piece of fiction on the comics page in big, bold letters,'' editor Tom Brooker wrote in a story published Friday.

The phrase was, ''Son of a bitch!''

The Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, also removed the expletive.

''Context is everything,'' managing editor Mike Burbach said in an article explaining his decision. ''In the Beacon Journal, 'Doonesbury' runs on the comics page. In that context, we decided it was best to bleep out the bad word.''

The Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune ran the strip on its editorial page instead of the comics section, and said the move would be permanent.

The strip's distributor, Kansas City-based Universal Press Syndicate, said newspapers weren't contractually allowed to edit the strip, and the syndicate said it planned to contact those that did.

''I don't know what will happen,'' said Kathie Kerr, a spokesman for Universal Press.

''It may just be a heads up just to refresh their memory about the protocol.''

Kerr said 11 newspapers had called Universal to talk about the strip. She said she knew of two papers that were not going to print Friday's installment but declined to name them. Newspapers are not required to inform the syndicate when they pull a comic strip.

Trudeau said he started the story line to illustrate the sacrifices American soldiers are making.

''We are at war, and we can't lose sight of the hardships war inflicts on individual lives,'' said Trudeau, who began writing ''Doonesbury'' in 1968 while a student at Yale University.

The strip has a history of addressing controversial topics.

Just before the 2000 presidential election, at least two newspapers pulled an installment that accused George W. Bush of cocaine abuse. In February 1998, at least four newspapers refused to run strips about accusations that President Clinton had sex with a White House intern.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/114/nation/Some_newspapers_pull_edit_Doon:.shtml

Get Fuzzy, a Boston-based strip in the Globe, is also addressing the issue of a soldier's loss of a limb.

I dunno how I feel about this censor. He said 'son of a bitch', that's not so vulgar and is prolly much nicer than what a soldier might have said in real life.

I like how the Globe left the space empty, though.
I will choose to interpret that as a hidden message of solidarity!

The Tulsa newspaper substituted the word "EXPLETIVE" in all caps for the profanity in the Doonesbury strip today. They did the same thing in the Mallard Fillmore strip. I have no idea what that one was supposed to be, but then, I couldn't care less. Just glad to see they didn't pull them.

One thing I've always adored about Doonesbury is that his characters age and die, unlike the characters of every other comic strip I know. I think this adds a much appreciated humane dimension to the story lines. Characters that could have been my parents 15 years ago still could be my parents, characters that could have been my nephews or nieces 15 years ago could still be my nephews and nieces, and so on. I really like this.

More to the point, I also like that when Gary Trudeau puts his Doonesbury characters in harm's way, they don't always magically survive, but they do get injured, die, or get their life changed permanently. Just as if they were real life people.

On a slight tangent, here's how Trudeau himself explains the recent development:



Makes a lot of sense to me.

-- T.

Joe --

Are you seriously saying that

this

is not funny? You may also find some of the answers interesting

That's great, Thomas!

I initially thought they were killing BD off, and it would ahev been like the death of a friend. Ther was a commentary on "All Things Considered," about this very thing, I will see if I can find a link.
I was surprised to see a reference in "Get Fuzzy (my favourite strip, along with "Opus" and "Rudy Park"). Hopefully this means the media's self-imposed silence is crumbling.

Thomas
I've always been madly in love with Gary Tradeau.

BBB