Cartoon Central

One of the popular Web-based cartoons is Day By Day, a conservative alternative to such as Doonesbury.

In October of 1971, John Kerry was satirized by cartoonist Doonesbury for his role in slandering the troops upon his return from Vietnam.

How does one react to the death of arch-villians? When Richard Nixon, probably my nation’s most divisive president before our current one, died, many on the left complained that papers, including the New York Times, whitewashed his disgraceful behavior in office and emphasized his triumphs, like his contacts with China. Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury ran a set of strips that repeated Nixon-era cartoons, hastily recaptioned with (sarcastic) praise for the late President.

“The Sandbox,” a new addition to his Doonesbury Web site, lets viewers read the comments of service members. It’s a version of a military blog — one of many that already are available on the Web.

Huh, I didn’t realize until I read today’s “Doonesbury” comic strip that I share the same hometown as Mike Doonesbury – Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to this FAQ, Garry Trudeau’s choice of the city had little conscious cultural significance, explaining, “The selection of Tulsa, mentioned in the strip’s debut, was the first of thousands of occasions on which the creator went with the first thing that popped into his head.” After I tracked down the first strip, I realized that I had almost certainly read the comic, but the fact that Mike was from Tulsa wouldn’t have registered, since at the time I would have been a teenager living in Tulsa. I doubt I would have put the computer humor in the context of 1970 America, either.

A couple of people have asked me what I think of the latest Doonesbury where Joanna wonders why young women aren’t calling themselves feminists as much anymore and has a conversation with her dead friend Lacey about whether or not we need the word. I’ll admit, at first I was a little stunned that Trudeau seemed to be saying that the feminist movement, while certainly not as urgent as it was in the past, isn’t still urgent. But I’m inclined to think he’s not really taking a side in the debate, because the cartoon struck me as mostly wistful. This panel in particular:

In this Sunday's Doonesbury strip, Garry Trudeau neatly -- and hilariously -- poses the most pressing problem of being a Creationist: if you don't believe in evolution, do you want to be treated with modern antibiotics, or old fashioned ones that treated yesterday's pre-evolved bugs? Link (Thanks, Alex!)

Today’s Doonesbury is f’ing brilliant. I do think it’s a repeat, though.

At the gift shop, same one sill here this morning, I picked up a set of Doonesbury paperback books. A collection of a few years of the series, or months? But it was full of Zonker Harris and his super starred college football helmet. It was a fun train ride.

My first thought on hearing all the condemnation, stoning and arson over the Muhammad cartoons was "Damn! We need to have more Muslim critics out there." Think of how many bad movies could be avoided if people set fire to the theaters and stoned the producers! And TV - no more Xerox copies of other hits! Music...well, let me just say this: K-Fed would be hiding. It reminds me of the Doonesbury cartoons back when the Ayatollah issued a death call for Salman Rushdie. "For Joan Collins, death!" "Oh, a PAN, Peter! That's going to hurt!"

The Islamist furor over a cartoon depicting the Islamic-founding prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban seemed a tad reactionary, but another ruckus over an American cartoon dissing Rumsfeld and wounded military personnel merely added to the thought that people need to take a step back. I would also like to point out the ongoing genius of Doonesbury, and the storyline of BD, who lost his leg during a routine mission in Iraq. Especially the third caption in this particular episode:

The Snarkoleptics look at Doonesbury this week and how a simple comic technique can show levels of emotional distance in therapy. This link is partly for someone else.

Doonesbury was planning to feature these Harriet Miers strips this coming week, but of course she wound up dropping out. They’re funny. (via Underneath Their Robes)

Whacking Doonesbury because of your new layout sounds pretty dumb to me, and being an editor and not knowing the difference between “it’s” and “its” is lame too. But what tops it all is the idea that an “obsession with all things American” is somehow skewing coverage — this coming from an editor at a newspaper that would blame it on George W if England had lost the Ashes (which it didn’t).

Hi gang. I’ve got today’s update for you in the “Newspaper” section. I’ve added a page for “Downstown” by Tim Downs. This was a strip that ran from 1979 through 1985 as a Doonesbury competitor. I’ve added a great daily, as well as some pics of a compilation book. If you look at the book cover, you can see the definite Doonesbury influence (actually, I think the art looks more like Berke Breathed’s Bloom County). Sorry for the lack of info on the gallery page; I ran out of time and I wanted to get this update up on the site. I’ll add more info later. Go and check it out!

Update: Jay Taylor sends me a link to this hilarious Doonesbury cartoon about stealing Wi-Fi signals.

I have always found it odd and a little frustrating that the largest, most concentrated cohort of Garry Trudeau's core constituency -- that is, we readers of this newspaper on newsprint -- must go elsewhere to read ''Doonesbury.'' And so as a New Yorker who only occasionally buys The Daily News and always forgets that the strip also runs every day in Slate and at nytimes.com, I have had a relationship with ''Doonesbury'' not unlike my relationship with the Metropolitan Museum and ''Nightline'' and the Union Square Cafe and my siblings: they've been around forever, so I take them for granted, and get to them more seldom than I'd like, although when I do I am always reminded, in a kind of self-flagellating D'oh! moment, just how splendid they are.

Cartoons featuring blogging are interesting, but how about a blog cartoon? Here I am getting back to Scott McCloud's idea that if we had all continued drawing from childhood, we'd be writing and drawing comics rather than just writing.

Doonesbury

For the record, I have no problem with Mr. Trudeau listing the war dead but I wish he and his liberal media cohorts would stop acting like they actually care about our troops.

Today’s “Doonesbury” - May 16, 2005 - slight error by Garry Trudeau!

The character B.D., the veteran of the War in Iraq and who lost his leg, tells his daughter that he has to return to the hospital to check out his new prosthetic leg.

“You’re going back to the hospital again, Daddy?” “Last time. At least, I hope so, Alex,” says B.D.

Umm, B.D. - I could have sworn that your daughter’s Sam (as in Samantha). ;-) “Alex” is the name of Mike Doonesbury’s daughter and she’s currently being recruited by the US Army for the war (much against Doonesbury’s stern objections).

When two days of last week’s Doonesbury lamented how the John Bolton affair was just the latest skirmish in a neverending ideological re-fighting of the 1960s, I thought it was a bit of a stretch.

I don't always read Doonesbury, but I'll go out of my way to read it when it's been censored.

Nick Anderson's editorial cartoons are edgy and incredible. The clarity of his message is really refreshing. He won the 2005 Pulitzer based on these submissions, beating Garry Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury and Don Wright of The Palm Beach Post.

If you haven't been following Doonesbury, you should. The Tom Delay Political Deathwatch is brilliant. hilarious.

Doonesbury and the New Yorker on DeLay.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's treatment of women he encountered as a movie star has largely faded from public discourse, aside from the occasional Doonesbury cartoon that depicts the governor as a giant hand addressed by reporters as Herr Gropenfuhrer.