'Doonesbury' Character to Lose Leg in Iraq

Netscape News ^ | 4/19/04 | netsacape news

[NotchJohnson]

A main character in the "Doonesbury" comic strip will lose a leg while fighting in Iraq, one of two strips published this week that feature soldiers getting injured in the war.

In Monday's "Doonesbury," B.D., a football coach-turned-soldier, was injured after being reactivated in the Army at the end of 2002, following a losing football season.

Later this week, he will wake up to find his left leg amputated, according to Universal Press Syndicate, the strip's distributor.

"Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau said he wanted to illustrate the sacrifices American soldiers are making.

"It's a task any writer should approach with great humility, but I think it's worth doing," Trudeau said. "We are at war, and we can't lose sight of the hardships war inflicts on individual lives."

Trudeau said B.D. would learn to deal with his injury "probably the same way so many wounded vets seem to - with gratitude for having had one's life spared, empathy and respect for those who have suffered worse, and a grim sense of humor indispensable to fending off despair."

About 10 newspapers have called Universal Press with concerns about the strip, primarily with language the character uses after learning his leg is gone, company spokeswoman Kathie Kerr said.

The strip, which appears in 1,400 newspapers nationwide, has a long history of addressing difficult topics since Trudeau started it at Yale University in 1968.

Trudeau is not the only comic-strip artist using the war in Iraq as a backdrop. In Monday's edition of "Get Fuzzy," main character Rob Wilco learned that a cousin had lost a leg in the war.

Darby Conley, the strip's author, is not giving interviews, said Mary Anne Grimes, spokeswoman for the United Features Syndicate, the strip's distributor. She said Conley prefers to let the strip speak for itself.

"Get Fuzzy" appears in about 400 newspapers.

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

[NotchJohnson]

Well this just takes the cake. Gary Trudeau takes off the gloves. Personally, the cartoon is bad and I never understand half of them although you have to know who is who. The only reason it is printed is because liberal newspapers can afford 4x2 inches of space on the last page. Yeah, Gary Trudeau will clean things up. There has to be better liberal cartoonist than this. If this is the best they have, well, they have nothing.

[Numbers Guy]

I look at it as another sign of desperation. Trudeau is desperate to defeat Bush, so has to resort to this sort of publicity-seeking grandstanding. In terms of the election, it will change the votes of probably no more than 10 people--and most of those in Bush's favor.

[Crazieman]

I just completely ignore Dullsbury and read Mallard.

[glock rocks]

It's a task any writer should approach with great humility

gary, you wouldn't know humility if it bit your ass off.

[ditto h]

If they want to make a good impression, they should all die.

[Bogey78O]

The Times-Picayune posts Doonesbury on the main comics page. Indoctrinate them young.

[NotchJohnson]

In college I had a college professor that always tiold us to read our Doonsburry. He was a political science professor so I guess he thought he could sway a bunch of kids with a comic strip. This must have been an emotional thing for Trudeau to do. I am convinced that if his comic strip would leave no one would care. What a freaking dink.

[FreedomCalls]

If they want to make a good impression, they should all die.

... in a terrorist attack here in the United States carried out by Muslim extremists!

Now THAT would be social commentary. Trudeau doesn't have the balls to do it though. All he can do is take pot shots at the President and even then, not very effectively (the icons have got to go).

[Gideon7]

I stopped reading that waste of newsprint years ago.

[Gunslingr3]

Well this just takes the cake. Gary Trudeau takes off the gloves.

Is it better to pretend this isn't happening?

[Roscoe Karns]

Character to Lose Leg in Iraq

Victim of Saddam's shredder? Nah, that wouldn't do! Must bash Bush...Must bash Bush...

[an amused spectator]

Media Shenanigans ping - Trudeau Takes Sedition And Demoralizing The Troops One Step Further

On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude/PNMCH ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/

[Joe_October]

I won't look at the Times-Picayune and let their advertisers know that I wouldn't soil the streets of New Orleans with their paper even after Mardi Gras (and that's a pretty foul thing).

[an amused spectator]

Is it better to pretend this isn't happening?

Pretend what isn't happening?

[Agnes Heep]

The implication being that if soldiers are going to lose legs, we can't justify defending innocent civilians against something worse. Might as well close down the police stations and fire departments too.

[an amused spectator]

"It's a task any writer should approach with great humility, but I think it's worth doing," Trudeau said. "We are at war, and we can't lose sight of the hardships war inflicts on individual lives."

Translation: "I got a fax from the DNC asking me to think up something to undermine troop morale some more, and I ran out of "Bush is stupid, and your commander-in-chief" strip ideas."

[Sofa King]

In what sense is this news? If I cared what happened in Doonesbury, I'd read the stupid strip. (Not that I'm attacking the poster who posted it, just pointing out that this is a case of a news editor advertising for Trudeau)

[zook]

I heard Dagwood was going to lose his lunch in Iraq. Then I heard that Zero and Lt. Fuzz were gonna have one of those gay weddings.

[HitmanLV]

It would be cool if someone did a doonsbury-like strip featuring the writer/illustrator of a doonsbury-like comic.

Personally I think Trudeau is still bitter over his Doonsbury stage play he took time off to work on in the 1980s. Forgettable and vanished into the past.

[larlaw]

This "news" apparently made Drudge as well as merited a headline on Yahoo's homepage. My first and only thought is: WHO THE HELL CARES!!! Since when does an unfunny, barely read comic strip by a has-been Left-Winger have any "news value" whatsoever?

To me, this is just another blatant attempt by the liberal media to disseminate their anti-Bush propoganda in all ways possible.