Posted on 05/14/2004 2:01:00 PM PDT by Dont Mention the War
By E&P Staff
Published: May 14, 2004 1:11 PM EST, updated at 2:23 PM
NEW YORK Clients of Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" comic were alerted today to the fact that the May 23 strip, drawn in April, "contains the image of a head on a platter." Lee Salem, editor of Universal Press Syndicate, referred to the strip's content as "an unfortunate coincidence," explaining, "Given its timing following the recent grisly tragedy in Iraq, and the realities of Sunday color-production cycles, we felt we should call this to your attention."
Universal will be offering a replacement strip to those newspapers that have not already printed that Sunday's comic section, but it is already too late to make the switch at many other papers. According to Universal, Trudeau plans to post this message on his Web site the morning of May 23, explaining his "chagrin," given the "grizzly tragedy" in Iraq: "Most Sunday sections are prepared five to six weeks in advance, and today's strip was unfortunately overtaken by events. I regret the poor timing and apologize to anyone who was offended by an image that is now clearly inappropriate."
"We do this routinely," said the spokeswoman Lillian Kuras. "If we feel there is [a comic strip] that will be controversial, we give our editors a heads-up. We respect their knowledge of the newspaper and their market."
Isn't this stip always inappropriate, and in need of apology?
I need dinner.
Poor Gary can't be bothered with following current events that get in the way of his limited worldview!
Somebody decapitated a bear, too?
"Grizzly" tragedy? Don't slander the bears!
Blah, blah, blah, blah....
Yes, in this case a "heads-up" is truly necessary.
So, when exactly would a head on a platter be appropriate for the comics?
No it probably is a coincidence. Most comic strips are done between 1 and 2 weeks before publication. Some strips run a month out, especially if they're non-topical. Today's technology might allow cartoonist to do their thing minutes before the papers print, but artists still run at artist speed and it's better for the business if every has a buffer zone inbetween what they're working on and what's being printed tomorrow.
When Kennedy was assassinated, dialog and scenes were changed on The Dick Van Dyke Show. The same thing was done on Dr. Strangelove.
The beheading happened 2 days ago and they wait 2 days to tell teh Sunday paper crowd that there happens to be a beheading? Well we know liberals running papers don't lie!
Why do I sense that such changes would NOT be made today if the same were to happen to this president?
Well, I dunno.
Hafta see.
Strikes me as odd how many times "Doonesbury" is "topical".
Maybe I'm just being paranoid.
If W wins a second term, get ready for a steady stream of images depicting the assassination of a "Bush-esque" president.
"South Park" did it in three days following the Elian Gonzales kidnapping by Janet Reno.
I hope he wins....in a landslide....with a mandate....chopped nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry!
But most stories take more than a week to play out. The key to surviving as a topical cartoonist is to spot which topics will be hot for how long and write your strips accordingly, Gary has gotten pretty good at this over the years.
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