Forget stuffed tigers
October 25, 2010 11:54 PM Subscribe
I can remember when Doonesbury was funny.
Love me some Uncle Duke, though.
posted by chavenet at 2:00 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Love me some Uncle Duke, though.
posted by chavenet at 2:00 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Younger people wouldn't know how truly revolutionary Doonsbury was. At a time when San Francisco comic artist were revolutionizing the medium with painstaking drawing techniques, imaginative page design, and genuinely outre subject matter, Gary Trudeau showed that you could have stupendous success with a poorly drawn, unreadable strip, without a scrap of wit or graphic distinction. Doonesbury triggered an avalanche of scritchy, ugly, homemade-looking newspaper comics that discarded the accumulated graphic wisdom painfully learned by the blood, sweat and tears of brilliant comic artists over the course of 80 years, and turned the newspaper comic page into the equivalent of a refrigerator door in a suburban kitchen: a place for talentless infants to display their ugly scrawls. Trudeau made the comic pages safe for mediocrity on every level -- writing, drawing politics. As an example of banality in its purest form, he was, of course, lavishly rewarded by the establishment, and welcomed at the highest levels of media and politics. Meanwhile ... Bill Watterson is out there. Somewhere. Invisible. Anonymous. Unique.
posted by Faze at 4:20 AM on October 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by Faze at 4:20 AM on October 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
Gary Trudeau showed that you could have stupendous success with a poorly drawn, unreadable strip, without a scrap of wit or graphic distinction.
It's one thing to have uninformed, abominable taste. It's another to take so much pride in expressing it publicly.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:13 AM on October 26, 2010 [33 favorites]
It's one thing to have uninformed, abominable taste. It's another to take so much pride in expressing it publicly.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:13 AM on October 26, 2010 [33 favorites]
At a time when San Francisco comic artist were revolutionizing the medium with painstaking drawing techniques, imaginative page design, and genuinely outre subject matter,
I'm now imagining San Francisco Comic Artist as some sort of bizarre pencil-wielding superhero with a Hulk-like command of grammar. SAN FRANCISCO COMIC ARTIST SMASH PUNY DOONESBURY!
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:36 AM on October 26, 2010
I'm now imagining San Francisco Comic Artist as some sort of bizarre pencil-wielding superhero with a Hulk-like command of grammar. SAN FRANCISCO COMIC ARTIST SMASH PUNY DOONESBURY!
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:36 AM on October 26, 2010
As an example of banality in its purest form, he was, of course, lavishly rewarded by the establishment, and welcomed at the highest levels of media and politics. Meanwhile ... Bill Watterson is out there. Somewhere. Invisible. Anonymous. Unique.
Ladies and gentlemen, please don't feed the troll.
posted by jeremias at 5:41 AM on October 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
Ladies and gentlemen, please don't feed the troll.
posted by jeremias at 5:41 AM on October 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
I used to have all the collections lined up neatly on my bookshelf. I sold the works in a yardsale to someone whose eyes lit up when he saw them. They went off to a good home, I know. I love Doonesbury.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:49 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:49 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
he delivered a message of youth and progressivism in a forum in which such messages were sorely lacking. In the early days there was an electricity to the strip. It was one of the first things I read when I picked up the paper. What at one time seemed to be a bit out there now seems somewhat quaint. I can't imagine how it is viewed by someone born after the strip started. Unlike Peanuts which spoke to universal themes in life this strip was always a product of its time, and Tredeau seemed to skewer the powers that be in the seventies more thoroughly than today. Now there are so many more outlets for this type of humor. In his early days Trudeau played a role somewhat similar to what Jon Stewart does today. He gave a voice to the feelings about politics, politicians and society that many young people felt but that were not really covered in mainstream media, yet his strips appeared in mainstream media. Happy Birthday Doonesbury.
posted by caddis at 5:52 AM on October 26, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by caddis at 5:52 AM on October 26, 2010 [4 favorites]
This was the first comic strip I ever went goofy for, before Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes (still two of my top five) debuted. I was five and six when this occurred.
Even though it's had some dry spells, it's still pretty damn sharp. One day, I'd love a Complete Doonesbury collection like they've done for Peanuts and C&H, so i can just dig the whole story from the beginning, missing nothing.
posted by grubi at 6:25 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Even though it's had some dry spells, it's still pretty damn sharp. One day, I'd love a Complete Doonesbury collection like they've done for Peanuts and C&H, so i can just dig the whole story from the beginning, missing nothing.
posted by grubi at 6:25 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
It is still the best soap opera comic of all time.
posted by josher71 at 6:57 AM on October 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by josher71 at 6:57 AM on October 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
He really is the Stewart/Colbert of the daily comics page, in that he satirizes and mocks pols and media alike. My favorite characters have probably been all the Political props he's come up with: Quayle's feather, Clinton's waffle, Bush Senior's Point of Light and Junior's Roman Helmet, not to mention Schwarzenegger's groping hand. I sort of hope there will be one for Obama (but as a supporter, I fear what it will be, heh). My favorite serious story line was probably when BD got his leg blown off. I love that he donated all the profits from the compilation of BD's story to Fisher House.
Even if you're not a fan of his humor or his politics, forty years of dreaming up almost daily strips is a remarkable achievement for anyone. Here's to another forty, Mr. Trudeau!
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:22 AM on October 26, 2010
Even if you're not a fan of his humor or his politics, forty years of dreaming up almost daily strips is a remarkable achievement for anyone. Here's to another forty, Mr. Trudeau!
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:22 AM on October 26, 2010
Calvin and Hobbes ran for ten years and the complete edition is over 8 inches wide on the bookshelf.
I'm always glad to hear Calvin and Hobbes and I have something in common.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:26 AM on October 26, 2010 [4 favorites]
I'm always glad to hear Calvin and Hobbes and I have something in common.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:26 AM on October 26, 2010 [4 favorites]
I can't put into words how much I love Doonesbury. Reading the whole thing, start to finish, is one of the projects on my little bucket list.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 7:31 AM on October 26, 2010
posted by LastOfHisKind at 7:31 AM on October 26, 2010
It contains a CD-ROM with every strip from the first 25 years.
If there could be a way to turn this into an iPad app, then I'd pay for it.
posted by Edison Carter at 7:42 AM on October 26, 2010
If there could be a way to turn this into an iPad app, then I'd pay for it.
posted by Edison Carter at 7:42 AM on October 26, 2010
I a (nearly) daily consumer of Doonesbury from the start of his syndication, I get amused when people say how much better it was in the 70's, or 80's, or 90's. I hear the same kind of thing about Saturday Night Live.
There are still great story lines, and some not-as-great ones, but the amazing thing is to age along with these characters. I know for a fact that when (or if) Zonker gets melanoma, I might lose my shit.
posted by Danf at 7:45 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
There are still great story lines, and some not-as-great ones, but the amazing thing is to age along with these characters. I know for a fact that when (or if) Zonker gets melanoma, I might lose my shit.
posted by Danf at 7:45 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
you might want to try finding a copy of "The Bundled Doonesbury." It contains a CD-ROM
...with an app to view the comics that's never worked on anything but Windows 95 and 98. So your next stop should be this hacker's script to unwrap the images to JPEGs. But the quality of the scans isn't all that could be hoped for. But it's complete, which the collections for those years generally weren't.
My best friend in high school was a right-winger. And though she hated Trudeau's politics, she loved Doonesbury; she's the one who turned me on to it. And I'm really, really glad she did. Mike, Mark, B.D., Joanie... I say without exaggeration that, in my book, these are some of the most important characters in literature.
posted by Zed at 7:49 AM on October 26, 2010
...with an app to view the comics that's never worked on anything but Windows 95 and 98. So your next stop should be this hacker's script to unwrap the images to JPEGs. But the quality of the scans isn't all that could be hoped for. But it's complete, which the collections for those years generally weren't.
My best friend in high school was a right-winger. And though she hated Trudeau's politics, she loved Doonesbury; she's the one who turned me on to it. And I'm really, really glad she did. Mike, Mark, B.D., Joanie... I say without exaggeration that, in my book, these are some of the most important characters in literature.
posted by Zed at 7:49 AM on October 26, 2010
Thanks Zed; that script makes the disc useful again (and validates me keeping it all these years.) And to anyone who slags off the 'doone: "Fiche-moi la paix! Alors! Cochon, va t'en!"
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:18 AM on October 26, 2010
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:18 AM on October 26, 2010
You can say you don't get Doonesbury. You can say it's not funny. But just keep in mind that in the 70s, Trudeau was pretty much the ONLY humorist/pundit/commentator out there with the stones to do something like this.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:54 AM on October 26, 2010
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:54 AM on October 26, 2010
I know for a fact that when (or if) Zonker gets melanoma, I might lose my shit.
Hey, man, not cool.
posted by Edison Carter at 9:00 AM on October 26, 2010
Hey, man, not cool.
posted by Edison Carter at 9:00 AM on October 26, 2010
Doonesbury has been especially awesome for the past decade or so. The Iraq war storylines have been superlative.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:53 AM on October 26, 2010
posted by five fresh fish at 9:53 AM on October 26, 2010
A nice snippet from the linked article:
Printers loved him. He pushed his deadlines further and further back, to make the strip more and more live. One printer in Kansas City, Trudeau learned years later, did so much overtime setting his strips that he bought a yacht with the extra earnings and called it Doonesbury.posted by languagehat at 10:42 AM on October 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
I know for a fact that when (or if) Zonker gets melanoma, I might lose my shit.
Hey, man, not cool.
Well all of his tanning could have a consequence. The upside would be access to legal medical pot.
Hopefully it'll just be basal cell.
posted by Danf at 10:50 AM on October 26, 2010
Hey, man, not cool.
Well all of his tanning could have a consequence. The upside would be access to legal medical pot.
Hopefully it'll just be basal cell.
posted by Danf at 10:50 AM on October 26, 2010
I love Doonesbury. I haven't read it in years - when I stopped getting the dead tree paper about six years ago I also stopped my lifelong comics page habit, which is the only thing I regret about the paper going away. But it was a huge formative part of my life; I started reading it when I was in my early teens and it was one way that I slowly began to understand the adult world of politics. Even when I was just following the characters - I love Zonker! My friends used to say that I was J.J.! - knowledge seeped in bit by bit. Back in the seventies when I was growing up there was very little else out there in the political cartoon realm and nothing quite like Doonesbury. I have a shelf full of the books that I treasure and I'm really glad the strip still exists.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:57 AM on October 26, 2010
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:57 AM on October 26, 2010
My four phases of Doonesbury are: really liking it, really not liking it, ignoring it, then really liking it again.
The first phase came when I was in junior high in a small town in Wisconsin, and The Doonesbury Chronicles rocked my world. It still astounds me that they would have stocked it in the school library; that fact only deepened my crush on the librarian. I wouldn't say that it really helped me completely understand Watergate, but it gave me a perspective on it aside from what I could tell from the endless Congressional hearings on TV, which was that Nixon did something bad, and then he quit. Ditto for Vietnam. It also gave me the idea that there was more to adult humor and cartoons than one-panel gags about sex and drinking. There's still a bit that I like to quote, from when Ginny was running for Congress and Clyde, her boyfriend, finds out that Andy, one of the campaign staff, is gay:
Clyde: Hey, I heard you were gay.
Andy: Hey, I heard you were black.
Clyde: But that's cool, man!
Andy: Didn't used to be.
There's also a bit where Mike and Zonker are on a road trip to Discover America, and get busted in a small town when the sheriff finds three pot seeds in Zonker's luggage; things are looking bad until they find a microphone in their hotel room (the size of a stage mic):
Mike: (deliberately speaking loudly) Hey, Zonker, is it true about you doing drugs?
Zonker: Not me, Mike! I get high on life! And America!
Then Trudeau took a break for a short while, and when he came back, he became so grimly determined to keep up with the times (he had taken the hiatus because he'd become aware that the characters were stuck in this sort of post-Vietnam, post-Watergate limbo) that sometimes it seemed that he'd simply based whatever that week's strips were about on whatever Time had spotlighted on its cover last week. I stopped reading it during the '88 primaries, when, because of the lead time that he had on the strip, he ran several on Al Gore as a potential presidential nominee despite the fact that Gore, by that time, had dropped out of the race.
Then, of course, I came back, because it seemed as if Trudeau got his mojo back at some point and started concentrating more on the characters. Mark came out, BD lost his leg and his helmet (and gained tremendously in my eyes, as did Boopsie), and Duke was oddly liberated by Hunter S. Thompson's death, no longer simply being a wannabe. I'm kind of meh about some of the "next generation" characters, mostly Jeff, aka the Red Rascal, and Zipper (although I like Alex OK, especially since she hooked up with Toggle); that aspect sort of reminds me of MC2, Tom DeFalco's attempt to revive Marvel Comics by creating children and heirs of various legacy characters. The strip, overall, still hangs together very well.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:03 AM on October 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
The first phase came when I was in junior high in a small town in Wisconsin, and The Doonesbury Chronicles rocked my world. It still astounds me that they would have stocked it in the school library; that fact only deepened my crush on the librarian. I wouldn't say that it really helped me completely understand Watergate, but it gave me a perspective on it aside from what I could tell from the endless Congressional hearings on TV, which was that Nixon did something bad, and then he quit. Ditto for Vietnam. It also gave me the idea that there was more to adult humor and cartoons than one-panel gags about sex and drinking. There's still a bit that I like to quote, from when Ginny was running for Congress and Clyde, her boyfriend, finds out that Andy, one of the campaign staff, is gay:
Clyde: Hey, I heard you were gay.
Andy: Hey, I heard you were black.
Clyde: But that's cool, man!
Andy: Didn't used to be.
There's also a bit where Mike and Zonker are on a road trip to Discover America, and get busted in a small town when the sheriff finds three pot seeds in Zonker's luggage; things are looking bad until they find a microphone in their hotel room (the size of a stage mic):
Mike: (deliberately speaking loudly) Hey, Zonker, is it true about you doing drugs?
Zonker: Not me, Mike! I get high on life! And America!
Then Trudeau took a break for a short while, and when he came back, he became so grimly determined to keep up with the times (he had taken the hiatus because he'd become aware that the characters were stuck in this sort of post-Vietnam, post-Watergate limbo) that sometimes it seemed that he'd simply based whatever that week's strips were about on whatever Time had spotlighted on its cover last week. I stopped reading it during the '88 primaries, when, because of the lead time that he had on the strip, he ran several on Al Gore as a potential presidential nominee despite the fact that Gore, by that time, had dropped out of the race.
Then, of course, I came back, because it seemed as if Trudeau got his mojo back at some point and started concentrating more on the characters. Mark came out, BD lost his leg and his helmet (and gained tremendously in my eyes, as did Boopsie), and Duke was oddly liberated by Hunter S. Thompson's death, no longer simply being a wannabe. I'm kind of meh about some of the "next generation" characters, mostly Jeff, aka the Red Rascal, and Zipper (although I like Alex OK, especially since she hooked up with Toggle); that aspect sort of reminds me of MC2, Tom DeFalco's attempt to revive Marvel Comics by creating children and heirs of various legacy characters. The strip, overall, still hangs together very well.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:03 AM on October 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
The attention he pays nowadays to the less public side of war, specifically, to the quality of life for grunts and vets (and to issues such as brain-damage, PTSD, and sexual harassment), seems to have rejuvenated the strip.
posted by darth_tedious at 11:14 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by darth_tedious at 11:14 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
I keep waiting for Trudeau to get the balls to draw a caricature of a political leader again. This bit where he draws a blank spot (perhaps including a stand-in item) was cute for a while, but for the love of god man, he's been doing it since Bush I and it just gets plain boring.
I loved it back in the day, but the "empty space as political caricature" has bothered me since 1992.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:37 AM on October 26, 2010
I loved it back in the day, but the "empty space as political caricature" has bothered me since 1992.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:37 AM on October 26, 2010
Actually, I like it how the public figures are always just off-frame. It makes for some interesting staging and pacing sometimes. I'd find caricature distracting in the Doonesburyverse (the exception being Ron Headrest).
posted by brundlefly at 12:03 PM on October 26, 2010
posted by brundlefly at 12:03 PM on October 26, 2010
Well, if you're going to mention the movie, you have to also mention the Broadway musical.
posted by hippybear at 12:16 PM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 12:16 PM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'd find caricature distracting in the Doonesburyverse (the exception being Ron Headrest).
Funny you mention that the same day I buy this username.
posted by Edison Carter at 12:53 PM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Funny you mention that the same day I buy this username.
posted by Edison Carter at 12:53 PM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
For more on the 40th anniversary, check out this article from The Atlantic.
posted by TedW at 2:00 PM on October 26, 2010
posted by TedW at 2:00 PM on October 26, 2010
25 years ago Elmont was screaming "Supply side is dead! We need taxes! It's time to stop the biggest free luncher ever to brunch in the White House!"
Those were the days .....
posted by blucevalo at 2:08 PM on October 26, 2010
Those were the days .....
posted by blucevalo at 2:08 PM on October 26, 2010
I keep waiting for Trudeau to get the balls to draw a caricature of a political leader again. This bit where he draws a blank spot (perhaps including a stand-in item) was cute for a while, but for the love of god man, he's been doing it since Bush I and it just gets plain boring.
He drew Sarah Palin recently, in a storyline about a talking Sarah Palin doll hosting a tea party. I was actually really put off by the caricature, since I was so used to the blank spots and stand-in items.
posted by COBRA! at 2:09 PM on October 26, 2010
He drew Sarah Palin recently, in a storyline about a talking Sarah Palin doll hosting a tea party. I was actually really put off by the caricature, since I was so used to the blank spots and stand-in items.
posted by COBRA! at 2:09 PM on October 26, 2010
I am always going to regard Doonesbury fondly. I used to read and re-read my parents' collections long before I actually understood what any of the comics meant. Years later I'd learn some fact about US government or history (like what subsidies were) and then have an "woah, that's what that meant!" moment for some particular strip.
Halloween Jack:I'm kind of meh about some of the "next generation" characters, mostly Jeff, aka the Red Rascal, and Zipper (although I like Alex OK, especially since she hooked up with Toggle); that aspect sort of reminds me of MC2, Tom DeFalco's attempt to revive Marvel Comics by creating children and heirs of various legacy characters. The strip, overall, still hangs together very well.
This is probably overthinking it, but I assume the weakness of the younger characters is a result of Trudeau not being of that generation. Their personalities and experiences seem broader and more dependent on media depictions than real life, which makes sense for a middle-aged guy writing about teens/twenty-somethings.
posted by missix at 4:50 PM on October 26, 2010
Halloween Jack:I'm kind of meh about some of the "next generation" characters, mostly Jeff, aka the Red Rascal, and Zipper (although I like Alex OK, especially since she hooked up with Toggle); that aspect sort of reminds me of MC2, Tom DeFalco's attempt to revive Marvel Comics by creating children and heirs of various legacy characters. The strip, overall, still hangs together very well.
This is probably overthinking it, but I assume the weakness of the younger characters is a result of Trudeau not being of that generation. Their personalities and experiences seem broader and more dependent on media depictions than real life, which makes sense for a middle-aged guy writing about teens/twenty-somethings.
posted by missix at 4:50 PM on October 26, 2010
I assume the weakness of the younger characters is a result of Trudeau not being of that generation.
That's always a potential pitfall, but DeFalco did OK with Spider-Girl and friends, and Alison Bechdel seemed off to a promising start with some of the younger characters in Dykes to Watch Out For, although Spider-Girl never found a big enough audience and Bechdel seems to have burned out on DTWOF for the time being... Mostly, Jeff Redfern seems to be another version of Earl, Duke's son, and Zipper a younger stand-in for Zonker.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:47 AM on October 27, 2010
That's always a potential pitfall, but DeFalco did OK with Spider-Girl and friends, and Alison Bechdel seemed off to a promising start with some of the younger characters in Dykes to Watch Out For, although Spider-Girl never found a big enough audience and Bechdel seems to have burned out on DTWOF for the time being... Mostly, Jeff Redfern seems to be another version of Earl, Duke's son, and Zipper a younger stand-in for Zonker.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:47 AM on October 27, 2010
Faze, I get it. You don't like Doonesbury. Please allow us to enjoy and discuss it without your input then.
posted by josher71 at 10:51 AM on October 27, 2010
posted by josher71 at 10:51 AM on October 27, 2010
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