Roland Hedley

If you're not following Gary Trudeau's Roland Hedley on Twitter yet, you should. He's got Stephen Colbert maniacal self-absorption, but without the amiable charm. (He's very serious.) Roland can deliver all the same insipid observations as his corporate media buddies, but at least you're laugh.

Doonesbury, 5-29-08

(Click for a larger view.)

Taking one of the most despicable of many despicable moves by the Bushies, making ya laugh, but in a way that highlights the dark absurdity of it all and doesn't making light of human cruelty... Damn. Look at what Garry Trudeau does in just four panels. Brilliant.

The official site is here.

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)

Dreams of a Sunni Kansas

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)


(Click the cartoon for a larger image.)

This Doonesbury strip, reprinted on 4/5/06, is one of my favorites from Trudeau in the past two years. Even among terrorists such as Al-Qaeda, while there are aspects of American culture they hate, it’s not so much that they hate our “freedom,” they hate our foreign policy. Furthermore, in Iraq, even the Pentagon estimates that Al-Qaeda comprises a mere sliver of the population. The majority of the Iraqi populace wants us out, they may want their faction to be dominant, and most of them probably want to be able to live their lives and raise their families in relative peace and prosperity. It’s not as if the entire populace of Iraq, let alone a significant percentage, has the will, interest, training or resources to travel to America, trick customs, gather dangerous materials and fashion a plot to attack the Mall of America.

All is Vanity

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)


(Click on the cartoon for a larger image)

Apologies for partially recapping a previous blog title, but I love this Doonesbury strip from Sunday, 10-9-05, and that line from Ecclesiastes really, really fits both this strip and Bush. This strip wonderfully articulates, with satire, an idea I remember struggling to express clearly back in a college piece. The stupidity of leaders or the pointlessness of a mission do not diminish the heroism of the troops themselves. Troops only die in vain if we are too stupid to learn from our mistakes or face our own vanities. Having the courage to admit someone acted heroically, but died unnecessarily, can be essential for preventing more unnecessary deaths. No one should die for pride and image alone, and the pain of facing the harsh truth of a given mistake is as nothing to the pain of actually dying or the pain of mourning a loved one. To pretend otherwise is dreadful, deadly vanity.

Doonesbury: BD's PTSD

If you missed it, Gary Trudeau ran an exceptional series of strips for Doonesbury not long ago. If you haven't been following the strip for a while, the strip's most staunchly conservative character, B.D. (they guy who previously always wore a helmet), lost part of his leg in Iraq. In addition to dealing with physical therapy, B.D. has been struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He's reluctantly been seeing a vet counselor, Elias (Trudeau provides links for vets seeking similar services). Trudeau's managed to broach some very delicate subjects with great sensitivity and humour. It's easy to argue the humour makes the subject matter more palatable, but striking the right balance with the humour is anything but easy.

This latest storyline, on PTSD, starts up on April, Monday, 4/17/06, but really takes off with the Wednesday strip, running for two weeks up to Saturday, 4/29. There's a related stand-alone Sunday strip the next day, 4/30 (it won the WaPo humour columnist Gene Weingarten's Comic Pick of the Week).

Personal note: Once upon a time, I wanted to be a cartoonist or comic book artist, and even took a few no-credit classes as a kid in the summer at the Smithsonian. Walt Kelly's Pogo for me is still probably the pinnacle for its blend of great artwork, good gags even a kid can appreciate, and deeper sophistication for adults. His political satire on McCarthy remains one of the triumphs of the medium. But Doonesbury is without question one of the all-time greats. Trudeau was in the running for a Pulitzer for a moving, tasteful AIDS-death storyline years ago. I hope the Pulitzer board recognizes his work soon.