[comics] Garry Trudeau On Extended Break From Doonesbury … ‘I’ve always thought of myself as a comic-strip lifer, which is common in our industry and an annoyance to younger cartoonists. I love working for newspapers, and can’t imagine life without them. Which is why I’m keeping one foot in with the Sundays.’

[comics] Outstripping the News … a facinating retrospective looking at 40 years of Doonesbury …

Trudeau has always been able to take a situation and develop its possibilities over a long arc. Sometimes this has led to slapstick, as in the antics of Uncle Duke, whose drug seizures make the top of his head flip open to let bats fly out or release Mini-D, who is his Id. Sometimes it has led to gentle mocking of do-gooders, as in some of Lacey Davenport’s polite crusades. But he has never developed a situation more movingly or powerfully than in recent years with his treatment of wounded veterans.

[comics] Garry Trudeau: ‘Doonesbury quickly became a cause of trouble’ … ‘As [Trudeau] wrote on the 25th anniversary of Doonesbury: Satire is unfair. It’s rude and uncivil. It lacks balance and proportion, and it obeys none of the normal rules of engagement. Satire picks a one-sided fight, and the more its intended target reacts, the more its practitioner gains the advantage. And as if that weren’t enough, this savage, unregulated sport is protected by the United States constitution. Cool, huh?’

[comics] Doonesbury — I Need Moral Clarity … (more…)

[comics] Doonesburyland — Radio 4 looks at Doonesbury. Includes an interview with Gary Trudeau and contributions from Steve Bell and Martin Rowson. (This should be available for about a week from now – so check it out.)

[comics] Doonesbury: ‘Nah.Some things are just unknowable…’

[comics] Doonesbury’s War — Profile of Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau. ‘…when you ask him why he decided to take B.D.’s leg, the answer isn’t very satisfying. Trudeau doesn’t regard his characters in romanticized terms, or even as people; “Doonesbury” has always been more about ideas than personalities, so Trudeau thinks of Mike and B.D. and Zonker and Joanie as puppets. He pulls the appropriate ones out of the closet when he has a point he wants to make. In this case, he says, he wanted to make a statement about the suffering in this war. Originally, he was going to kill Ray, but Ray got spared when Trudeau decided that a death would not leave much of a storyline to pursue. So, with a bit of sang-froid, he amputated B.D.’s left leg, on the theory that he’d . . . think of something.’

[comics] Welcome back, BD — the Guardian profiles Doonesbury and has rare interview with Garry Trudeau … ‘Would he go on drawing it to his dying day, or might there be a final strip, a final frame, The End? “As to when it all ends,” [Trudeau] said, “there are so many unforeseeable factors; health, energy, interest – it’s impossible to know.” But when the last Doonesbury cartoon appears, it will be the one of the great social and political records of the 20th and 21st centuries.’

[comics] No complaints about ‘Doonesbury’ tribute to Hunter S. Thompson — article about Garry Trudeau’s tribute to Hunter S. Thompson … ‘For Trudeau’s Duke, in the end, is a character far more sinister than the self-created, self-destructive gonzo artist who shot himself last month. Duke has a “predatory nature,” the cartoonist explained. Once parachuted into a hot spot such as Haiti, Kuwait, Panama or Iraq, his “relentless opportunism” will always take over. He stands for “a certain kind of mad unconditionality. Duke is never ambivalent, never in personal conflict. His take is resolutely binary: Is this in my self-interest or not? It’s a kind of weird state of grace.”‘ [via The Comics Reporter]

[comics] Doonesbury: Duke has ‘…some nasty karmic shift.’ [Useful: Doonesbury RSS Feed]

[comics] Doonesbury Goes to War — interview with Garry Trudeau from Rolling Stone Magazine. ‘…I was overwhelmed by some of the letters that came in about B.D. It was so emotional. People wrote that it made them feel they had a personal stake in the war — like someone they knew had been harmed. People were even more astonished when B.D.’s helmet came off. It signified his vulnerability and made it all the more difficult for them to accept. I was talking to a soldier in the hospital, and I said, “I draw this comic strip, and I have this character named B.D. who lost his leg.” The soldier’s eyes widened: “B.D. lost his leg?!” Here’s this mangled, broken hero lying in his bed, and he’s concerned that this character he knows had such a terrible thing happen to him. It was very moving.’

[iraq] Doonesbury at War — the Guardian takes a look at Doonesbury’s coverage of the War in Iraq along with a brief profile of Garry Trudeau. ‘…the syndication arrangement under which Trudeau operates gives him almost unprecedented reach and influence. With little or no editorial control, he talks to millions of readers worldwide. And even though Bush and Donald Rumsfeld profess not to read the newspapers, even they must be wary of the potential influence of such an untrammelled mind.’

[comics] B.D. loses his leg in Doonesbury …

» Doonesbury the soap opera (scroll down for article): ‘A four-box daily comic strip it may be, but Doonesbury is also a soap, probably the only one in the world to blend current affairs with a regular cast of characters, ageing, marrying, splitting up, starting dotcoms, doing performance art, having kids, running for office, fighting in America’s wars, going to prison and occasionally dying. For afficionados of Doonesbury, the sight of that bandaged stump on a stretcher and that never-before-seen hair was powerful and affecting.’

[google] Googlemaniacs — some great quotes about Google from notable users …

Garry Trudeau: ‘Google is my rapid-response research assistant. On the run-up to a deadline, I may use it to check the spelling of a foreign name, to acquire an image of a particular piece of military hardware, to find the exact quote of a public figure, check a stat, translate a phrase, or research the background of a particular corporation. It’s the Swiss Army knife of information retrieval.’

[wifi] Sunday Doonesbury — Garry Trudeau on wireless networking … ‘Man… Great Hotspot. Why would anyone pay for this stuff?’

[comics] BBC News covers 30 years of Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury. ‘The Bush family has been among Trudeau’s hardest critics. George Bush senior said he was “a little elitist who is spoiled, derisive, ugly and nasty”. George W Bush has not been any more complimentary. But to Trudeau, abuse just adds to the fun. “This is what I live for,” he said. “The Bushes think it’s personal, when in fact, for me, it’s never personal. At the risk of sounding like Sonny Corleone, whacking people like them is my job.”‘ [Related Links: Duke 2000]