Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 28, 2011

Any moment Jeff’s mother is going to walk in to the basement…

Good morning all! I’m here…

I’m looking forward to the installment that reveals the true context for this fantasy.

Poor Jeff…

Good morning Bill. Good to see you. Where is Dylan?

Grats, Leftwing, Vista and Craig, for beating me to the punch. I really tried to be first, but was trying to edit someone else’s book at the same time. Grrrr!

What does “roll solo” mean? To use the term I was raised with, “self abuse”?

Love the stars in panel Three.

Jeff’s children? Shudder…

In the third panel, Jeff sees himself paired with his two panting houris under the starry Afghan sky. Hope the fantasy doesn’t end like Quixote’s when Maritornes with her garlic breath climbed into bed with him.

I shudder to notice the location of Sorkh’s hand in panel Four.

Jeff with two girls wrapped around his finger is almost as far fetched at if Jon Arbuckle having a harem. This has got to be one of Jeff’s dreams.

Or a setup. One way or the other, it’s not going to end well.

The auburn-head must be a vixen. See the pointed ear protruding through her hair in panel Three?

“Rolling solo” is a really odd term for “only performing duets.”

He appears to be imagining others in the bar having turbans as well.

Jeff’s brain would be of considerable interest to science :| Oh, wait. What brain?

Reminds me of my third night of the Dead in a row.

Jeff’s choice of rolling solo will have the tag team departing as fast as they came.

This arc is becoming cruel, like Travis the bodyless head,in the jar in “Scary Gary.” Jef has alwys been an unlikeable character, but he doesn’t deserve this.

As unsympathetic a character as Jeff is, he will never see real harm or damage, because that damn artist Trudeau, god of Doonesbury, won’t permit it. Mark my words.

This can come to no good whatsoever…..

If the comic would pull back to reality, we’d probably see “Sorkh Razil” in bed with Hanna.

For a fiction writer, which is basically what Trudeau is, even in his chosen “comic strip” genre, the use of “magic realism” — common in today’s fiction and movies — the writer may choose to endow a character with “unreasonable luck”. Examples: the “Maverick” TV series with Bret and Bart and the more recent movie series starring “Indiana Jones”. Okay, knowing this, Trudeau has chosen to endow Jeff Redfern with this fictional, “magic realism” characteristic of “unreasonable luck.” Thus he could jump out of a chopper in a war zone with a bungee cord attached to his ankle screaming “USA! USA” and be yanked back into the hovering chopper’s door, despite downdraft, safe and sound. The odds? I would guess a million to one. “Magic realism.” “Unreasonable luck.” Jeff has it. Sorry, all you high-moral-ground folks who yearn for his appropriate “comeuppance”. Ain’t gonna happen. Mark my words.

Sounds like Jeff is psychotic. Could stem from his kidnapping or from all his dirty work with the CIA.

There is a cure for that, the trick is getting the right person to help you find it.

Actually, this week is a crossover series, in which Jeff has traded places with Tip from “Skin Horse.” See: http://www.gocomics.com/skinhorse/2011/07/22

“Skin Horse” by Shaenon K. Garrity and Jeffrey C. Wells is gross.

I haven’t continuously read Trudeau’s Doonesbury since it’s beginning, although I was reading it at its beginning, because at places where I was living, it was not always accessible. Now with the i-net it’s accessible everywhere. That said, I would say now that I’ve been reading it again for a number of years, I’ve never before witnessed real harm dealt out to an unsympathetic character save only for one: B.D. He lost his leg in “Bush’s wars”. But even then, B.D. has found redemption, rehab, a kinder, gentler spirit. The god Trudeau has allowed him a lovely beautiful wife, Boopsie, an absolutely marvelous child, Sam, a decent middle-class life, etc. Now we have Jeff. One thing is certain, Trudeau is NOT, REPEAT NOT, going to sacrifice this young man to satisfy the ghulistic desires of readers. He’s just not. So live with it.

I take “roll solo” to mean being a loner – as in traveling light.

By “sacrifice” I mean, e.g., putting him away in a “psycho ward” in some mental institution somewhere. Live, Jeff! Recover, Jeff! Find redemption, Jeff! Renounce the CIA, Jeff! Become the next J. K. Rowling, Jeff! And if this can be true of Jeff, dear reader, it can become true for you as well. And so you see how Trudeau is an all-right dude at heart.

It’s not like Jeff is a long-time long-suffering character like Dick Davenport or Andy Lippencott or Phil Slackmeyer…

Not yet, Coyoty Smurf, but he’s getting there…

Who knows? They’re a figment of Jeff’s febrile imagination, which, in turn, is a figment of Trudeau’s febrile imagination. The human imagination is a two-edged sword, if you have one that’s powerful enough, it can either “make you” or “break you”. .That said, re Dick Davenport, Andy Lippencott, and Phil Slackmeyer: I don’t see “god” Trudeau as having punished them, as he punished B.D., then redeemed him. I see him as letting them live out their lives “as is”, so to speak, without intervention. Notice, as well, that he hasn’t specifically “punished” Duke either, nor Overkill. .The “lord” giveth and the “lord” taketh away, blessed be the name of the “lord”. (No disrespect to the real God intended; I am, after all, a Christian, and I expect myself to behave like one.)

Do you think the the skanks are honeytraps working for Overkill?

One more point about Jeff: Why should he be special? Only “lord” Trudeau knows. But special he is. Another example: While he was interning for the CIA he accidentally discharged a Hellfire missile into the wild blue yonder. It could have hit a civilian place of worship. It could have killed hundreds of people. It didn’t. By chance it hit an Al Qaeda ammo dump which in turn presumably exploded to high heaven — the “best” possible outcome for Jeff’s well being, despite the unbelievably idiotic nature of his action. (Smart, gifted people can still do stupid things.) In Trudeau’s book he’s “special” — he’s been given the “magic realism” quality of “unreasonable luck”. Don’t ask me why. Ask Trudeau.

Yo Vista Bill!.Go Comix is now resetting for tomorrow’s strip at about 10:10 PM to about 10:20 PM my Pacific coast time. That means about 1:10 AM to about 1:20 AM your east coast time. I feel guilty about having a 3 hour advantage, so I’ll try to hold a space for you before commenting on the strip. But Leftwing Patriot’s a sly fox, sneaking in and posting first. Craig Linder’s also a looming threat. So hope you can make it FIRST!

Before it’s too late, good morning Vista Bill. If it’s too late, then good morning for tomorrow, first.