Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 22, 2011

A slap might work better - on her backside that is .

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

Trudeau artwork seems to be improving, or is it my imagination?

^It does seem to be gaining in depth - nice use of the darker colors.

I’ve said it before, Alex tends to get all worked up in fantasies, but unlike her mom, she always comes back to reality given a little time.

Well, that was what needed saying. If she gets it, she gets it. If not, it’ll be Leo saying it to her next. Soap opera, bored now.

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.

Bill Shakespeare

As one of our local comedy lots said some years ago, “You can lead a horse to water but it takes a block and tackle to drown the @#$%^&.

What? You don’t have your IPOD?

The silhouetted third panel is beautiful.

Hey! I have a teenager just like this!

When will you guys learn that Gary and Jim Davis likely don’t even draw their trademarked comics anymore. They long ago became the churning capitalist enterprise GT likes to criticize and Wiley takes all kind of shots at.

That doesn’t mean they don’t do it some or part of the time. It’s just that the business has gobbled them up. think of those 6 or 8 “James Patterson” books out this last year with and without the “co-author” labels.

My understanding is that Trudeau draws only rough pencil breakdowns, and some guy elswhere does the actual art. I think it was fairly open that this was instituted during his last lengthy haitus. Unlike Jim Davis, though, Trudeau does all the writing which, given the nature of “Doonesbury”, is by far the more important part. Delegating the art (which is the more time-consuming part of cartooning) freed him up to focus on the writing. The characters, plots, politics, and jokes are all still One Man’s Vision.

He’ll take the breakup better than fantasy girl, or she’ll grow up. She could end up with Jeff, while Leo enjoys Paris in the Spring with the Sargeant Mel.

Freeholder1, Fritzoid – You gotta catch up! GBT has always done very tight pencil drawings, identical to the inked versions. It’s a mystery why this false notion that “some guy elsewhere does the actual art” has managed to bounce around for years. Fortunately Brian Walker’s book DOONESBURY AND THE ART OF G.B. TRUDEAU, just published by Yale University Press, definitively puts it to rest by thoroughly exploring Trudeau’s creative process. It’s a gorgeous tome, designed by longtime GBT collaborator George Corsillo (who colors the Sunday strips), and it’s filled with original art of all kinds – strips, sketches, product designs, posters, magazine illustrations, animation art, unpublished early work. And it includes pencil and inked versions of the strip side by side, so you should check it out. You’ll find it a revelation. Enjoy! David Stanford, Duty Officer Doonesbury Town Hall themanagement@doonesbury.com

“dstanford,” you’ll never be hired by Fox News if you keep dissing the Conventional Wisdom like that.

OK, if my understanding was wrong, I retract it. Still, the last thing about “Doonesbury” that I pay attention to is the artwork.

Patterson is a whole nother story., The guy is a bigshot at some ad agency and has access to all the new writing talent. More than one of them has turned up as a Patterson “co-author,” which basically means that Patterson produces a thinly-drawn plot and hires the fresh mea–I mean talent–to do the real writing. The fresh mea–I mean talent–get a boost up into their own writing careers, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Mike had his own fantasies in college. Well delusions really. He introduced himself to BD as a real ladies man. To his credit he came to his senses a lot quicker though.