Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 02, 2012

Yes, boomerang child and reality brickwall!

Way to go Mom ! Should have done this long ago. I love the term reality intern !

Wheee!!!!! About time he gets a bit of reality.

Gulp! No comment.

Welcome to the real world Jeff.

I missed a lot of “Jeff grows up” strips. At what point in his development did he become such a jerk?

I wish I had her cajones when my prodigal returned – twice.

And by the way, here’s a list of the food prices…

If memory serves, after being sent through a crash course to learn Pashto and Dari (two of the native languages in Afghanistan) Jeff’s actual job (aside from his extra-curricular activities) when he was in Afghanistan was as a translator. Jeff may be an idiot, but he’s not without some abilities. As incredible as it may seem, Jeff appears to have an aptitude for languages. If he would develop this talent Jeff would have a big advantage in today’s job market.

Fight on, Alabama Al!

Part of this offered agreement is that Jeff MUST write 4 hr/morning “like real writers do” (and Rick probably does). It means that Joanie understands what’s going on. Unlike Rick — Jeff’s a proven published author who has proven potential to produce megabux.

In effect, Random house has done the same thing by advancing him $$$ on his next graphics novel. If he fails to produce for Random, Random will demand the advance back with interest. And move on with its business.

Ag home Joanie retains the “whip hand”. If Jeff FAILS to write 4/hr/day, then she evicts him, takes the financial hit, and moves on with her life with Rick. Unlike Random House, she’s too nice a person sue her own son; but she’s “tough love” enough to just kick his sorry behind out.

Which proves, if anything, that she’s just as smart a business person as is Becka Bickle over at Random House.

Still, if Jeff’s next graphic novel fails to become another best seller — rather unlikely, since his audience still exists “out there” in a percentage the population — even if they are creepy, high-testosterone male types plus ComiCon types (who aren’t necessarily creepy and do include a fair number of women nowadays).

Even if the sequel isn’t as good, it will still sell (on the basis of the first book). No-fool Joanie can probably intuit this, even though Random has the actual experience, the hard data, and knows that to be the case generally.

Suppose the sequel isn’t good. Then disappointed readers may not buy his THIRD book, and as a one-best-seller-only author, Jeff’ll be toast. Bekka will coldly slam the door in his And will have to try a “lesser” publisher. Or use the “vanity press”, which exists only for the 1% anyway (in the “vanity press” world the author bears ALL costs and pays the vanity the FULL amount before the vanity will lift a finger to publish the product. No royalties at all, unless specially written into the contract.

In the likely case that Jeff doesn’t have the $$ to pay a vanity, his third option is to self-publish (via a non-marketing vanity company and drive around the country selling the product himself out of the trunk of a car or the back of a pickup truck or SUV.

Joanie, being Mom, will keep her agreement, hoping his THIRD attempt will be a success like his FIRST attempt was. But she’ll still keep demanding the 4500/mo rent. Which, if he does’t pay, will kick his sorry backside out, and Jeff’ll end up truly homeless.

I doubt if Trudeau will plot that direction, but he still has to make a good rattling tale for us Doonesbury readers. Like Jeff or not, he is one of the more successful Doonesbury characters for Trudeau’s pocketbook.

Like Duke. In the movie industry, guys like these are known as “heavies”.

Notice if Joanie REALLY wants to make a ton of money off of her son, she’ll ask for a PERCENTAGE of his Random House royalties. But, being Mom, she’s unlikely to do that.

But if she does, and if — under her “whip hand” — Jeff turns out to be a mega-selling graphic-novel author (which translates to Apple’s iPad or to the Amazon’s Kendall Fire, or to Barns ‘n’ Noble’s Nook even better than all-print novels do), Jeff’ll move out and buy another mansion. Only this time a more modest one, if he’s able to “learn from history”, which he may not be.

For Doonesbury readers like you and I — if we keep “dumping” on Jeff on the ground that he’s a failure, we’ll be making a mega-mistake. Read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best novel THE GREAT GATSBY.

Bottom line: Let Trudeau be Trudeau. Fasten your seatbelt, and enjoy the passing scenery, which hopefully will include a LOT more of Becca. Slurp.

Jeff’s 30 years old now.

DT, I was responding to your very first “no comment”.I hadn’t seen the rest yet.Give me a minute, I just woke up.

ahhh…funny liberals pretending to be conservatives!! well at least he will get health insurance until he is 26 and i am sure liberal laws will make it impossible to kick him out or charge him rent!

YESSSSS!

This long range speculation about where Jeff’s heading amuses me. I don’t think that GT, who’s in charge, has any idea. Time will tell. For instance, had Willard won, I could well see Jeff getting a sinecure in the new administration. I expect to see a fade-out for some time on Jeff and his parents. Rubbing Jeff’s face in feces gets tired quick. They’ve had their 15 minute-plus period of fame. I expect GT to roll the strip over to some other,post-election theme. He can always come back. Talk about power; much more than POTUS.

I doubt that Jeff could pay $5/month, let alone $500! But, Jeff asked for this in the way he talked down to his Dad and Mom when he was rich! All Jeff had to do was share some of his advance with his parents, and all would have been well.

I wouldn’t be too hard on Jeff, bad as he has been. Who will take care of Joanie and her hubby 20 years down the road? Chances are, they won’t want to go to a retirement place. Many families are becoming multigenerational, at least partially with this in mind.

I really really want Jeff to go for this and take it as an opportunity to get his act together.

My hat is off to Trudeau for getting me to care about a character who’s a total schmuck.

Even Obamaoists eventually have to come to grips with the difference between having to take care of yourself and the free lunch on other people’s money.

Politically liberal parents often have conservative lifestyles and conservative parenting styles. It is more complex than some political conservatives seem to realize, per usual.

“You expect me either to work or be out in the cold? How Republican of you, Mom.”“Okay, NOW the rent’s a thousand.”“…I’ll be good.”

Jeff seems to think it was her hip replacement which informed her to give him the new rules, not her politics. Maybe her hip replacement gave her the strength to get up and do what has to be done, as Garrison Keillor says.

The powder milk biscuits replaced by the hip replacement to give shy people the strength to get up and do what has to be done…

@Montessoriteacher—her hip replacement made it possible to stand up—to him!

Jeff’s no liberal. To the contrary, he’s an extreme freemarketer rightwinger. Just down on his luck. He’s quite talented as a writer, just undisciplined. Jeff’s also a lot like a Dick Cheney Darling (DCD), what with his covert and overt work for the CIA and all.

Jeff " with delusions of entitlement."

Jeff is clueless when it comes to “entitlement”, has no idea of what Medicare or Social Security are all about. Just because he’s down on his luck right now doesn’t mean he’s not gonna bounce back up. Stay tuned.

This house is not random. Good thing; a Random House is not a home.

[I wouldn’t call Jeff a heavy — that, to me, is a somewhat threatening character, a villain or a villain’s hired goon. He’s more an an antihero: someone who’s interesting to watch and only partly sympathize with.]

At one time or another, my daughter and ( then young ) grandson were forced to stay with me, likewise my son and his wife. In both cases, I set down rules and expectations regarding contributions to the household based of finances and willingness to assist in the upkeep.No kid really wants to go back living with his parents. Circumstances sometimes force this but ground rules and time limits must be set. Joanie, is , in my opinion, exhibiting good parental judgement.After my first divorce, I was forced by circumstances to live at my parents for a short time. I was in my late 20’s, a combat vet, and had been on my own since prep school. I.never had any qualms about giving the folks money regularly for my “keep” but was strongly independent.One morning, I was rolling in about 7am as Dad was getting ready for work. He asked me : " Are you coming or going ?" and I replied " Which do you want me to be ? " He never answered, but within a week, I moved into my own apartment.

A sinecure is what our dear rightwinger Speaker John Boehner would call a “job creator” — a “leisure class” master clad in silk and velvet who rules over families of ragged serfs who are denied the opportunity for education, but are instead worked-to-death in return for a life of piteous subsistence.

Sometimes they need tough love..A dose of reality doesn’t hurt either..Love the part that his bedroom is now a study and he’s living in the basement.

“The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there.”

—Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=&q=%22The+reason+that+the+invisible+hand+often+seems+invisible+is+that+it+is+often+not+there.%22&oq=%22The+reason+that+the+invisible+hand+often+seems+invisible+is+that+it+is+often+not+there.%22&gs_l=news-cc.1.1.43j43i400.4453.13044.0.16269.3.2.0.1.0.0.65.121.2.2.0…0.0…1ac.2j1.EmdiV4KqZLA

Kicked out of Zip’s dorm?! Jeff really has hit rock bottom.Mom has changed. She’s more HIP than ever!

Doesn’t have the $500 for rent? Then he can sleep in the driveway in his car.

Oh, I forgot. They repossessed the Jag! Maybe there is a tent they can give him for a while.

They’re in CT, right? Minimum wage is $8.25 there. After taxes and such, maybe $7, since he would be in the 47%. If he can get 16 shifts each month at Mickey D’s or cleaning toilets, that would be about $900, enough to pay Mom, make payments on an old beater car and its insurance, and still have enough money for a burger each month. He wouldn’t need to spend money on hobbies, since he’d be writing the rest of the time.

Joanie should have had her tubes tied in the 1960s or ’70s. It depends upon whether one believes J.J. was necessary — if only to produce Alex. Trudeau probably thinks both brats are essential characters because they drive the plot.

“Trudeau probably thinks both brats [J.J. & Jeff] are essential characters because they drive the plot.”

No doubt. But also to score satirical political points against Plutocracy and reichwingism so rampant in America today.

“Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.”

— Swiss artist Paul Klee. Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/paul_klee.html#Bs48eVUIIZrcph7d.99

Doonesbury, above all, is still art. It’s “comic strip” art, yes, but still art. And it drives, and has always driven, an important function in all Homo sapien societies — it seduces us into experiencing it, and then, after we have already experienced it, it “makes us see”, exactly as Klee observes.

Jesus did precisely the same thing with his parables. Example: “The woman taken in the act of adultery.” Humans love “story”, and so Jesus told stories. Trouble is, the story may not turn out the way we want. Ha ha. Too late! The point is already made!

I think of Jeff’s book as “pornography of the ego”. As Trudeau showed some time back, a lot of creeps, weirdos, and wannabe bomb-throwers bought it. Smart cookie editor Becca Bickle understood that there would be enough of these types (plus normal Comic-Con people who are NOT bad) to turn it into a temporary, quick-turnaround “best seller”.

But “them daze” R gone! Can Jeff repeat? Random House (RH) gambled “yes” and gave Jeff an advance. But if he doesn’t produce, HR will sue him to get the $$ back with interest.

Joanie is right on here. Like BD she has changed. Life has changed them both, made them both better people. Not perfect. Just better. Now Joanie has to “spank” her 30-year-old son Jeff.

…and how many have a choice between living under the local bridges or moving in with the parents?

What happened to family loyalty in this country?

The same thing that happened with the extended family?

The same thing that happened to social values?

This US society is FUBAR. :-(

Joanie’s a liberal with UNCOMMON sense.

It’s funny because he represents the Republicans and she represents the Democrats.

This is a fun time

I’ll do anything short of illegal to keep from moving home. I love my mom too much to live with her.

When I turned 18, I couldn’t move out fast enough. And I’ve never looked back.

Time to pay the freight, sonny boy.

For the record, I think $500 is a little much for a room in the basement.

Jeff believes in the invisible hand:http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2011/08/21

The point, for those demanding to know where Jeff’s going to come up with $500 rent, is that the putative landlords don’t really want a renter. They’re willing to price themselves out of the market to remain renter-free. Just MHO. I could be wrong.

Thumbs up to Mom!!

What? The Liberal family does not want their son on the family welfare plan? What is wrong with living off others, just like the rest who vote democrat? See even these Liberal parents have a conservative streak in them. If we could draw more of it out for the rest of their thinking.