Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 25, 2013

Very nice…

Very touching. There are some good people in the world – even in real life.

Is this a new one?

I agree…..refreshing. Goodness. Thank you.

The lieutenant/coach didn’t start out as “good.” He then lost his leg and witnessed his tank crew loosing more. It turned him into being “worthy,” which isn’t merely “good.” That morph doesn’t just automatically happen, others, under the same circumstances, turn into bitter self-pitying haters. But the lieutenant didn’t, he rose to the occasion, and so did the kid. Out of violence and evil can come some good. Isn’t that what most religions are about?

Is it just me, or is this strip a little dusty?

This really is a beautiful strip..not only is it about becoming more than you were, but about the worthiness of the women involved as well. Boopsie has stuck by BD for a long time. BD had his rough moments, too. I don’t remember the date, but BD had his crisis moment and finally turned to counseling.

The strip has been in rerun all summer while Gary is working on Alpha House, a TV comedy. Back after Labor Day.

Good stuff Trudeau.

I’ve always loved this strip, too. It harkens back to the very early, successful strips which were almost always morality tales. Calvin and Hobbes, too. Long ago, I really liked Rick O’Shay for this quality except it devolved into religiosity too frequently. I think all great strips are done by great story tellers. Originally, it was the Duck family, Little Lulu, Bugs, et al. Remember the original Tarzan? Prince Valiant?

Good strip. It would be nice to see BD smile again, though. Not that he’s ever been the class cut-up, but he always has that look on his face any more.

Good strip. You reach a lot of people, lets hope they are paying attention.

I haven’t been commenting on the rerun strips but this one moved me. This was well worth the rerun. A terrific strip with a great and uplifting theme. Thanks for bringing it back.

I’ve been reading the comics for sixty-plus years, and I’m straining to remember if there has ever been a strip so thought-provoking for grownups as this one. So far I can’t. Can anyone think of a possible competitor?

Dr. Dan: Do you remember Pogo by Walt Kelly?

Personally, I think GT is better, but there were many Pogo devotees.

To me, Walt Kelly was genius and Pogo was the best. With Pogo, you never felt like ideology was being crammed down your throat.

Awww, that was sweet.

“I have met the enemy, and he is us.” PogoThanks Walt.

Jules Feiffer was brilliant. Lots of people liked R. Crumb— he was a little out there as far as I was concerned. Claire Bretecher had a comic strip called Claire and was superb and often featured in Ms. magazine a few years ago. Claire was very well known in France, sort of a French Garry Trudeau.

All Iraq war amputees should remember to thank Bush.

Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks” strip had the take-no-prisoners intensity of early “Doonesbury,” more overtly sarcastic and cynical. Perhaps, like Trudeau, he will return to cartooning.

Sad what it took to get you there.

“But BD will never grow a new leg.The wages of war!!!”-Oh ye of little faith.None of us knows what medical and biological science will develop.He’s already grown a helmetless head.

“But we who send or allow them to be sent to these useless, futile wars, we are not worthy.”-They weren’t injured in the war. They were injured in the occupation. (as best I recall)-And really, the idea that wars are always futile is silly. To go after the home base of people killing American citizens is not unreasonable. To go after people developing weapons of mass destruction is not unreasonable. To do it on bad intelligence is unreasonable but then sometimes you have to consider the cost of assuming all is well and finding out the truth only after ten million have been vaporized or a hundred million have died of genetically modified disease.-Don’t bother to occupy, but DO be willing to protect America and sometimes the entire world.

It’s good Toggle considers whether or not he is worthy of all he receives.The rest of us usually don’t but would be better people if we did.Nobody created himself although many decided to use what they were given in a worthy manner whereas others decided to misuse it in an unworthy manner..Not one of us is an island, complete unto himself.(for that matter, islands aren’t complete unto themselves either.)-By the way, I like Alex.

Believe it or not, Li’l Abner was frequently political.

I didn’t read Lil Abner, but I heard that it was political. Al Capp was liberal during the 50’s and conservative during the 60’s. He lost a leg at age 10 during a trolley car accident.

Would love to see GT do something for the “Got Your 6” campaign, maybe a T-shirt featuring B.D., Leo and some of the other veterans

Indeed … very nice.

Not really crazy for Trudeau, but I definitely give him coo-doos for his honoring of vets.