57 Comments

1. ClericalGal:

Thanks for the hat tip, Roger!

Even though you got my nic wrong.

Jul 3, 2005 - 11:32 am 2. ClericalGal:

Thanks for the correction!

Jul 3, 2005 - 11:39 am 3. chuck:

I haven’t looked at Trudeau’s strip for nigh on a year. Looks like it has improved somewhat Thanks ClericalGal, I haven’t the interest to keep track of these things.

Jul 3, 2005 - 12:48 pm 4. ambisinistral:

Bloggers get to eat cat food? Sweet! As a crackpot commenter I have to survive by swiping seed from my heighbor’s bird feeder.

Jul 3, 2005 - 12:59 pm 5. richard mcenroe:

Chuck ó I have. It hasn’t.

Jul 3, 2005 - 1:01 pm 6. Buddy Larsen:

Either the guy doesn’t know this, or more likely he does. The harder he tries to be fashionable (as he was a decade ago), the more he Makes Sh*t Up.

Jul 3, 2005 - 1:12 pm 7. BeckyJ:

Chuck, Richard is right; I’ve been following Doonesbury for a long time and it’s just getting more annoying and out of touch.

My husband suggested that Trudeau is jealous because bloggers haven’t been paying attention to him and this is his bid to get people to notice him. Either way (cuz he really doesn’t get it or it’s a bid for attention), pretty pathetic.

Jul 3, 2005 - 1:23 pm 8. chuck:

Didn’t Trudeau get his start celebrating the inanities of youth? Now he is old. Any day now I expect to see the “when I was a boy” stories. Oops, we already have.

Jul 3, 2005 - 1:28 pm 9. Silicon valley Jim:

Of course, Trudeau and his ilk have no problem referring to Sean Penn, who, as far as I can tell, has never seen the inside of a college classroom, much less done any reporting prior to his trip to Iraq, as a journalist.

The harder he tries to be fashionable (as he was a decade ago)

You meant “a generation ago”, didn’t you, Buddy?

Jul 3, 2005 - 1:34 pm 10. Buddy Larsen:

Right, SVJ…I was trying to peg the last year he even mattered at all, in the slightest. Lessee, Roger’s headline refers True-Dough’s piggyback on Hunter Thompson, and…which election was “Fear and Loathing” about, now? I honestly forget. Eisenhower?

Jul 3, 2005 - 2:01 pm 11. RBMN:

Oddly enough, it seems that the bloggers that have other full-time jobs are the most tireless, most prolific bloggers. If poached fresh salmon with dill sauce is cat food, then maybe the Power Line Blog (lawyers) are eating cat food these days. Who knows?

Jul 3, 2005 - 2:03 pm 12. David Thomson:

Garretson (Garry) Beekman Trudeau was on born July 21, 1948. The dude is not a spring chicken. He is also a solid member of the establishment. In many respects, one can justly accuse Trudeau of being a sell out. Please note that his comic strip characters never really seem to get any older. Does Trudeau even think of himself as a man in his mid fifties?

Trudeau and his buddies think they have earned their spot in the sun. Itís all about meritocracy. Their high incomes and professional respectability are merely results of hard work and a high IQ. They fail to admit that ideological loyalty to liberalism was part of the requirement. Had they been conservatives—the odds are that these fools would have had to find another way to earn a living.

It is hysterically funny that Trudeau is making fun of the blogging community. He literally lacks the intellectual ability to even begin debating the top bloggers. The latter, and I do not exaggerate in the slightest, are far more knowledgeable and analytically brilliant.

Jul 3, 2005 - 2:04 pm 13. Kevin P:

Roger:

It’s amazing how much attention the traditional media pays to you pajama wearing crackpots. Your stupid, your a passing fad,you have no influence,your unqualified, only anger fueled obessive compulsive males pay attention to you, Yet we feel the need to write about and comment on you constantly. Blogs are no threat to traditional media and will amount to nothing. Blogs are ruining the country and must be stopped! I wish they would just make up their mind and stick to one theme. If blogs are the current hula hoop then ignore them and they will go away. heh, heh, heh, heh.

Kevin Peters

Jul 3, 2005 - 2:10 pm 14. Connecticut Yankee:

I wonder if Trudeau knows that his strip provides raw material for a brand of cat litter made from recycled newsprint and called Yesterday’s News?

Revenge of the Catbloggers! http://www.yesterdaysnews.com/getpage.aspx?ContentID=156&MenuItemID=65#CatLitter

Jul 3, 2005 - 2:25 pm 15. David Thomson:

ìGambling opponents hoped President Bush would clean up the BIA. Instead, GOP politicians and lobbyists now milk casino-hungry Indians in turn. Bush spoke out against gambling in the 2000 campaign, but has gone silent since. ìYou have a pattern of people close to Bush making money off the BIA,î says Grey. A few months ago, Bushís head of the BIA, Dave Anderson, resigned over conflict-of-interest charges.î

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200507011101.asp

I just found the above comments by Rich Lowry, editor the National Review. He is brutally frank about the current moral failings of some members of the Republican Party. How often do liberals exhibit similar honesty concerning their top honchos? When is the last time Garry Trudeau has criticized liberal Democrats in such a manner?

Jul 3, 2005 - 2:32 pm 16. Patrick Tyson:

David Thomson—

Back when he had clout…

In June 1978, one strip included a coupon listing various politicians and dollar amounts allegedly taken from Korean lobbyists, to be clipped and glued to a postcard to be sent to the Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, resulting in an overflow of mail to the Speaker’s office.

…and when he didn’t…

Bill Clinton was symbolized by a waffle.

I stopped reading the comics on a regular basis when Bill Watterson stopped penning Calvin and Hobbes on the last day of 1995.

You?

Please note that his comic strip characters never really seem to get any older.

“The strip underwent a significant change after Trudeau returned to it from a 22 month hiatus (from January 1983 to October 1984), during which he helped create a Doonesbury Broadway production. Before the break in the strip, the characters were eternal college students, living in a commune together near an unnamed university modelled after Trudeau’s alma mater. When the strip resumed, the main characters had all graduated, most had moved, and Michael had married his girlfriend JJ. Since then, the main characters’ age and career development has tracked that of standard media portrayals of baby boomers, with jobs in advertising, law enforcement, and the dot-com boom.” (Wikipedia entry)

You’re a good man, Charlie Brown, er, David Thomson.

Jul 3, 2005 - 3:45 pm 17. mrp:

Thanks for linking the cartoon, Roger. That’s the funniest Doonesbury I’ve seen in twenty years. Doonesbury, Snuffy Smith, Li’l Abner, and Donnie. Man, those were good times.

Jul 3, 2005 - 3:58 pm 18. David Thomson:

ìIn June 1978, one strip included a coupon listing various politicians and dollar amounts allegedly taken from Korean lobbyists…î

1978? Is it possible that you might be able to point to a more recent example? Tip OíNeal has been in his grave since 1994.

I contend that the partisanship of the left wing comic strip creators is much worse today. Rarely, if ever, do I notice them ridiculing leftist politicians.

ìSince then, the main characters’ age and career development has tracked that of standard media portrayals of baby boomers, with jobs in advertising, law enforcement, and the dot-com boom.”

Action speaks louder than words. Trudeauís characters appear to have ceased physically aging at thirty five. Mark, for instance, does not in any way remind me of a man in his mid fifties.

Jul 3, 2005 - 4:06 pm 19. ClericalGal:

Patrick:

Trudeau has portrayed Dan Quayle as a feather, Newt Gingrich as a bomb with a lit fuse, George H.W. Bush as a voice coming from nothing, and George W. Bush as at first a cowboy hat over an asterisk, then a bloody conquerer’s helmet over an asterisk. When the Lewinsky scandal broke, the Clinton-as-waffle portrayal all but stopped and resorted to the standard dialog balloons over the White House. Given the choice, I think I would rather be portrayed in a “satirical” strip as a waffle than as a bloody conquerer.

Jul 3, 2005 - 4:10 pm 20. Buddy Larsen:

The way to get any pleasure at all out of Doonesbury is to google [doonesbury sucks]. Walt Kelly, Al Capp, no comparison, despite Trudeau’s self-nomination. Nice to see mention of Calvin and Hobbes–drawing like it’s never been, except maybe in Ren and Stempy (who never were a strip, I think).

Jul 3, 2005 - 4:21 pm 21. mrp:

Buddy -

If you think Al Capp was a better cartoonist than Trudeau, I might agree. But still, Doonesbury is right up there with Nancy and Mary Worth, perhaps even Gasoline Alley. Not Ali Oop, though.

Jul 3, 2005 - 4:32 pm 22. Buddy Larsen:

Can’t disagree, mrp. D’bury is technically ok, I guess. Maybe it’s just that the artist is stuck in a pout over the ‘other club’ not being interested in him.

Jul 3, 2005 - 4:37 pm 23. Rick Ballard:

mrp,

I don’t see how you can justify putting D’bury on a par with the cutting edge sharpness of Mary Worth. I simply don’t think that he ever reached the level of Mary Worth in societal perspicacity.

I hope PJ Media sticks with a moderate centrist cartoonist such as Chris Muir.

Jul 3, 2005 - 4:45 pm 24. Katherine:

Two words:î decrepit has-beenî.

One word: ìbooooring!î

Jul 3, 2005 - 4:57 pm 25. Buddy Larsen:

Well, can’t beat “Nancy & Sluggo” for wit. But re D’bury, trying to figure out the irritation. It’s not the politics per-se, it’s how GT totally misses the whole point of cartoons. The invitation into odd perspective, the humor of the humor, that someone would think and draw this or that. GT just quips. He could do the same, better, without the drawing. Just, tell us what he doesn’t like, then take a vacation until next election, then tell us what he doesn’t like again, then take another two or four years off. And so on.

Jul 3, 2005 - 5:04 pm 26. Rick Ballard:

Al Capp had a worldview that never really changed but the angle of perspective changed regularly. D’bury definitely has a worldview too but no one will ever accuse him of taking a view from another perspective. A fantastical self imagined MOTP. How rare.

Jul 3, 2005 - 5:22 pm 27. Jamie Irons:

I doubt that Glenn Reynolds, between bites of cat food, would even deign to waste a

Heh

let alone an

Indeed

on this mean-spirited “humor.”

Jamie Irons

BTW, for a much funnier take on news (not a cartoon) by way of blogs, be sure to check out

JENNIFER LOPEZ HAS BEEN SHOT!

Jul 3, 2005 - 5:47 pm 28. mrp:

Rick said:

Al Capp had a worldview that never really changed but the angle of perspective changed regularly.

Boy, I’ll say

Jul 3, 2005 - 6:00 pm 29. Buddy Larsen:

The intervening years have leched me sufficiently to finally ‘get’ “Daisy Mae” (Oh, she may, she may, better check in tomorrow!).

Jul 3, 2005 - 6:06 pm 30. Kevin P:

Roger:

The Gary of 1970 would suggest the 2005 Gary needs a self crticism session. 1970 era Gary would dissaprove of the boushy ways of the modern Gary. Humiliating a DIY rebel for not making enough money and because he doesn’t have a corporate paymaster. Dissing the blogger because he doesn’t have the approval of the establishment. I guess Gary has soured on the anti-hero ideal and has decided the capitalist system is wonderful and he doesn’t want anyone without the proper credentials butting into his domain. “My,my, he doesn’t even have a J school degree and he dressses like a beggar, who let this lowlife in the club, I will have someones job over this outrage” The outsider banging at the gates of power has become the overlord demanding better security to keep the riff raff out. Does Gary wear an ascot with his Pendleton these days?

Kevin Peters

Jul 3, 2005 - 6:10 pm 31. chuck:

Humiliating a DIY rebel for not making enough money and because he doesn’t have a corporate paymaster.

Yeah, when are the bloggers going to get real jobs. Eating cat food (1) is for poor people. Get a clue, guy, get educated, get a real job, eat out.

(1) There are exceptions. I recall a couple of French scientists who went to a conference in Aspen back in 1970. Thinking to have a picnic, they went to the market and got the fixins’, including a meat spread for the bread. Well, oddly enough, upon trial the spread proved to lack a certain tastiness, in a word, to lack salt. Looking closely they found… cat food. Let this be a lesson in the dangers of cultural equivalence.

Jul 3, 2005 - 6:23 pm 32. Rick Ballard:

The sun has risen in the Hindu Kush and American’s there are beginning a sober, working 4th of July. I wish them good hunting and a safe return. A safe return too, to those of our forces out on patrol in the predawn hours in Iraq. May they have a restful day after a hard nights work.

As the dawn reaches our shores Americans will wake in freedom because of the sacrifices of the millions who have worn the uniform and done their duty every day of the 229 years since the signing of the Declaration. I am thankful for the sacrifices that purchased the freedom that I enjoy. I never forget and I never shall.

Jul 3, 2005 - 6:32 pm 33. mrp:

There’s something amusing about Trudeau’s sniggering at a blogger though Doonesbury.com is hosted by Slate (with ads by GE). And the character Mark Slackmeyer is an employee of NPR. Lotsa street cred there, man. Like, fight the power but first, this is pledge season, and …

Jul 3, 2005 - 6:41 pm 34. Buddy Larsen:

Amen, Rick, amen. Mrp, I think the creed that the D’bury sensibility supports is–as Kevin points out–neither left nor right but “le snob“.

Jul 3, 2005 - 6:54 pm 35. Kevin P:

Buddy:

It has become a cliche how anytime a MSM member decides to go after the blogosphere they start with the obessed loner nutjob meme. With the millions of blogs out there no doubt there are some who fit the pajama wearing unemployed breakfast cereal/catfood eater out there. But if they would actually learn about the blogosphere they would learn that the range and diversity of the self publishers is far more wide ranging then the MSM is. Rich, poor,right,left,generalists. specialists, brilliant and insane. The prototype the Trudeau portrays more then likely excists but no one reads them.It is a pure meritocracy that has no tenured stiffs hanging on because of pure inertia and tradition. The moment Roger gets dull is the moment no one visits his site.But Roger doesn’t have to worry about losing his ability to publish because the corporate office has a new vice-president who has decided to clean house The instance that a unknown blogger mines a nugget that no one else has discovered he/she can rocket from 0 to a 100 in a day. Then if he has the stuff he will survive, if not he won’t. It is a brand new world and the Luddites in the MSM can’t roam the earth and smash up all the modems. And their pathetic snotty critiques will make people laugh at their ignorance in 20 to 50 years.

Lets face it, a 20 year old Trudeau would have been praising the freeedom and open atmosphere of the blogosphere. Instead he has become a middle aged harpy who despises change.He may wear a liberal uniform but he is showing the worst aspects of a close minded conservitive.

Jul 3, 2005 - 7:37 pm 36. Kevin P:

Buddy:

It has become a cliche how anytime a MSM member decides to go after the blogosphere they start with the obessed loner nutjob meme. With the millions of blogs out there no doubt there are some who fit the pajama wearing unemployed breakfast cereal/catfood eater out there. But if they would actually learn about the blogosphere they would learn that the range and diversity of the self publishers is far more wide ranging then the MSM is. Rich, poor,right,left,generalists. specialists, brilliant and insane. The prototype the Trudeau portrays more then likely excists but no one reads them.It is a pure meritocracy that has no tenured stiffs hanging on because of pure inertia and tradition. The moment Roger gets dull is the moment no one visits his site.But Roger doesn’t have to worry about losing his ability to publish because the corporate office has a new vice-president who has decided to clean house The instance that a unknown blogger mines a nugget that no one else has discovered he/she can rocket from 0 to a 100 in a day. Then if he has the stuff he will survive, if not he won’t. It is a brand new world and the Luddites in the MSM can’t roam the earth and smash up all the modems. And their pathetic snotty critiques will make people laugh at their ignorance in 20 to 50 years.

Lets face it, a 20 year old Trudeau would have been praising the freeedom and open atmosphere of the blogosphere. Instead he has become a middle aged harpy who despises change.He may wear a liberal uniform but he is showing the worst aspects of a close minded conservitive.

Jul 3, 2005 - 7:38 pm 37. Kevin P:

Roger;

At this point I will let Gary smash my modem. For the 100th time, sorry for the double post.

Jul 3, 2005 - 7:41 pm 38. Patrick Tyson:

Let me repeat myself:

I stopped reading the comics on a regular basis when Bill Watterson stopped penning Calvin and Hobbes on the last day of 1995.

The last The Far Side appeared on the first day of 1995.

I’d guess I’ve read Doonesbury less than 10 times in the past 10 years. No one I know ever brings it to my attention. Dilbert and The Boondocks are a different story.

Had Trudeau, in 1983, done what Gary Larson and Sam Watterson did in 1995—stopped while he was on top—I might think as highly of him as I do of Watterson and Larson, but I doubt it.

Calvin and Hobbes and the The Far Side remain the only newspaper comics I actually purchased a newspaper, the otherwise useless San Francsico Chronicle, to get.

OT

My wife and I went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith today. The group of teenagers sitting down the row from my wife told her it was okay to tell them if they got too loud during the movie. A first. They were there, apparently, to gasp whenever Adam Brody appeared. They were, in some ways, more entertaining than the movie.

Have a safe and sane Fourth.

Jul 3, 2005 - 8:05 pm 39. Rick Ballard:

Patrick,

Was Mr. & Mrs. Smith any good?

Jul 3, 2005 - 8:12 pm 40. Jamie Irons:

Kevin P

It’s probably not your modem…

In an earlier incarnation of the browser I use (Mac’s Safari), and an earlier incarnation of TypeCast (as I like to call it) I frequently had this problem of double posting.

Now it doesn’t seem to happen, thank G-d!

One post from me is enough!

Rick

Amen!!!

Jamie Irons

Jul 3, 2005 - 8:15 pm 41. Frederick:

Kevin P:

“Lets face it, a 20 year old Trudeau …”

You’re right. I remember him when he was twenty. Typical St. Paul’s School preppie at, I think, Davenport College at Yale. Mike the Man Doonesbury started off as a clumsy undergraduate everyman. The early strips were a hit only because of his use of real people who were Yale football stars, Calvin Hill, whom he used for a while, and Brian Dowling, the Yale quarterback, who eventually evolved into BD. Duke was a great creation, which kept the strip going, but he ran out of new ideas twenty years ago. He lives on an island in Long Island Sound with Jane Pauley, who used to be on one of the morning news shows. Time turned him into a reactionary and hate turned him into a bore.

Patrick Tyson.

Yes. Watterson, unlike Trudeau was, and I suppose still is, a genius. He lives someplace in Ohio now. What a creation Calvin and Hobbes was. My favorite was the tyrannosaurus rex as a fighter pilot. Larson too. I don’t know where he is now. My favorite was the floating head of death balloon.

To all, including our foreign friends, a great Fourth of July. Independence Day. Or perhaps now Unilateralism Day. And let us remember all those who, unlike poor Mr. Trudeau, have made it possible to celebrate and given us something worth celebrating.

Jul 3, 2005 - 8:37 pm 42. richard mcenroe:

9 Chickweed Lane is worth worth reading. Available online at http://www.comics.com

And Al Capp is one of the gods…

Jul 3, 2005 - 10:40 pm 43. Patrick Tyson:

Rick—

If you get annoyed when the setup is preposterous and the plot makes little to no sense, Mr. & Mrs. Smith probably isn’t a funny enough film to leave you thinking it good. I’d rate it bad, but watchable. It’s much better than, for instance, The Mexican and much inferior to True Lies. There isn’t a single scene in the movie I thought anymore than competently constructed and photographed. My wife liked it better than I did.

Frederick—

I think my favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips are, as a group, the snowmen ones, but, I so enjoyed everything about that strip that I’m not really sure. A favorite The Far Side is “It’s the call of the wild.”

CALVIN: This is the worst assignment ever! I’m supposed to think up a story, write it, and illustrate it by tomorrow!

CALVIN: Do I look like a novelist?! This is impossible! I can’t tell stories!

HOBBES: What about your explanation of the noodle incident?

CALVIN: THAT WASN’T A STORY! THAT WAS THE UNVARNISHED TRUTH!

HOBBES: Oh, don’t be so modest. You deserved a Pulitzer.

Jul 3, 2005 - 10:49 pm 44. TedN:

For what it’s worth Trudeau is doing aging in his comic, but some people age more than others. For instance, I think Sid was once Mike’s college roomate, and he’s now fiftyish and balding while Mike looks no more than forty at the oldest. Likewise, Mike’s second wife, Kim, was introduced as a child (a boat person refugee iirc), making thinking too hard about their marraige difficult.

Also,for all you C&H fans, he success of the complete Peanuts has ensured that the complete Calvin and Hobbes is now on the horizon.

If you’re interested in comic strips, come on over to rec.arts.comics-strips on usenet.

Jul 3, 2005 - 11:13 pm 45. Buddy Larsen:

This may be it, TedN?

Jul 4, 2005 - 4:14 am 46. David C:

I can’t believe you guys are talking about Trudeau – Gary F’ing Trudeau!!! – like he’s some sort of has-been!

Strips like this prove that he’s *still* the most cutting edge cartoonist of 1978!

Jul 4, 2005 - 8:17 am 47. mrp:

Far Side “What Dogs Really Hear”

Jul 4, 2005 - 8:27 am 48. erp:

Roger,

Much as I admire you and your blogging, not even for you will I look at Trudeau’s “comic” strip.

Haven’t for more than 25 years and don’t intend to start now.

However, should he write a strip in which he apologises for all the mis-information, lies, distortions, propaganda, etc. of his past output, let me know and I’ll check it out.

Until then, no can do.

Have a patriotic 4th everybody. It’s better to be a charming scoundrel than a pretentious prig.

Jul 4, 2005 - 8:33 am 49. Buddy Larsen:

I thought it was really tubular how he slipped it in that being anti means you got, like, brains and stuff (not like them others who are like, no idea what’s going down). Some boss stuff–i hope he’ll keep it coming!

Jul 4, 2005 - 8:47 am 50. Stephen_M:

What? No Berkeley Breathed fans left?

Jul 4, 2005 - 8:58 am 51. richard mcenroe:

Stephen_M ó I liked his old stuff.

Jul 4, 2005 - 9:56 am 52. richard mcenroe:

As in ó *sigh* “Woe betide the politically correct space barbarian…”

Jul 4, 2005 - 10:06 am 53. TedN:

Buddy, Yes that’s it. The only open question left by the wording is whether it will include the watercolor sequences that were done specially for some of the later collections and did not appear in newspapers.

Jul 4, 2005 - 10:24 am 54. Stephen_M:

richard mcenroe, Well, at least Breathed escaped becoming hidebound ala Trudeau.

Jul 4, 2005 - 4:11 pm 55. Buddy Larsen:

Instructions on How to Clean The Toilet:

1. Put lid up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the bowl.

2. Pick up cat and carry to the bathroom.

3. In one movement, put cat in toilet and close lid. (You may need to stand on lid)

4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. (Never mind the noise, the cat actually enjoys this!)

5. Flush the toilet three or four times. (This provides the “Power-Wash.”)

6. Open the front door. Make sure there is no one between the bathroom and the front door.

7. Quickly lift the lid.

8. The cat will rocket out and streak outside where it will leisurely dry off.

9. Both the toilet and the cat will be sparkling clean!

Sincerely, The Dog

Jul 4, 2005 - 4:36 pm 56. Kyda Sylvester:

I don’t read Doonesbury. Was that supposed to be funny? Ironic? What?

Jul 4, 2005 - 8:45 pm 57. Joanne Jacobs:

I think Doonesbury’s series on B.D. losing his leg in Iraq and recovering from amputation has been touching. OK, not funny, but sweet.

I don’t mind him making fun of bloggers. He certainly made fun of commune dwellers in the old days, and of “radical young priests who can talk to the young.” It’s what he does. But the cartoon wasn’t funny. Pointing out that bloggers aren’t part of the media establishment is, well, pointless.

Jul 5, 2005 - 5:34 pm

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