A most excellent read! Doonesbury Goes to War Garry Trudeau talks about Iraq, the coming election and his old classmate George W. Bush By ERIC BATES In 1971, a year after he graduated from Yale, Garry Trudeau went on the game show To Tell the Truth. He had just launched a crudely drawn comic strip called "Doonesbury," but nobody knew who he was: Only one celebrity panelist correctly guessed his identity. "I don't remember which one picked me," Trudeau says with a laugh. "Orson Bean?" If Trudeau repeated his appearance today, even hard-core media junkies would still have trouble identifying him. His work appears in 700 newspapers worldwide, he was nominated for an Academy Award for a "Doonesbury" special, he is the only artist ever to receive a Pulitzer Prize for a comic strip, and he is married to Jane Pauley. But Trudeau gives so few interviews -- he's appeared on TV only once in the past three decades -- that he has earned a reputation as the J.D. Salinger of cartooning. The low profile is mainly an act of self-preservation: His daily strip generates so much controversy that putting out fires could consume all his time. "I didn't need to do it," he says with a shrug, "so why not save myself the aggravation?" Breaking his long silence, Trudeau sat down with Rolling Stone in the modest studio in Manhattan where he creates "Doonesbury." Despite the flecks of gray in his hair, at fifty-six he has the easygoing, curious manner of a grad student still fascinated by the world around him. It's no exaggeration to say that Trudeau revolutionized the funny pages, creating a space where reactionaries and radicals alike squabble over the issues of the day. His style is part Charles Schulz, part Charles Dickens. Over the years his characters have grappled with everything from AIDS and abortion to Alzheimer's. But with the election of George W. Bush, who attended Yale with Trudeau back in the Sixties, "Doonesbury" has taken on an urgency and relevance reminiscent of its early, gleeful assaults on Nixon. Trudeau offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could verify that Bush fulfilled his duties in the Air National Guard, and he brought home the reality of the war by having his character B.D. lose a leg while fighting in Iraq. For the first time, Trudeau also drew B.D. without the helmet he has worn since the days when he enlisted in Vietnam to get out of writing a college term paper. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/st...0370114260&has-player=true&version=6.0.10.505
He's a multimillionaire married to a very smart, attractive multimillionaire, and he makes his living drawing cartoons. I'd say he's pretty damn successful. Oh, and unlike our President, he's a successful businessman who did it on his own.
Oh, so it's just about the money and who he's married to now? It's about power. Bush has it. He doesn't. I can draw cartoons, too.
you do realize that money is not the only cause of jealousy? there are tons of people out there who would do anything to be the President of the United States, and it's not because of the job's official salary (low to mid 6 figures is nothing special whatsoever, to me anyway) having said that, I personally have no idea if Trudeau is jealous of Bush like faos claims
would you want to be President? you can't have a normal life. can't go out to the movies or a nice restaurant can't drive around by yourself. can't have a conversation with someone without worrying about who's listening or recording it. have to have secret service around you for the rest of your life because some nutcase might try to kill you or your family personally i'd rather be a rich, semi-anonymous cartoonist than the leader of the free world.
I thought it was about life. What was I thinking? And I consider Doonesbury much more successful than George W. Bush, by the way. I'm using the measurement of, "Which life would I rather have?" Doonesbury's by a mile.
so are you implying that there is no person in the world who would really want to hold the position of President of the U.S. ? I'm not asking what you personally, as just 1 person, would want
well i wasn't trying to imply anything. just stating my opinion. of course there are those who would want to be president some are power hungry egomaniacs some honestly want to serve their country if i had to guess i'd say only 20% of the population would choose President over multi-millionaire.
President is almost certainly going to mean multimillionaire, if not before going into office, then nearly certainly after leaving.
esp when he starts calling in all those favors halliburton alone should break him off a Billion Rocket River
The people have spoken. Buh-bye Doonesbury http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000581723 : Complaints Led to Drop-'Doonesbury' Poll By Dave Astor Published: July 21, 2004 11:50 AM EST, updated at 1:20 PM NEW YORK A poll that resulted in a vote to drop "Doonesbury" was defended by the head of a Sunday-comics consortium. "It was not a political statement of any kind," Continental Features President Van Wilkerson told E&P. "I personally don't have an opinion about 'Doonesbury' one way or another." Wilkerson said he conducted the survey because Garry Trudeau's comic "created more controversy than other strips." In the poll e-mail he sent Continental's newspaper clients this spring, Wilkerson wrote: "(I)t is my feeling that a change in one of the features is required. I have fielded numerous complaints about 'Doonesbury' in the past and feel it is time to drop this feature and add another in its place. ... If the majority of the group favors a replacement, you will be expected to accept that change." Of the 38 papers that run the Continental-produced Sunday comics section, 21 wanted to drop "Doonesbury," 15 wanted to keep it, and two had no opinion or preference. "I wouldn't call the vote [to drop 'Doonesbury'] overwhelming, but it was a majority opinion," Wilkerson said. One of the 15 papers, The Anniston (Ala.) Star (Click for QuikCap), expressed public dismay with the vote yesterday -- saying the decision amounted to censorship. In an E&P interview after that article appeared, Star Executive Editor Troy Turner said: "Sure, 'Doonesbury' causes editors headaches from time to time, but there is a proven readership for it. Newspapers need to think of readers first, or they will continue to struggle." Turner added that he doesn't recall Continental doing polls about any of the other 22 comics in its package; "Doonesbury" was singled out. Wilkerson acknowledged that the survey was out of the norm. The Continental head said he doesn't know exactly when "Doonesbury" will leave the package; he's currently polling clients to see if they want to replace it with "Agnes," "Get Fuzzy," "Pickles," "Zits," or another comic. If Continental does pull "Doonesbury" from the package, "we will find a way to run it in the Sunday paper," said Star Editorial Page Editor Bob Davis. He noted that the Star already publishes the daily "Doonesbury" in an unusual locale: the back page of the "A" section. As previously reported, Star Publisher H. Brandt Ayers e-mailed Wilkerson to say he and his paper's editors "strongly object to an obviously political effort to silence a minority point of view. For years, my New Deal father bore the opposition views of Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks, and I believe he would have fought an effort to silence them a by a simple majority vote. This is wrong, offensive to First Amendment freedoms." "Doonesbury" -- which appears in more than 1,400 papers via Universal Press Syndicate -- has made a lot of news this year with strong criticism of President Bush and the Iraq war. In one sequence, Trudeau offered $10,000 to anyone who could prove Bush served in the Alabama National Guard. And, in an ongoing story line, the B.D. character lost a leg in Iraq and is dealing with the aftermath of that devastating injury. The 38 papers running the package from Salisbury, N.C.-based Continental are predominately located in the Southeast.
