B.D. loses a leg in Iraq.

Iraq-Related Strips Get Positive Reaction
By Dave Astor
Published: April 21, 2004

NEW YORK Many e-mailers are praising Garry Trudeau and Darby Conley for bringing the realities of Iraq to their comics in sequences that began Monday.

In Trudeau's "Doonesbury," B.D. is badly hurt -- and will reportedly have his left leg amputated. In Conley's "Get Fuzzy," a cousin of the strip's main human character also loses a leg in Iraq.

David Stanford, who works for Trudeau, "I'd say the messages are 90-10 in support of the series -- including kudos from people who say upfront that they generally don't agree politically with the strip but appreciate what Garry is doing with this storyline. There's a lot of emotion."

One e-mailer from Hawaii wrote that the B.D. sequence "puts a finger of reality into the cold news of today, and contrasts starkly with the blather from the White House. ... You have made up for a multitude of cheap shots at incumbent presidents and other dimwitted ideas. ... I salute you on behalf of those who know that war and empire are not the solutions to our problems."

A partially disabled veteran from Illinois wrote: "Regardless of your politics, this is a moving tribute to the service men and women who are daily receiving real, life-altering, and life-terminating battle wounds in Iraq. This is a damnable affair and the sooner it is finished the better."

Some "Doonesbury" newspaper clients have also reacted. "Editorial got under 10 calls from editors whose opinions on the strips were mixed, but mostly positive," said Kathie Kerr, director of communications at Universal Press Syndicate. "Only one, I believe, said he would not run the Friday strip with the 'sob' word, but that he planned to put the strip online and even was going to offer to fax it to readers if they wanted a copy."

At "Get Fuzzy" distributor United Media, Promotion Manager Linda Kuczwaj said: "The mail that we have received here from readers has all been positive." It is unknown what kind of mail Conley has been getting; he has opted not to do interviews about the series in order "to let the work speak for itself."

Another Article
LEXINGTON, Ky. Why didn't Garry Trudeau kill off his B.D. character this week rather than have him lose a leg in Iraq?

"It seemed far more useful to look at an extreme sacrifice, short of death," the "Doonesbury" creator told Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention attendees here today. "I want to show the process of recovery and rehabilitation ... and the impact on family and friends. B.D.'s life will never be the same. That's why I took his helmet off after 34 years. He's moving on to a different part of his life."

Trudeau -- who said the sequential nature of a comic makes this kind of story possible -- added that B.D. is representative of the many soldiers coming back from Iraq with serious injuries.

The cartoonist did note that he's not afraid to let his characters die. "I've killed five of them," he said. "They age in real time. They get diseases." But he added that B.D. is his first "central character" to get this badly hurt

I think this is the first time in 35 years BD hasn't worn a helmet.

Trudeau's always stood clearly on the left, but he's reflected the country's growing political polarization with increasingly bitter shots at Bush over the last couple of years, harsher (iirc) than his anti-Reagan strips. The storyline has the potential to raise issues that most of us don't think about; I hope Trudeau can explore it without descending too far into agitprop.

Isn't Trudeau Canadian?

__________________
N. Hodges
1994 S350
1987 300 SDL (for sale)

Pierre Trudeau was the PM of Canada.

Garry Trudeau was born in New York City and is married to former NBC anchor, Jane Pauley.

How long until Karl Rove and Dick Cheney question Trudeau's patriotism and start appearing on Fox to deny that anyone lost a leg in Iraq?