Doonesbury, the Memorial Day strip. Packs a considerable punch, don’t you think?
No I don’t, and I say this as someone who’s usually a big fan of the strip.
There was a comedienne in England in the early sixties who started her set with “a moment of silence for the boys who lost their lives at Dunkirk” or somesuch. It was a cheap gimmick to get the audience on her side, no matter what the quality of the rest of her act. (No one would dare boo her off the stage for a bad set, lest they be disrespecting not just her, but the boys who died at Dunkirk.) Trudeau did essentially the same thing, and he’ll have to sacrifice more personally than the leg of one of his cartoon characters to rate being a spokesman for Our Fighting Men.
Sorry, Garry, you just don’t have the standing to pull this one off.
I seriously doubt that he is trying to be a spokesman. I think he’s taking a jab at the Bush administration and the cost of our involvement in Iraq. It was sobering to me to see all those names in one place, just as it was overwhelming for me to see the Vietnam Wall in WDC.
I agree with Krokodil. It might work for the devoted reader, but that’s preaching to the choir; for the casual reader, sorry. For the international reader, it’s possibly even insulting - are any non-Americans listed? I can’t make out the names.
It’s also a rip-off of and attempted counter to the guy who put the names of the victims killed on 11th Sept 2001 on his truck.
I’m also a fan of Doonesbury who doesn’t care for these things. A list of names doesn’t effect me very much. I already know lots of folks died in this war I did not and do not support.
Obviously, that’s just me, YMMV.
I rolled my eyes when I saw it. Nightline already did that.
Typical of what Trudeau has been putting out for the last 10 years. A stale idea, rehashed.
Since Trudeau is listing the names as an observance of an American holiday, Memorial Day, claiming that foreign readers might be insulted is nonsense. Do other nations which have lost troops have the equivalent of Memorial Day? Would you feel justified in claiming insult if their dead were named in observation of their holiday and American dead weren’t?
Since the war in Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11, claiming that this is a counter to someone who put 9/11 names on his truck is probably invalid. Calling it a rip-off is bizarre. I’ve participated in reading names of people who’ve died of AIDS; would it be reasonable for me to claim that the 9/11 truck guy ripped off that idea?
That being said, I didn’t have strong feelings about the strip one way or another.
I have a friend that was over there and I’m a big fan of the strip but my reaction was ‘bleh’
I guess it says something about me that my reaction to BD losing his leg (a fictional character) was much more upsetting then a list of (real) names.
…as an international reader- I am in no way offended by the cartoon… in fact, I can’t even see how anyone would be offended by it… its a simple, touching, moving cartoon, made me reflect…
(BTW, my local paper had a Doonsbury Flashback today)
I like my comics with some comedy. I get more than enough political criticism from the editorial cartoons, thanks.
It’s just naff. “A list of names” is rapidly becoming a cliche, following in the footsteps of the “Two minute silence”.
Not at all. Trudeau has an almost unique skill among cartoonists of creating realistic characters which we can empathise. For you, and for most people, the list of names are just names.
Unfortunately, the print is very small for me to read, considering the local paper (known as the Slantinel had modified their comics so that everything except “Opus” (1/3 page) is difficult or distracting to read - some are 1/8th page and you tend to bleed one cartoon into the one next to it, some like “Non Sequitur” and “Doonesbury” are entirely vertical.
Did I miss a press release, or is there a rhyme or reason to the list of names not being alphabetical - date of passage, perhaps?
Was today the first time you read Doonesbury?
I get that it has a political slant, but it’s still on the comics page and generally contains some effort at being clever.
In the UK we have Remembrance Day, which is technically the 11th of November but usually becomes Remembrance Sunday, the nearest Sunday to the 11th.
Hard to say. In the UK we tend to do full rolls only when a final accounting is made. There’s always been either too few dead to justify a partial roll, or so many that they cannot all be named in that way.
The 11th of November is Armistice Day; the nearest Sunday is Remembrance Sunday
You pro-Bush guys are acting like Numbah 3 of the Kids Next Door: ‘Tra-la-la-la-la-la, nobody died in Iraq’. That is insulting.
Otto, I’ve just asked a similar question in GQ, since this had been on my mind for some time. My apologies, I forgot to credit you for the question.
Which pro-Bush guys would that be? I vote Democrat every chance I get, and I thought the Sunday strip blew chunks.
I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life. You know, it is possible to criticise someone of your own party - try it sometime!