I’m sure he did have it stored up. If he was prepared to have this happen to BD during the last war, he probably had a story arc pretty well mapped out. Since he didn’t have BD get injured in some other way (traffic accident, etc.) after the Gulf War ended, it’s safe to assume the story line will revolve around BD’s response to the way he was injured as much as his response to his injury itself.
I remember BD’s Purple Heart in Vietnam - “cut myself on a beer can.” He’s changed a lot since then, but to have this gung-ho icon come back permanently “disabled” opens a lot of doors for Trudeau as a writer.
We all know which way Trudeau will go with this, but that still doesn’t make the story line contrived. It takes guts to permanently change one of your main characters.
You wear a helmet night and day for thirty years and see how good YOUR hair is.
As for the comments about a “contrived” plotline, it’s a comic strip, not reaal life. ALL of the plotlines are contrived. This is actually considerably LESS contrived than a typical Uncle Duke plot. BTW, BD is not much over 50, thankyouverymuch.
That’s not surprising about Uncle Walt. The guy is pushing 100. But I’d hate to be Skeezix taking the call, anyway.
I don’t know that it takes guts to do this. Characters change all the time in other strips…For Better or for Worse, Arlo and Janis, etc…and they do it without getting a leg blown off in a war. This seems like a cheap, unoriginal, non-creative way to affect a change in a character’s attitude.
If others do it without blowing off legs then how is this unoriginal? And why are you so against it? Do you live in some happy world where soldiers do not get wounded?
No, the cheap and non-creative way for Trudeau to do it would be having some minor/never-before-seen character get his leg blown off, have BD be the one yelling “you’re not dying today!” and then get all shell-shocked/introspective/both about it.
This is a permanent change in a main character of the strip, and opens up a ton of plot angles. What will he think about that war, about any wars? (Maybe he won’t go all peacenik.) How will this affect his relationship with Boopsie, especially since she shut down the football program in his absence, leaving him with less to do after his return, and possibly being pushed into the middle in that conflict. If he returns to coaching, will he feel that he can be a good coach? Will his players? The loss of a limb makes the person in question, and everyone who interacts with him, to look at him in a different way.
I love “Get Fuzzy” and I was a little surprised to see Darb bringing this up, but not completely stunned. He sometimes gets political (e.g., he did a couple of strips back in February about Janet-gate). So far I have to say that his handling of things has been pretty even-handed. Looks like he’s trying to focus on the characters more than the conflict, you know? And everyone knows someone who’s been affected by Iraq, no matter what their personal take on things is.
Some other strips have done it well without some “A Very Special Episode” feel to it. Children grow up, people change their attitudes, people have kids etc…
MANY other strips, TV shows, etc have done the whole “major illness/injury/death” thing as a cheap way to explain why a character changes.
Hell, Troudeau has done it without the Very Special Episode bit himself with Mike. AND with Zonker. Zonker didn’t get hit by a car and then discover he was gay, he just figured it out. Mike didn’t lose a friend to 9-11 and then become a Republican, he just decided (pre 9-11) that he wanted to be one. If BD was going to have an Attitude Adjustment, it could have come from introspection or discussion with someone else rather than the Very Special Episode where he gets his leg blown off.
The idea that it’s somehow contrived or inappropriate for a character who is a soldier in a war to, gee, I don’t know, GET INJURED in that war just boggles me.
Actually, it did have a “special episode feel” to it…it wasn’t exactly a natural evolution in the character, it came about as a from-beyond-the-grave revelation from Andy Lippincott. Whose death from AIDS, as well, had something of that “special episode feel.”
Trudeau is still a good writer (although his humor has suffered from his dislike of Bush II - he handled Reagan and Bush I much better), but like anyone, he’s on on his game 100% of the time, and quite frankly, the Mark-is-gay stuff was on the wrong end of that equation, IMHO.
Nope, you think wrong. I am not annoyed at all, I am just voicing my opinion…and being second-guessed by people who obviously DO have a political axe to grind.
