Doonesbury? Nah. At some point the quality of the humor seemed insufficient to make me overlook the fact that the characters have cigar boxes for noses. I looked at it today – the Sam Donaldson TV guy is interviewing a suicide bomber, ho ho. Last time I checked the Hunter Thompson guy was doing something with the Chinese woman in the background, and they were talking to some Iraqi guy who was naturally more articulate, Westernized and worldly than anyone else. Rule of thumb in a Doonie cartoon: if the main character encounters anyone from another country, no matter how primitive or different, that person will have the deadpan ironic character of an American college student. (Rule two: in Doonesbury, all American college students are IDIOTS.) I don’t blame him for settling into the comfy rut; he had a great run. But his new Bush caricature is a headless floating Roman helmet with an asterisk, and it just says “I can’t draw Bush.” It makes you wonder whether he’s bothered to draw anything new since the Ronald Reagan Max Headroom character.
Doonesbury hasn’t been funny since Trudeau took his famous vacation and came back with the strip completely changed, characters finally graduated and out in the Real World(tm). The problem is that Trudeau doesn’t really understand how the Real World works, and he’s getting more and more shrill as time goes on.
Generally I tend to agree with most of Lileks’ takes, except for this one about “Blondie”:
But the strip seems to have shed half its cast in the last few years. I can’t remember the last time we witnessed a really good mailman collision, or the appearance of Elmo, the small brat-child from down the street.
You must be blanking, friend; both have occurred in the very recent past. In fact I wish Elmo would go away. Doesn’t Dagwood ever lock a door?
However, this is genius:
If Cathy must die so these characters can live, so be it. Such is the circle of life. [link added]
No kidding. I haven’t read Cathy for years. I have educated myself to simply glide right past it. A seriously stupid strip that has really outlived itself.
Anyway, read the whole thing. There’s a twist ending.