Comics' war story lines give the funnies a serious tone

By Jennifer Lloyd
Seattle Times staff reporter

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A soldier is stationed in Iraq. He sees some combat, gets wounded and leaves the conflict missing a limb.

Sounds like a wartime tale, all right, but it's also the recent story line of two comic strips published in The Seattle Times and other newspapers across the country.

Starting last Monday, both "Doonesbury" and "Get Fuzzy" took a somber tone. Both portrayed characters injured in Iraq. Both characters lost a leg.

According to representatives from the "Doonesbury" strip's syndicate, the parallel story lines are a coincidence.

While the comics typically are perceived as light-hearted escape from the sometimes-jarring news in other sections, many acknowledge comics as a venue for political commentary.

"Comics do for us what 'Saturday Night Live' does for late-night viewing, same for Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show'," said Patricia Moy, associate professor of communication at the University of Washington. "You get political information conveyed (within) a certain venue."

And now some cartoonists are using that opportunity to focus on Iraq.

Garry Trudeau has long dealt with controversial matters in "Doonesbury." He has addressed the Vietnam War, AIDS and the aftermath of 9-11, so his choice to cover the Iraq conflict may be less surprising to his readers. But the way he portrayed the loss of character B.D.'s limb — and signature helmet — added a new twist to his approach.

Trudeau began last week's series with scenes of Ray, a soldier previously wounded in the Gulf War, tending to B.D., who was not actually shown in the panels.

As the "Doonesbury" series progressed, B.D. was medevaced by helicopter. For the first time in the history of the strip, B.D.'s helmet was removed. (The helmet had been a staple, morphing through B.D.'s various careers: college football player, Vietnam veteran, Rams quarterback, Gulf War reservist and California Highway Patrol officer.) But now his helmet is off, and B.D. will begin a new chapter of his comic-strip life without it — and without part of his left leg.
 
Trudeau has been quoted as saying, "During times of war, I've always placed a character in the thick of it. It's usually B.D., because he's sturdy and he doesn't over-think things."

B.D. is a character with his own voice, not merely a puppet for Trudeau's opinions, according to Dirk Deppey, managing editor of "The Comics Journal."

"Trudeau is in many ways a trailblazer when it comes to subject matter in his strip," Deppey said. "Because he tends to blaze these trails, he doesn't set it up with Howard Stern-style shock-jokes. He tends to approach it with some gravity."

In response, dozens of "Doonesbury" readers posted messages on the strip's Web site, many commenting on how emotionally involved they've become with the strip.

Still, some newspapers decided "Doonesbury's" spin was unfit for print. The Journal-Advocate in Sterling, Colo., chose not to run last week's strip, citing the "graphic, violent battlefield depictions of Iraq."

The Boston Globe also refused to print Friday's strip because of "language inappropriate for a general readership."

"Doonesbury" appears in about 1,400 newspapers.

The Seattle Times is among the newspapers that run "Doonesbury" on the editorial page instead of on the comics page with lighter fare. The Times decided to run the strip — and the language — "in the context of soldiers at war," editorial-page editor James F. Vesely wrote in a Sunday column. A few readers disagreed with the decision, he said.

"Of course, individual newspapers are going to object to certain things on the comics pages now and then," said Greg Melvin, who edits "The Boondocks" at Universal Press Syndicate. "That's certainly their right."

" 'Doonesbury' was the first overtly political strip," Melvin said. "It talked about the Vietnam War, and it talked about the Vietnam War in a way that was very different from 'Beetle Bailey' because it represents a generational shift."

Similarly, Darby Conley took his strip, "Get Fuzzy," away from its typical subject matter last week. The strip appears in about 400 newspapers and primarily revolves around the life and times of a disgruntled Siamese cat named Bucky Katt.

Last week, Bucky's "guardian," Rob Wilco, received a call informing him that his cousin was returning from Iraq without his leg. Wilco then went to some trouble trying to meet cousin William at Andrews Air Force Base.

A spokesperson for United Feature Syndicate, which represents Conley, said the cartoonist did not want to be interviewed because he wanted his work to stand on its own.

Jake Morrissey, managing editor of comics at the syndicate, said this was not the first dive into seriousness for the cartoonist. Conley has dealt with relationships and family situations that weren't slapstick comedic relief.

"Cartoonists, in general, draw from their experience of the world," said Morrissey. "The fact that there are two very different comic strips looking at a very similar subject in very different ways in one specific week tells me that the events of what's happening in the Middle East are becoming part of what everyone is reading.

"For good or ill, it's becoming part of the fabric of our experience."

Jennifer Lloyd: jlloyd@seattletimes.com

Past "Doonesbury" and "Get Fuzzy" strips can be found at seattletimes.com/comics.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company