Doonesbury Comicstrip

Web site: http://www.doonesbury.com/

Today's Doonesbury is available

Doonesbury, the LillyWong? of the West, started as a parody of college life. But because the characters grew in realtime (unlike, say, CalvinAndHobbes or Archie), they soon graduated from the late 1960s rebellion and mired themselves in 1990s ironies. B.D. (the guy in a helmet), Boopsie, Mike Doonesbury, Zonker Harris, UncleDuke, Megaphone Mark, Joanie Caucus & all the rest have all grown up and participated in wars, PG-13 rated movies, failed startups, competitive tanning, foreign revolutions, media frenzies, US government malfeasance & parenthood.

This page originally finished with "all without losing their 1960s utopian visions. Or learning anything from them."

Then, B.D. lost his leg in Iraq. He subsequently appeared without his helmet, for the first time in the strip's history, ever since his appearance in the first panel of the first strip.

He wondered, "What that was all about?"

Since then, the USA Veterans Administration has treated Trudeau like a journalist, and the B.D. plot arc has covered many of the logistic and psychological aspects of a maimed soldier's recovery.

Maybe B.D. has learned something from his experiences. As a hard-headed foe of commies, communes, and hippies everywhere, B.D.'s helmet represented the insecurities that he projected onto his world.

From November 1995

Panel One: Mike Doonesbury drives his car while talking on his cellphone to his boss, ubergeek Bernie.

Boss: Mike? It's Bernie! We need a web site!

Mike: We do?

Panel Two:

Boss: Yup! We're falling behind. I want a strong web presence by next Monday, got it?

Mike: Um... Sure. I'll get right on it, Bernie. Consider it done.

Panel Three: He dials another number on the cellphone.

Panel Four:

Mike: Alex? It's me. What's a web site?

Alex (his 8yo daughter): Oh, daddy, I've explained it to you a zillion times!

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