B.D.

[ralphmelton]

I was really deeply moved by today's Doonesbury.


I noticed that B.D. was missing his helmet in the last frame before I noticed that he was missing his leg. The missing helmet makes a stronger statement about what it means to B.D.

B.D. has always been wearing a helmet of some sort, since he appeared in the first comic strip almost 30 years ago. It's been the symbol of who B.D. is. And now it's gone.

This isn't a cheap emotional ploy on Trudeau's part. It's a very expensive emotional ploy. and it wouldn't be nearly so touching without the decades of history leading up to B.D.'s loss today.

Comments

[slog.livejournal.com]

oh no :-(

I've been into doonesbury since I was a little kid. My mom had a big book of doonesbury...so I guess I got involved with political satire from the beginning.

I named my frog I was disecting in 8th grade "Leonard the Talking Frog" after a Doonesbury comic.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

I didn't really get into Doonesbury until college, but I have all the collections. I learned a lot about the history of the 70's by asking my parents to explain Doonesbury to me.

[slog.livejournal.com]

that makes sense :-)

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

The first time I heard about the Vietnam war was reading Doonsebury collections in my school's library. Couldn't understand what people were talking about in the comic a lot of the times, but I liked what he said...

[cellio]

Me too. A couple days ago I thought Trudeau was going to kill the character, but this hits even harder. And this from someone who reads the strip only sporadically.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

It was/is really sad. But I think he's very brave and wonderful for reminding us that this is happening to people in Iraq even as I type this.