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Brooks Peterson
Brooks Peterson's column is published Mondays. Brooks also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at petersonb@caller.com
Monday, June 5, 2000
Doonesbury had no time for Charlie Brown
Something remarkable, and deeply poignant, took place on this newspaper's comics pages on Saturday, May 27.
Almost every strip on the our two full comics pages included a tribute to the late Charles Schulz, creator of "Peanuts."
This was orchestrated to coincide with a black-tie dinner of the National Cartoonists Society that evening in New York. There, the group posthumously honored the man many of them knew as "Sparky" by conferring on him the highest honor of their craft: the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.
Saturday's informal comics-page tribute was in its way even more impressive.
For one thing, it has to have been the result of a truly formidable organizational effort: Cartoonists work with long lead times; there was no question of pulling this off in an ad-hoc, off-the-cuff fashion.
More remarkable still was the fact that so many individuals who approach their work from so many different directions had joined in this salute. These are artists, after all.
OK: Make that almost all. A quick tally of the Caller-Times funnies by our crack research staff (that, uh, would be me) revealed that of 34 multi-panel strips and single-box 'toons, only four cartoonists opted out of the tribute - and one of those, Wiley Miller of "Non Sequitur," devoted his Sunday strip to Schulz.
The others? "Snuffy Smith," which has been plowing the same rut - er, furrow - for decades, "Geech," whose appeal is somewhat elusive, and . . . Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury?"
What's going on there?
Now, the other two are not exactly a big cosmic deal. But Trudeau? He, like Schulz, is an established star in a precarious profession - a line of work whose mortality rate is, to say the least, daunting. (Anybody out there remember "The Great Atomic Aftermath and Fresh Fruit Festival?" I didn't think so.)
You might have expected Trudeau to deliver some sort of tribute to Schulz and "Peanuts" - nothing fancy, just a graceful gesture.
But no: All we had in that Saturday's funnies was Mike Doonesbury interacting with a couple of greedhead Gen-Xers intent on muscling their way into the dot-com gold rush.
Now, Trudeau is an incisive commentator on the American version of the human comedy. He generally takes a leftish slant, which, according to reports reaching us, tends to make the veins pop out on the foreheads of some of our rightish readers.
He is also Relevant: In his time, he has skewered the philistinism of American pop culture, the graying of the once-idealistic flower children of the '60s and '70s, and the decline of higher education.
He does this very well. But is he such a Major Talent that he couldn't (or wouldn't?) condescend to join in the celebration of Charles Schulz's life and work?
A call to Universal Press Syndicate, which carries "Doonesbury," produced an explanation: Trudeau had written a letter to the Washington Post paying tribute to Schulz after his death, deeming that the most appropriate course for him to take.
Oh.
Of course, Trudeau's no-show diminishes "Peanuts" not one whit. Long after Mike Doonesbury and his cohorts have toddled off stage, Sparky's kids and creatures - Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Pigpen, Peppermint Patty, Marcy, Snoopy, Woodstock, et al - will remain fresh, wry, and, most important, funny.
Writing in the Sunday Times of London after Schulz's death in February, columnist Simon Jenkins took pains to make it clear that he regards "Peanuts" and Schulz as, well, beneath him. Despite himself, however, the supercilious Brit saw what was obvious to millions:
"His appeal was to simple people, but also to the simple in all people. He made them ponder a split second longer than they expected. In that second lay the philosopher."
For crying out loud: If Mallard Fillmore, the right-wing duck, can recognize that, why can't Mike Doonesbury?
(Brooks Peterson can be reached by phone at 886-3772 or by e-mail at petersonb@caller.com)
Brooks Peterson
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