Doonesbury Watch: When Joanie met Andy -- we meet Doonesbury's Andy Lippincott

by Ken

In this brave new world of Permanent Except-on-Sunday Doonesbury Flashbacks -- er, "Classic Doonesbury" -- there is consolation in the reality that the Doonesbury archive isn't a bad place to be stranded. There's a lot of stuff here that I myself missed the first time around, and it's been great to catch up on the earlier adventures of characters I only later came to know and cherish.

In particular, as regular readers know, I've been fascinated to encounter highlights of the life and times of Joanie Caucus before she became the Joanie Caucus I've known. When last we caught up with Joanie, she had just (finally!) begun law school. This week's flashback, from 1976 has been haunting, not for Joanie but for the new character introduced.

Click on all strips to enlarge.


DOONESBURY -- Monday


DOONESBURY -- Tuesday


DOONESBURY -- Wednesday


DOONESBURY -- Thursday


DOONESBURY -- Friday

DOONESBURY -- Saturday

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FROM WIKIPEDIA'S ENTRY ON ANDY LIPPINCOTT --
[Links and notes onsite]

Publication history

The character first appears in January 1976, in a law library. Joanie Caucus becomes attracted to him while working before Lippincott confesses he is gay. Joanie is heartbroken, and takes some time to recover. Lippincott contributes position papers to Virginia Slade's failed run for Congress in 1976. He disappears from the strip for a few years after this storyline.

In 1982, the character reappears as an organizer for the Bay Area Gay Alliance, and contributes to the congressional re-election of Lacey Davenport. In 1989 he returns to the strip again when he is diagnosed with AIDS. Over the course of the next year, Lippincott's battles with the disease, and eventual death from it, helped bring the AIDS crisis into popular culture. Ultimately, he is shown dying to the sound of the Beach Boys' song "Wouldn't It Be Nice", finally fulfilling his wish to hear the (then newly released) CD version of their album Pet Sounds.[1]
Shortly thereafter, Andy made posthumous appearances in the strip, first declaring "Brian Wilson is God" in a note found in his hand (having been listening to Pet Sounds on CD as he died),[2] and then making several more days of appearances in a self-made video shown during his memorial service.[3]

Significance

This storyline led to a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Garry Trudeau,[4] but three newspapers of the 900 carrying the strip refused to publish it as being in bad taste.[5] The character has re-appeared in the strip since, in the dream sequences of other characters, notably Joanie Caucus and Mark Slackmeyer.
Andy Lippincott may be the only fictional character with a panel on the AIDS quilt. The panel (created by G. Scott Austen, Marceo Miranda and Juan-Carlos Castano) reads: "In Loving Memory: Andy Lippincott 1945-1990. Community leader, conservationist, author, Olympic medalist, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize!" The panel hangs in The NAMES Project Foundation's offices in Atlanta and was not actually sewn into a block of The AIDS Memorial Quilt.[note 1]

IF YOU WANTED TO PICK A MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
IN COMIC-STRIP HISTORY, IS THERE ANYTHING CLOSE?

DOONESBURY -- May 1990

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