Doonesbury Watch: When Blondie fell for Rick

Red Rascal, (self-created) mythic scourge of the Taliban

Where do future self-mythologizing CIA-intern-washout anti-Taliban fighters come from? Doonesbury's Jeff Redfern, a legend in his own mind (and on his blog, of course, which as any blogger knows is almost the same thing), is the son of Joanie Caucus and Rick Redfern.

by Ken

As Mr. Trudeau continues his TV toils, and Doonesbury lives on in Weekday Archival Mode ("They're both full-time jobs," our Mr. T explained in February), we've been plucking out Great Moments in the History of Joanie Caucus, who (as I've noted I've come to realize) is my favorite character in the vast extended Doonesbury tribe -- now a great grandmother (to granddaughter Alex Doonesbury's twins) and the oldest member of Elizabeth Warren's Senate staff (on her first day on the job, she was guessed by another staffer to be the senator's mother).

Now we have two weeks' worth of fateful encounters. When last we dallied with Joanie, we were reminded of the long-troubled history of her love life (when she first met up with the Doonesbury gang, she had just walked out on her abusive husband Clinton Caucus) as she met charming lawyer Andy Lippincott, who might have been her soulmate if not for the inconvenient circumstance that he was gay. Before that, when Joanie (finally) made it to law school, she almost immediately made two acquaintances who would remain with the strip long-term (and play major roles in this set of strips): her roommate Ginnie Slade and Ginnie's, er, problematic then-boyfriend (eventually husband) Clyde -- one bio of Clyde I've seen uses the unkind term "freeloader."

At the point where we rejoin our characters, Joanie is managing Ginnie's against-the-odds run for Congress -- you'll note the early encounter with a competitor who would become one of Doonesbury's most cherished characters, and her hapless-twit husband. In the campaign's final stage Joanie has an encounter of her own with a certain Washington Post political reporter, who went on to play a very large tole in both her life and that of the strip.

DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"If you've got the time" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"Try not to get involved!" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"What was the reason?" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"Making progress" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"Young Lacey" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"An announcement to make" [Click to enlarge]



DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"Unless they want rewrites" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"Promise me" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"The kid goes for broke" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
"She should be up by now" [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
Uh-oh! [Click to enlarge]


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau -- 
Oops! [Click to enlarge]

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