Doonesbury Watch: New perils for the Red Rascal?

The Red Rascal was the protagonist of
Red Rascal's War: A Doonesbury Book.

by Ken

It's funny how, in my particular Doonesbury world, most paths seem to lead back to Joanie Caucus. Just recently we were looking at the fateful meet-up of Joanie's daughter, J.J., the child she abandoned when she walked out on her abusive first husband, and then-Walden College senior Mike Doonesbury. Now we have a brand-new Sunday strip featuring her slacker son (with her second and current husband, reporter Rick Redfern), Jeff.

Here's the entry on Jeff from Wikipedia's "List of Doonesbury characters" (links onsite):

Jeff Redfern (born 12/31/82, appears 1/1/83) -- Joanie and Rick's son and Alex's uncle. Jeff graduated from Walden (and stopped rooming with Zipper Harris), formerly worked for the Central Intelligence Agency with Havoc, and was in Afghanistan working for contractor Jack Overkill. Through social networking, Jeff established himself as the mysterious but fictional anti-Taliban fighter known as the "The Red Rascal" ("Sorkh Razil" in the local dialect). In early 2012, he received a seven-figure advance for his next two books, enabling him to purchase a 12-bedroom trophy mansion, but was evicted in October 2012 when he was unable to keep up the payments.

And now, apparently, Jeff is in new peril.

DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau

[Click to enlarge.]

Taco Bell -- that would be back in Afghanistan?

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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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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

*     *     *

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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Doonesbury Watch: Ms. Caucus goes to law school (with Saturday UPDATE)

The Caucus family tree

by Ken

I've made no secret of the fact that of all the Doonesbury characters, it seems to be Joanie Caucus who exerts the strongest pull on me, and one thing that the apparently unending world of Doonesbury weekday reruns archival flashbacks has made possible for us is to revisit the long path Joanie has traveled, from her flight from an abusive husband to the position of day-care provider for the Walden Commune on up to her coming out of retirement to join the Senate staff of Elizabeth Warren -- and also embracing, or at any rate falling into, the role of great-grandmotherdom since the birth of her grandddaughter Alex's twins.

When last we encountered "Flashback" Joanie, she had set her sights on moving up from day care to the law ("When Joanie Caucus applied to law school"), though despite her kids' support, the law schools she was applying to didn't seem to see much future for her in the profession.

Right away we're introduced to two new characters.


DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau
[Click on any strip to enlarge -- nice and big (I think!).]

Monday


Tuesday


Wednesday


Thursday


Friday



EXCUSE ME? "SHE SAID FOR YOU TO MAKE IT"???

Hmm, that doesn't seem likely to go over well, given Joanie's history, does it? I don't know whether this plot line is going to extend into another week, but we know we've got one more day at least, and I for once can wait to see whether we see Joanie drag herself out of bed to make Clyde breakfast.


SATURDAY UPDATE: AND HERE IT IS --

Saturday


Oh, Joanie, Joanie! Still a long ways to go.

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Doonesbury Watch: When Joanie Caucus applied to law school

DOONESBURY -- Way back when

DOONESBURY -- Friday, February 8, 2013

Top: When last we left "historic" Joanie, she'd entered the day-care industry at Walden commune. Bottom: Latter-day Joanie is feeling the pressure of her new job -- as by far the oldest member of Elizabeth Warren's Senate staff. Here, even much-loved granddaughter Alex has trouble getting through. (Alex has since given birth to twins, making Joanie a great-grandmother.) [Click on either strip to enlarge.]

by Ken

It didn't occur to me until I began sifting through these voluminous "flashbacks" Garry Trudeau has been dumping on sharing with us that Joanie Caucus may be my favorite Doonesbury character. My goodness, she has just been through so much.

In March ("Our own Doonesbury flashback: When Joanie Caucus joined Elizabeth Warren's Senate staff") we caught up with Joanie starting and then getting the hang of her new job. Then in April we were able to go back almost all the way to the beginning: "When the young(er) Joanie Caucus met up with the Doonesbury gang," having just left her husband Clinton. This week Garry T took us back to the time when Joanie made the fateful decision to go to law school. The initial returns, as we see, were not encouraging.

Here's the portion of Joanie's Wikipedia bio we need to bring us up to date (note that the links for Mike and Mark are to their real Wikipedia bios):

Joanie Caucus is a fictional character in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury.

She first appeared in September 1972 in which she has a fight with her husband, Clinton, over her rights as a woman. She finds that her recently acquired feminist beliefs clash with his idea of how a wife should behave, and she promptly walks out on him. She catches a ride with Mike Doonesbury and Mark Slackmeyer, who happen to be traveling cross-country on motorcycle at the time, and travels with them back to Walden Commune.

There she spends several years living with the other characters while running a day-care service for local children (whose parents often aren't too thrilled when their little girls came home talking about Women's Rights). While running Walden Day Care, Caucus sends off applications to several real-life law schools (whose actual students petitioned the schools to accept her as a student).

DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau
[Click on any of the strips to enlarge]

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

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When the young(er) Joanie Caucus met up with the Doonesbury gang

You remember this Doonesbury strip?

DOONESBURY -- Monday, Februay 4, 2013

[Click to enlarge]

by Ken

Awhile back, pursuing an earlier fit of Doonesbury nostalgia, I offered "Our own Doonesbury flashback: When Joanie Caucus joined Elizabeth Warren's Senate staff," reprising two weeks' worth of strips that Garry Trudeau himself had just reprinted, originally from February and March 2013, when our old, old Doonesbury companion Joanie Caucus came out of retirement to join the Senate staff of Elizabeth Warren, whose candidacy she had supported so ardently. What I couldn't get over, and had to give Garry Trudeau immense credit for, was allowing his characters to face the rigors of time. Which made it harder, not easier, for me to deal with the Joanie of modern times (now a great-grandmother!):

Lately Garry T has been flashing back to the earliest days of Doonesbury, days before I discovered the strip, from which I've seen only the occasional reprised or anthologized specimen. And among the resurrected strips have been those that introduced us and the Doonesbury gang, then ensconced in their Walden commune, to the young(er) Joanie. I couldn't resist revisiting how she came into their, and our, lives.

DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau

Joanie meets Mark S and Mike D, then Zonker H
[Click on any strip to enlarge it]

Day 1


Day 2


Two days later



Joanie starts a job -- in day care
[Click on any strip to enlarge it]

Day 1


Day 2


Day 3

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Our own Doonesbury flashback: When Joanie Caucus joined Elizabeth Warren's Senate staff

DOONESBURY -- Monday, Februay 4, 2013

[Click on any of today's strips to enlarge -- significantly!]

by Ken

A couple of weeks ago, in presenting that Sunday's Doonesbury comparison of "Banskter Life in the U.S. vs. Iceland," I got sidetracked into reflecting on the shock of radio guy Mark Slackmeyer's white hair, and pointed out:

Simpsons creator Matt Groening, you'll recall, made the conscious decision at the outset that his characters wouldn't age, that they would remain pretty much locked in time. Garry Trudeau has taken the opposite tack. I don't know of any comic strip whose cast of characters has been subjected so thoroughgoingly to the vicissitudes of time. (The website has long had a Flashbacks page, where on any given day we can see the strips that appeared 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 35, and 40 years ago.)

I also recalled the dramatic instance of the series "in which our old companion Joanie Caucus came out of retirement to join the staff of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (of whose campaign she had been a zealous supporter), only to find herself feeling like a dinosaur amid the toddlerish other staffers," and I added parenthetically that "we really should take a look at that whole series one of these days."

Today's the day. The series to which I was referring had only just been revived in Doonesbury "Flashback" form, having originally appeared in Februay 2013, with a follow-up series the following month.


Continuation of Week 1 (February 4–9, 2013)

DOONESBURY -- Tuesday


DOONESBURY -- Wednesday


DOONESBURY -- Thursday


DOONESBURY -- Friday


DOONESBURY -- Saturday



Week 2 (March 18–23, 2013)

DOONESBURY -- Monday


DOONESBURY -- Tuesday


DOONESBURY -- Wednesday


DOONESBURY -- Thursday


DOONESBURY -- Friday


DOONESBURY -- Saturday


The other principal players in these strips are:

• Joanie's granddaughter Alex, who has since -- in June -- both gotten her Ph.D. and given birth to twins, making Joanie a great-grandmother;

• Joanie's husband, Rick Redfern, "best known [according to his Doonesbury website "cast bio"] for his long career as a hard-hitting investigative reporter for the Washington Post." After being "booted from the Post," Rick --

suddenly [found] himself blogging for a living, ever in search of eyeballs and a paycheck. Long baffled and frustrated by his slacker son Jeff’s unearned sense of entitlement, Redfern suffered the indignity of watching him strike bestseller gold as the Facebook folk hero "Red Rascal” and buy a 12-bedroom mansion. Rick is also puzzled by the fact that he is married to a grandmother. He now writes for the Huffington Post.

I see that for much of "The Cast (Who's Who on Planet Doonesbury)" we're told that "bio updates are coming soon." However, the bios of Joanie, Rick, and Alex's father (Joanie's onetime son-in-law), Mike Doonesbury, have already been updated. I especially like -- or maybe just identify with -- the end of Mike's current bio:

Mike's annual Summer Fantasy remains a highlight of his year, and he still pitches decent startup ideas to longtime venture capitalist pal Bernie. The two graying colleagues console one another over the fact that to attractive young women they are now just a couple of generic Old Guys, and hence invisible.

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