Michael Cavna: Sixty Papers Pass On Abortion-Themed Doonesburys

Michael Cavna at Comic Riffs has a round-up of news related to last week's run of abortion-themed Doonesbury strips. Apparently, more than twice the number of papers than expected by the syndicate ran alternates or suspended the feature for the week, but that this number was still less than five percent of the feature's total clients. His last point is interesting, too, that it generated almost no talk-show content. I'm not sure that automatically means that something like Doonesbury lacks a footprint in the current culture -- although I'm sure without even looking some knobheaded commentator out there wrote an article or blog post entitled "They Still Publish Doonesbury?" or something similar -- but it seems to lack one in the way that allows for most political culture stories to gain traction. I think more people read these kinds of things than one might think, but that they may have always made less of an impression than people might have hoped, but that's a hunch on my part.

There's a fine interview here with Garry Trudeau where he talks about creating his comics in a world of rapid-response satire. He makes the point that the strips featuring characters about which people care seem to allow for greater impact. That kind of sounds trite if you look at it one way, but I think it's a point that bears repeating as frequently as possible. Trudeau also notes that someone released all the strips on a single day and that this was a potential problem for some of his clients in the obvious way that would be. I hadn't heard someone had done that.
 
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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