THE ‘DOONESBURY’ INTERVIEW: Garry Trudeau says to ignore abortion-law debate would have been ‘comedy malpractice’

"A panel from next week’s “Doonesbury." (Courtesy of Universal Uclick)"

Michael Cavna (WaPo):

ONLY ONCE IN the long history of “Doonesbury” has Garry Trudeau’s syndicate ever intensely objected to one of his story arcs. It was 1985, a documentary purporting to show the reactions of a fetus had been released, and Trudeau satirized the film “The Silent Scream” with his own “prequel” strips featuring “little Timmy,” a 12-minute-old embryo.

Those strips never saw wide release in newspapers.

“At that time, we thought the merits of the week would get lost in the larger discussion of abortion,” Lee Salem, president of Universal UClick (“Doonesbury’s” syndicate) tells Comic Riffs. Trudeau and Universal agreed to pull the strips.

Now, however, amid heated debate about pre-termination ultrasound laws, Trudeau has decided to take on the abortion debate head-on for the first time in “Doonesbury’s” four decades.

“To ignore it,” Trudeau tells Comic Riffs, “would have been comedy malpractice.” MORE...