Garry Trudeau

Re "Doonesbury" cartoon, May 29: Many thanks to Garry Trudeau for naming the names of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq since April 28, 2004. The Bush administration would prefer that we don't see the caskets, or know the names. Thank you, Mr. Trudeau, for reminding us what President Bush's misadventure really costs. Winston Steward Los Angeles

Not long after the dust settled from the Iraqi explosion that took "Doonesbury" comic strip character B.D.'s left leg last year, the Pentagon was on the phone. The frequent target of "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau, the Defense Department offered the satirist extensive access to soldiers wounded while fighting in Iraq and the doctors and caregivers trying to put their bodies -- and psyches -- back together.

Arousing passions to promote or protest war is not a difficult thing to do. Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda for the Third Reich, was able to convince millions of Germans that Poland actually attacked the Fatherland. All Goebbels had to do was fake a few pictures of dead German soldiers at the Polish border and the Panzers were off to the races. Imagine Iwo Jima in the age of the live shot. Or D-day in a time of instant satellite communication.

Fact and fiction on the campaign trail will blur just as they did 16 years ago, when the "Tanner '88" team reunites for fresh satire on this year's presidential race. The three-episode series, not yet titled, will reunite "Tanner '88" co-creators -- director Robert Altman and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau -- as well as cast members Michael Murphy, Cynthia Nixon, Pamela Reed and Matt Malloy. It will air in October on the Sundance Channel, the cable network announced Monday.

Cartoonist Garry B. Trudeau on Memorial Day will devote his comic strip "Doonesbury" to listing U.S. military personnel who have been killed during the war in Iraq. More than 700 names will appear in tiny type over six panels in the Sunday strip. A note beneath the final panel will say, "List as of April 23, 2004...."

When filmmaker Michael Moore walked onto the floor of the Democratic National Convention on a hot July morning, it was as though a dry sponge had dropped into a puddle of water -- he was instantly swarmed by reporters. High overhead, in a fifth-floor suite at Boston's Fleet Center, director Robert Altman and writer Garry Trudeau watched and marveled.

Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, California's top crime fighter, took on a slippery new villain Tuesday--Zonker, the fictional hippie of Doonesbury fame. Lungren, who insists that he enjoys a good laugh as much as the next guy, attacked Zonker and his creator, Garry Trudeau, for contributing to a "permissive attitude" toward drug use with this week's cartoons. "I appreciate political satire," Lungren said at a Capitol news conference, "but I think I know when a line has been crossed.