Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 18, 2011

Leo is kind of fragile right now. Is this a good idea?

Yeah.

There will never be a ‘good’ time to dragoon Leo.

GEE1A> I missed something, I guess. “shot gun wedding”?

Alex is preggers?

Over time, Alex henpecks Leo or turns him into a Stepford Husband.

^Not a chance. Leo will talk her down - or let her talk herself down - again. Alex gets away from herself, but Leo grounds her. They’ll be all right.

I awoke from a coma 30 years ago to hear my girlfriend making wedding plans with her mother. She was 17. My first words awake were “Yes Dear”

Leo is probably all for it. But he should at least think it’s his idea.

Leo’s neither insecure nor stupid. So this might still work.

Supersurfer said

Leo is kind of fragile right now. Is this a good idea?

I sometimes wonder how many of the posters forget this is simply a comic; a universe which exists only in the mind of Garry Trudeau. If GT wills it, tomorrow’s “Doonesbury” strip can show Leo rising up like the Incredible Hulk.

“Just a few hundred people - nothing grand”

The cocoon of self absorption that Alex lives in keeps getting bigger.

Al - True enough, but we read comics with the conceit that we know the characters and can usually predict how they will react to a given situation. Yes, sometimes a situation arises from which we learn something we didn’t know about a character. But, I don’t think a strip in which characters regularly responded in a manner not consistant with their past behavior would keep a popular following for very long.

Do I need to adjust my monitor, or is Kim turning green?

Dan, I agree. GT is a good story teller, and like any good author has gifted his subjects with plausible, consistant personality types. In this case, Leo is an ISTP. Having him suddenly start behaving as an ENFJ would not be credible, and would not be consistant with his story-telling style.

And Mike and Kim bring Alex back down to Earth. All will be well.

nemesys - which is the personality type fewest are? (Meyers-Briggs/Jungian)

Well, Gram died and may have left her a few bucks to contribute so wait until the will is probated. (Unles she already had everything co-owned with Mike which wouild make things easier.)

Note: in the Doonesbury universe, I guess you don’t have the catharsis of cleaning up after the dead.

babka - INFJ is the rarest, about 4% if I remember correctly, but it’s been a long time.

That would make for a riveting strip!!

This is how it worked for me. She wanted it and she got got it. April 1st will be 16 years. We’re separated and the papers aren’t drawn up yet but we’ll be divorced by the end of the year.

D’ya ever get the impression that very few people actually r e a d the comic strip or the comments?

Mid-20th century drama school and the audience is attending a theatre-of-their-own-mind.

@chrisnp; you need to adjust your monitor.

@jeanne1212; if you pay attention to the comments, you’ll see that many comments are posted as comments on previous comments. There is a dialogue going on.

Of course, many of the comments refer directly to the comic strip itself.

Do you ever read the strip or the comments? Just asking. ;>)

Alabama_Al said I sometimes wonder how many of the posters forget this is simply a comic; a universe which exists only in the mind of Garry Trudeau. If GT wills it, tomorrow’s “Doonesbury” strip can show Leo rising up like the Incredible Hulk.

No, this is not “just a comic”. It is an ongoing story told by a master storyteller. And as all good storytellers, GT has created interesting believable characters that behave according to their personalities and past, just like people in real life. Although they may be fictional comic strip characters, they are constrained by the same real world limits that we all are. Leo can no more turn into the Incredible Hulk than any of us could. To do otherwise would break the suspension of belief that keeps us engrossed in the story.

Look at (almost?) all the long lived “real life” comic strips: Doonesbury, For Better or For Worse, Luann, 9 Chickweed Lane, Stone Soup, etc. All of these “stories” involve characters who would be indistinguishable from real people we read about in the newspaper. [Well, maybe except for the Duke! ;-)]

Have any of you actually met Tiger Woods, Lindsay Lohan or Sandra Bullock? What really makes them any more “real” than Leo, Alex or Mike?

In addition, most good storytellers will tell you that the characters they create take on a life of their own, driving the story in ways never envisioned by their creator.

No doubt Leo loves Alex, but I doubt he will want to get married until he’s in a position to independently support the two of them. No way will he want to try living as newlyweds in Mom’s trailer - or at least I hope to God he has more self-respect than that. :)

joe, My parents were married on April 1st. I always thought that was a strange day to pick for a wedding. They were married for about 53 years (“..’til death…”), so I guess it was no joke.

At least Alex isn’t as pushy as some people.

Teresa said, So if they don’t live in Mom’s trailer, would they live in her dorm room? Maybe plan for a long engagement.

I understand there’s some “back 40” property available now.