Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for May 01, 2021

Next thing you know, they will telling us that’s club soda in the martini glass and Duke is a teetotaler.

Not exactly, Mister Butts. It’s more a ‘glimpse behind the scenes’ thing. This ain’t Disney, y’know.

(Not yet, at any rate.)

“Spoiling the magic” seems to be a phrase that arose in the 90s in conjunction with the appearance of a number of t.v. programs explaining, in excruciating detail, how various iconic pop artifacts were created.

“Spoiling the magic”…there has been a years-long debate between me and my wife. I want to know how Kermit rode the bicycle!

Nice misdirection. A comic describing the special effects for a live movie with animation and still getting it wrong.

Perhaps that is just club soda… But he uses it to wash down the acid -shrooms – ecstacy – mescaline – dmt – and morning glory

My Mom had several expressions describing that ‘look’ . One of my favorites was, "Hey! Don’t open your eyes so wide, you’ll bleed to death. "

Simple: if he’s in the panel, he’s stoned.

Today the image is also upscaled and additional “tween” panels are generated. :)

I liked the arc where his date took on the head of condor, and a squadron of miniature B-52’s dropped bombs over his drink.

Or that those “cigarettes” aren’t roll your own.

it’s impressive that he redrew both panels 3 and 4 without copying and pasting.

In fact, in that last panel, he IS the magic…

Talk about getting a little head of himself!

So complicated. I would just smoke a joint and poof….bubbles, waves, all sorts of special effects.

Duke is based on Hunter Thompson, who died in early 2005. That makes his life a closed book, and gradually we’re seeing him in a historical context rather than a current figure, so over time it’s becoming more and more uncomfortable to see him; before long it’ll be like looking at Lenny Bruce or Ernie Kovacs.