"Garry Trudeau is the premier American social and political satirist of his time."--Newsweek

"He has transformed the comic strip into a venue of social commentary not seen since the nineteenth-century broadsides that gave rise to daily newspapering. It seems only fitting that something as modest as a comic strip could serve as the American equivalent to Tolstoy."--Seattle Times

"Not since Thomas Nast has there been a more effective political and social cartoonist."--Oakland Tribune

"The impact that Trudeau and his characters have had on the last twenty years really is incalculable. Trudeau's characters have passed from merely comic-strip entities into something akin to cultural icons, mirroring society as they chronicle it."--Idaho State Journal

In I'd Go with the Helmet, Ray, the intense situation in the Gulf reactivates a platoon of veteran characters. For B.D., the change of climate forces a change of helmets ("They cut it away like an avocado--strictly outpatient"), but in most respects, he's clearly in his element. Mr. Butts, serving country and corporation as Battalion Tobacco Liaison, also seems right at home, but intrepid correspondent Roland "From-somewhere-in-the-Midwest" Hedley quickly becomes a whole lot more lost than usual.

Meanwhile, on the home front, USO volunteer Boopsie readies her turkey costume for the Jay Leno Southwest Asia Thanksgiving Tour, while conflicted adman Mike Doonesbury agonizes over an oil company TV campaign to "make the American people feel good about being gouged." In contrast, Congresswoman Lacey Davenport keeps her integrity intact by resigning over the S&L crisis--a stately act of principle that leads her badly shaken colleagues to conclude she is suffering from a fatal disease.

This is Doonesbury at its best--provocative, witty, and poignant.

• January 2012 Indie Next List
• December 2011 Indie Next List
• November 2011 Indie Next List