In late August drawings of the “B.C.” comic strip for the week of Sept. 24 went to 1,200 newspapers.
Cartoonist Johnny Hart’s two-panel drawing for Sept. 29 made the point that what appeared to be an asterisk was a “chalk outline of a corpse” of a “man who jumped off this thousand-foot cliff.”
The Sept. 11 terrorist attack changed what Hart said “was simply meant to be a joke” into something that “was certainly not appropriate after the attack,” he said, adding that “we scrambled to have it pulled.”
Hart said, “It is hard to apologize for this strip making it through to some papers. We tried to see that it wouldn’t be printed at all, and can offer only our sincere regrets.”
Hart’s replacement drawing did not reach the attention of Star Tribune editors.
Result: Readers responded with wrath.
John Watne spoke for the majority: “Appalling insensitivity. The most haunting images were those of people choosing to jump roughly 1,000 feet rather than die in the inferno.”
Mark Novitsky’s comment was esoteric: “By definition the asterisk meant those who chose to jump were in violation of God’s will to not commit suicide.”
Many of the largest-circulation newspapers that subscribe to “B.C.” did not publish the replacement drawing.
Why? For those newspapers, Creators Syndicate, which has the marketing rights for “B.C.,” sends the drawings to Reed Brennan, an Orlando, Fla., company that uses pagination, a computer design process, to lay out comic pages for its clients.
Reed Brennan’s clients number 87 of the 100 largest U.S. newspapers, including the Star Tribune.
Tim Brennan said his firm did not call newspapers about the substitution because “King Features is the only syndicate that pays us to call.”
He said a correction advisory about “B.C.” was on its Web site but apparently missed by many of the papers.
Star Tribune Editor Tim McGuire said he regretted that the substitute strip was not available, but added that the “asterisk” strip was published because “cartoonists must have the license to make us uncomfortable. We must not revoke that license just because we’re in difficult times.”
Brennan said 30 of the syndicated features that his company handles required substitutions the week following Sept. 11 because they had references to New York City or its skyline that could be misinterpreted.
Creators Syndicate had called the Star Tribune to warn that the “Strange Brew” panel scheduled for Sept. 22 was of an airline pilot correcting his “steering” from “good” to “worse.” The syndicate’s offer to send a replacement was welcomed.
Comment: Creators Syndicate and Reed Brennan need to agree on a better method of immediately advising clients of a substitution.
‘A human being’
A Sept. 25 headline said, “Trial opens in killing of drug addict.”
Last Wednesday’s headline said, “Forest Lake man guilty of murdering drug addict.”
Jane Eckert protested, “She was more than a drug addict. You downgraded her humanity.” Bob Muscala said the description robbed her of her dignity. Steve Wegner, a friend of the woman, said it was unfair.
Comment: The headlines are akin to one saying, “Alcoholic dies in auto accident.” Irrelevant and inhumane.
