What Is It, Tink, Is Pan in Trouble?

A Doonesbury Book

  Grab your Dramamine—it’s Silly Season, and the election handicappers are losing their shirts. Kudos to Rick Redfern for the first bombshell: His evidence that Quayle handlers conspired to silence a federal prisoner causes Dano to wail and editors to bail. Out on the campaign trail, Mark Slackmeyer tracks His Incumbency, causing a stir by serving up accurate—if incomprehensible—transcripts of primo Bushspeak. Meanwhile, over in aisle two of the Cosmic Supermarket, Jerry Brown, Insider, has doubled his shelf-life by repackaging himself as Jerry Brown, Outsider. And as Roland and Rick find themselves in the tank for the semi-flawed character from Arkansas (“Look out, Mt. Rushmore!”), the two Dukes, David and Uncle, conspire as only distant cousins can.

  Of course, things are tough all over—as everyone but Poppy has noticed. Of the core Doonesbury cast in What Is It, Tink, Is Pan in Trouble? only one has a job that requires getting out of bed. As Mike enters his second year of full unemployment, and B.D. realizes he needs to get a post-Ground War life, ex-nanny Zonker finesses the recession by returning home to his terrified parents.


About the Author

G. B. Trudeau has been drawing his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip for more than forty years. In addition to cartooning, Trudeau has worked in theater, film, and television. He also has been a contributing columnist for the New York Times op-ed page and later an essayist for Time magazine. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He lives in New York City with his wife, Jane Pauley. They have three grown children.
 

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