Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 17, 1993 TAG: 9312170055
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
If you don't, then you're going to have trouble understanding Doonesbury on Sunday. Garry Trudeau takes a satirical look at NAFTA in a nearly all-Spanish strip.
"I think he wanted to poke a little fun at NAFTA and the possibility that American industries would be moving south of the border," said Lee Salem, a spokesman for Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Doonesbury. "And he might be saying that this comic strip is also going south of the border."
The strip begins with Zonker exclaiming, "El agil zorro marron salto sobre el perro ocioso." Translation: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
The strip continues with Mike and Zonker walking the next day, and Mike asks what they should talk about. Zonker says it doesn't much matter.
"Why not?" Mike asks.
"Because this is just dummy dialogue," replies Zonker, adding that "we just have to make the words fit properly."
It turns out the real dialogue is added when the strip is shipped back to America after being drawn in Mexico because American cartoonists are too expensive.
"Also, you should see how they live," Zonker says of American cartoonists. "Absolutely degrading conditions."
The final frame also contains a note in English from Trudeau:
"Didn't I tell you this would happen if NAFTA passed? . . . I hope you can get this translated by deadline."
Salem said Universal Press had received calls from 10 or 12 editors who were concerned readers would not understand the strip, but nobody had protested.
A translation of the strip was mailed to editors so they could satisfy themselves that it did not contain "inappropriate language," he said.
by CNB