Doonesbury creator teams with military bloggers for new book on war in Iraq

Garry Trudeau, creator of the long-running, comic strip Doonesbury is combining his characters with the blog writings of service members in Iraq and Afghanistan to compile a book from their web site with the same name called “The Sandbox. "  

The 309-page book is a compilation of roughly 90 online journal entries penned by scores of military scribes.   Trudeau in a release today said he began reading military blogs (milblogs) as a source of inspiration and information at the wars' outset, decided last year to help the authors tap into a wider readership.

"I have a Web site -- doonesebury.com -- that does have a fairly broad reach," he said, "and so we thought maybe this would be a good place to set up an aggregate site, a site that compiles the very best of what we could find of the milblogs." To draw attention to the site, Trudeau used camouflage-clad Doonesbury character Ray Hightower -- apparently an Army noncommissioned officer of undisclosed rank -- to spread the message via word-of-mouth. Hightower in the comic strip blogs to folks back home from Iraq."

At The Sandbox, contributors can operate in a clean, lightly edited debriefing environment where all content, no matter how robust, is secured by the first amendment!" reads the text next to Hightower's helmet-covered head in the Oct. 8, 2006, Doonesbury strip, to lure comic-strip readers to the new site.

Hightower adds, "So if you support the troops -- but haven't a clue what they're actually up to -- you owe it to yourself to log onto The Sandbox!"Using posts from the Sandbox and other blogs Trudeu and David Stanford, duty officer at the Doonesbury Web site began assimilating stories for the book.

"In fascinating and compelling posts, soldiers write passionately, eloquently and movingly of their day-to-day lives, of their mission, and of the drama that unfolds daily around them," Trudeau said.

Proceeds from The Sandbox, Trudeau's third in a series of military-related books, will be donated to the Fisher House Foundation. Located on the grounds of military and veterans hospitals, Fisher Houses offer a setting where family members can be close to loved ones hospitalized for an injury, illness or disease.

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