And as Scott McCloud said, when you look at a photograph you see another; when you look at a cartoon, you see yourself.

I love animation; I help contribute animation panels at cons, and do an occasional podcast and blog about it. Some people say "Why do you care about kid stuff?" Now I can point to Bashir and dare them to call it "kid stuff."

Ok, So commence the drawing of the pictures you want (us and yourself) to see.

Where is Iraq in your Opus (maybe I missed a few frames)

Get that black ink mojo working (again).

Start denying that security (y)our taxes purchase.

Bring us to Gaza-bring us to Congo and Darfur- to a cell in China or to the meanstreets in Downtown,USA.

Do a Pogo (Kelley) and bring us into the minds of the hate bosses and the Intolerants.

Sharpen that pen! Get beyond the Yuppie Angst and show us Gaza!

Just , you know, a little idea

I demand more coverage on the news of the horrors of war and other tragedies afflicting our planet, but I do not fault the entertainment industry for giving us movies to take our minds off our worries, if only for a few hours. I'm glad that "Waltz with Bashir" and other non-feelgood movies are out there, and I plan to see this and others like it, but I'm a firm believer in the lessons of "Sullivan's Travels": what audiences need is not the woes of "O Brother, Where Art Thou," but slapstick comedy to make them laugh, at least for a little while.

Perfectly!

I respect my tears, but I respect my laugh even more.

There is depth in laughing, despite the horror in the world. The same depth that Mozart and Pablo talked about in Hesse's famous Steppenwolf.

Do not think that laughs and light-heartedness are mere alienation. They reach deeper than that. It's people who can use these things to alienate themselves. (But frankly, they can use disasters, catastrophes and wars for the same purpose. Or have you never talked to a WWII nerd?)

Keep your eyes open, your step light, and your heart ready to cry... and even more, to laugh. Don't let anything stun you to the point of laughlessness. A lot depends on that.

It has not opened in my city yet.

This movie looks like another breakthrough war movie, like "Catch-22" or "M*A*S*H".

The best war movies almost always end up being anti-war statements. Even "Black Hawk Down" was so real, so tragic, so perfectly portrayed in battle, with the endless hordes of civilian soldiers moving in to kill the helicopter crew...with the explosions going off right in your face...with the desperation of the rescue, the sweat, the breathless anticipation of life or death...the true face of battle, for better or worse, if you're a hawk or a dove.

War is hell. Any movie that takes you into war onscreen, as accurately as possible, is an anti-war movie. And I seriously applaud them, even if some idiots use them to pump up their chickenhawk AND real warrior sensibilities (see "Jarhead", with its scenes of pre-Persian Gulf I US cavalry pumping themselves up by watching the Robert Duvall "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" scene, Wagner and all).

We can't have enough true-life war movies. "Waltz With Bashir", though I haven't even seen it yet (I have seen the trailer at least six times), takes it even further--into the madness of PTSD, and trying to make sense out of a war, during as well as in its aftermath.

Finally, your sentiment about walking into a movie theater lobby and being jarred by re-entering everyday life is spot on, Carol Lay. An amazing and universal experience to take note of. It only happens with a few rare and special movies.

Great comic today, Carol, even better than your usually excellent presentation! Good luck with the new book!

...what audiences need is not the woes of "O Brother, Where Art Thou," but slapstick comedy to make them laugh, at least for a little while.

-- DurianJoe

Speaking as a lifelong and intensely dedicated Three Stooges fan: DurianJoe, what they need is BOTH. And as I recall, there was plenty of comedy in "O Brother".

The animation in "Waltz With Bashir" is amazing. It makes an even fuller use of the rotoscope method seen in "A Scanner Darkly" and "The Waking Life" and those silly Charles Schwab (?) commercials. It creates a for-now perfect recreation of a mind reeling with trauma.

It is hard to watch for some people, and for that reason it was a perfect choice for this movie. "Waltz" probably couldn't have been half as effective as it is, if it had been filmed instead of drawn and CGI'd.

I do plan to see it now. I do not think Americans see anything real on media especially on television. The 911 terrorists were able to pull it off and we did see reality. Even during important events like the Democratic National Convention the talking heads were buzzing while people were giving important speeches people wanted to hear. You had to go to streaming internet to hear their speeches and avoid the TV personality know-it-alls. The Iraq story needs to be told. Blackhawk Down told the story from DoD's point of view. We need a Michael Moore/Oliver Stone/Steven Spielberg combination to even attempt to cover the war in Iraq. How do you tell a story that has lasted six years? These hopeless people could care less about the Holocaust, the Golden Globes, and even our new president. Give them hope and maybe things will change for the better here in Iraq.

When DurianJoe refers to "O Brother Where Art Thou," I don't think he's talking about any movie that was ever made. In "Sullivan's Travels," there is a serious novel of that title that the protagonist, a movie producer, plans to make into a movie drama, but the movie is never made. This is presumably where the movie starring George Clooney, which is what you seems to be referring to, got its title.