‘It’s Difficult to Be Funny About War’

Matt Groening, creator of “The Simpsons” and the “Life in Hell” comic strip, says he’s having a tough time with the topic of the day.

“It’s difficult to be funny about war,” Groening said.

His “Life in Hell” strip scheduled to run in newspapers next week shows characters Akbar and Jeff wearing gas masks. The characters exchange posies and touch fingertips held like guns in the final panel.

“The gas masks seemed like the first reminder that there are aspects of this war which can get incredibly ugly and don’t seem to have been taken into account,” Groening said.

For most cartoonists, the six- to eight-week delay between drawing and publication poses extra problems.

Bill Griffith’s “Zippy” cartoons won’t show up in papers for six weeks. Who knows how dated his portrayal of “Zipman” persuading the commander of the U.S. forces, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to stop the war because it’s “un-hip” will appear upon publication?

“The war is all I can think about,” Griffith said. “My strip has always had a diary-like quality and it’s frustrating not to be able to get my feelings out as quickly as I’d like.”

Charles Schulz said he wishes some of his “Peanuts” characters could comment too. “But I’m drawing now for the third week in March,” he said.

“Even in past wars I avoided the hot stuff,” said Mort Walker, whose “Beetle Bailey” strip spoofs Army life.

“I just had lunch with a bunch of cartoonists, and we were all sitting around getting mad at Saddam Hussein and wishing we could get that guy,” Walker said. “Those kinds of emotions make it difficult to be funny.”