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April 8, 2001
Ventura Not Amused By Comic Strip
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)
Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is in the funnies, and he's not laughing abit. Ventura, the bullet-headed former pro wrestler spoofed in"Doonesbury" after his surprising 1998 election, is the subject of aweekly comic strip in a newspaper he loves to hate -- the Saint PaulPioneer Press. The strip debuted on Sunday, January 28.
"In many ways, he's a natural comic-strip character," said Ron Clark,editor of the newspaper's editorial pages, where "Ventura-Land" willrun. "We'll never run out of material."
Ventura responded to news of the strip by threatening to sue thePioneer Press. He interrupted a speech earlier in January when hespotted one of the paper's columnists, a frequent critic of thegovernor, in the audience.
"Your newspaper is exploiting me to make money," Ventura said.
Ventura's private attorney, David Bradley Olsen, said the governorisn't bothered by criticism but wants to protect the trademark heacquired on the name and image he used while wrestling as Jesse "TheBody" Ventura. He will sue if "VenturaLand" veers from commentary into acommercial venture, Olsen said.
Clark said the newspaper is confident "VenturaLand" is political speechprotected by the First Amendment.
Ventura made similar threats in 1998 when Garry Trudeau drew Venturainto "Doonesbury," but nothing came of it. He also reacted angrily whenhumorist Garrison Keillor wrote a satire of his life.
But "VenturaLand" is "a different animal because it's all Jesse, allthe time," Olsen said.
In 1970, retired Pioneer Press cartoonist Jerry Fearing created the"Adventures of Supermayor," a strip whose main character was St. PaulMayor Charlie McCarty. The strip ran in the St. Paul Dispatch.
Ventura seems to have a special enmity for the Pioneer Press. When thenewspaper said Ventura promoted sex and violence by refereeing a prowrestling match in 1999, Ventura shot back, calling the paper the"Pioneer Porn" for running ads for X-rated movies and strip clubs.
Free-lance artist Kevin Lenagh, 47, who will draw the strip, said hevoted for Ventura and isn't trying to bash him. "I am an independentvoice in the Pioneer Press," he said.
Lenagh approves of the way Ventura is running the state -- as did 71percent of those polled by the Minneapolis Star Tribune early thismonth. Lenagh's cartoons even shave a few pounds off the governor. "Iheard he is very touchy about his weight right now," the cartoonist said.
Steve Benson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for theArizona Republic and past president of the AAEC, said Ventura's protestswill only draw attention to the strip.
"It makes the governor look petty, insecure and humorless," he said."As cartoonists, we encourage him to keep it up."