'Doonesbury' Reference to Hunter Thompson's Death?

By: E&P Staff Did today's "Doonesbury" indirectly reference the death of journalist Hunter S. Thompson?

The strip features Uncle Duke -- who's partly based on Thompson -- talking to his loyal aide, Honey. In the third panel, Garry Trudeau's art suddenly gets surreal as it shows Honey looking shocked and Duke/Thompson looking horrified. Inkstains in the panel convey the feeling of blood, and a jagged line in Duke/Thompson's mouth could be alluding to Thompson having shot himself to death. The art goes back to normal in the last panel, which shows Honey saying: "You seem out of sorts today, boss." Duke replies: "I know. It's like some nasty karmic shift."

"Doonesbury" runs in about 1,400 newspapers via Universal Press Syndicate.