''Nguyen Charlie'' is an American

gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of ...

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

that appeared during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

edition of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

military newspaper '' Stars and Stripes'' from 1966 to 1974. It was created by

Corky Trinidad Francisco Flores Trinidad, Jr. (May 26, 1939 – February 13, 2009), better known by his pen name "Corky", was a Filipino-American editorial cartoonist and comics artist. Born in Manila, he was known for his editorial cartoons for the ''Hon ...

, an award-winning

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

-born

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or current ...

for the ''

Honolulu Star-Bulletin The ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' was a daily newspaper based in Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the second largest daily newspaper in the state of Hawaii (after the ''Honol ...

'' from 1969 until his death in 2009.

Concept and characters

Its title hero is a dedicated (if less than heroic) ''Nget Cong'' (as Trinidad calls them) who shares the battlefields of South Vietnam with his American counterparts, everyone having a common interest: survival. The comic strip is non political and both sides are treated equally. No one dies in Nguyen Charlie's war. The cast of characters includes Nguyen Charlie's comrades and their leader (Comrade Commander), as well as the members of a U. S. infantry platoon. Non-combatants are seldom seen, the notorious "mammie-san" who does the GIs' laundry being an exception. ''Nguyen Charlie'' was an immediate hit with the GIs and each day's entry was eagerly awaited.

Background

Trinidad created the comic strip in 1966, when he was still living in the Philippines, and ''Nguyen Charlie'' first appeared in the ''Philippines Herald''. It was then carried briefly by the ''Saigon Post'', before being picked up by the ''Stars and Stripes''. Trinidad said, "Americans have always been known for their sense of humor, their ability to joke during a crisis, to laugh at themselves during trouble. The Vietnam War was unpopular ... because it was one war where the U.S. was not laughing." Trinidad made two trips to

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

to ensure accuracy, and was always careful not to let politics play a part in the comic strip.

List of publications

Three softcover books compiling the Nguyen Charlie daily strips were published: * ''Nguyen Charlie'' (1969) * ''Sorry 'Bout That, Sarge'' (1970) * ''Not In This War, Charlie!'' (1970). A fourth softcover book of reprints titled ''Nguyen Charlie Encores'' followed in 1985 (Arthouse Books, ).

References

External links

''Nguyen Charlie'' on the Patrol Craft Fast veterans website

* ttp://www.patriotfiles.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=753 ''Nguyen Charlie'' on The Patriot Files American comic strips 1966 comics debuts 1974 comics endings Comics characters introduced in 1966 Comics set during the Vietnam War Military comics Fictional soldiers Fictional Vietnamese people Gag-a-day comics Satirical comics Male characters in comics {{Comic-strip-stub