Oliphant had already won a Pulitzer for his work, as well as many other awards, at the time Breathed received his in 1987. So envy might not have been his motivation. I wonder if he was equally upset when Garry Trudeau received a Pulitzer for Doonesbury in the previous decade.
I wonder how many of the actual people in those countries support “communism” vs. the Communist Party that is in charge of their lives. When I was in Cuba a few years ago, many of the people I encountered seemed to be running very capitalistic-like businesses while trying to avoid the government as much as possible.
Stephan’s memory is probably a little fuzzy but there was a wonderful documentary about the comic strip released in 2014. Called “Stripped”, it was a Kickstarter project, not Ken Burns or PBS, but they did include him and Pearls. You can rent it on Amazon and Apple TV, and the DVD is probably floating around on the web, but with that title, be careful as you search. :-)
This column in the Daily Cartoonist has a little of Trudeau’s history with going after these “health” supplements, including the previous two strips from this past June and 2021. >
Commanders??