No-Fly Zone

Sarge has dismembered Beetle ever since anyone can remember. Some “bastard” kills Kenny on every “South Park” episode, Itchy disembowels Scratchy, Ren abuses Stimpy and the submarine SpongeBob’s plankton pal gets summarily stomped.

From the brick-beanings of Krazy Kat in the early days of newspaper cartoons to the long-running self-destructiveness of the hapless Wile E. Coyote, cartoon characters have proved they can take a licking and keep on schticking.

In the political-cartoon world, nobody’s been hammered as mercilessly as the pathetic Peace Dove. Forgive us if we don’t assume each freshly hatched Middle East cease-fire will fly.

Still, a ray of hope usually peeks through the despair. Remember, Beetle is always redrawn after being quartered, Kenny resurrects and the Coyote survives each boulder-jarring encounter.

And so it is that Toles’ banged-up dove takes another curtain call, Conrad’s suicide bomber has both olive branch and explosive belt, and DeOre’s fleshless, featherless skeleton, a ghost from a peace-process past, takes flight nonetheless. As for Christo’s pitiful hostage, well, there’s not much hope there -- unless that sword is made by Acme.