Same-sex prom storyline featured in comic strip
(CBS News) While President Obama was on the front page this month for supporting same-sex marriage, a drama about a gay high school couple was playing out in the funny pages.
That storyline in the comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" is running in about 400 newspapers. The current commentary featured in the comic is about a same-sex couple that wants to attend the prom. The comic has not drawn much criticism, though seven newspapers did publish a different strip this month.
"Funky Winkerbean" writer/artist Tom Batiuk says the comic, written a year in advance, was inspired by a news article he read about parents who were protesting a high school's tolerant policy toward gays.
Batiuk is used to mixing social issues and humor in his cartoons. In 1986, he featured a storyline with a pregnant student. He's also done cartoons on the struggles of alcoholism, Alzheimer's and cancer.
Recently, CBS News correspondent Seth Doane caught up with the cartoonist to discuss his latest storyline and those others that have injected elements of real life drama into his comic strip. Watch Doane's "CBS This Morning" report in the video above.
