Long known for his tendency to skewer political figures, cartoonist Garry Trudeau is ready to jump the fence and become an active political figure himself -- albeit in a James Carville, back-room sort of way.

Call Mr. Trudeau the man behind the man, who in this case is Uncle Duke, a main character in Mr. Trudeau's famous "Doonesbury" strip. On Friday, February 9, Mr. Duke is scheduled to announce formally his candidacy for President in a special event at the Aspen Comedy Festival. Though an interactive version of Mr. Duke will be the star of the show, rest assured that Mr. Trudeau will be close by, handling the strings.

Given Mr. Duke's chronically unstable mental condition, it's no surprise that he enlisted a politically savvy handler like Mr. Trudeau to help move his campaign along. Some cynics, of course, might even go so far as to claim that Mr. Duke is merely a figment of Mr. Trudeau's imagination and that the Duke "campaign" is just a thinly veiled attempt to make it seem as if Mr. Trudeau's often-wicked sense of humor is coming from someone else's mouth.

HAT IN THE RING

Mr. Trudeau, who was in San Francisco recently to help his candidate rehearse campaign speeches, admits that the idea of a Duke campaign was initially his. "It was a one-off thing for a Sunday strip, to show how low the bar had gotten to be a presidential candidate," says Mr. Trudeau, whose strip recently ripped the nascent Donald Trump campaign. But when San Francisco-based Protozoa suggested the idea of using its 3D animation technology to help bring Mr. Duke's message to the Web, Mr. Trudeau and the candidate agreed to step up to the plate.

Though Protozoa's unique "performance animation" technology -- which includes the use of a wired "suit" that an actor can use to translate body motions into 3D animation -- will help Mr. Duke present his message in a more active format than a newspaper cartoon, it is Mr. Trudeau who is the campaign's true mastermind. At the recent rehearsals, Mr. Trudeau had his fingers in every part of the candidate's presentation, from choosing the color of Mr. Duke's tie to hastily correcting words in the candidate's initial speech.

While Mr. Trudeau's political chops aren't in question -- after all, his cartoon strip once won a Pulitzer Prize -- he's also incredibly Web-savvy, as evidenced by several factors. For starters, his strip of late has become more Internet-hip than even the geek standby "Dilbert," especially as it chronicles the struggles of title character Mike Doonesbury and his Seattle-based software startup. A quick look at both the Doonesbury and Duke2000 Web sites shows smart design and plenty of interactive options, hallmarks of someone with more than a small clue about how the Web works.

"I got my introduction to high-tech back in 1993, when I produced some multimedia CDs with Mindscape [now part of Mattel] here in San Francisco," Mr. Trudeau says. He's also immersed himself in studying the dot-com realm; for the past three years, Mr. Trudeau has been developing a television series for Fox, called "Killer App," about startup life. Though originally slated to debut last year, the show is currently in "pilot purgatory," without a solid ship date, according to Mr. Trudeau.

WAG THE DOG MEETS THE WEB

At the Duke2000 campaign rehearsals, Mr. Trudeau seems to be having more fun than should probably be allowed, a trait his candidate is known to embrace. Looking right at home in Protozoa's South of Market warehouse studios, Mr. Trudeau could easily pass for a dot-com exec in his smart black slacks, stylish gray shirt, and not-too-hip rectangular glasses. His energy and zeal is reflected by the Protozoa team of technicians, who staff an amazing array of computer and television equipment that is charmingly perched atop bargain-store, put-together desks and tables. Think Internet startup meets Wag the Dog, and you've captured the feel of the Duke campaign rehearsals, which hopefully will pay off in a big way this Friday.

At his interactive debut in Aspen, Mr. Duke is slated to deliver some of his initial positions, which include the desire to be "the ferret in the pants of the government." While his rйsumй includes a number of political career stops -- including a stint as the governor of American Samoa and another as U.S. Ambassador to China -- Mr. Duke also has shown a regular fondness for recreational drug use, as well as a proclivity for firearms, both of which will be major parts of his party platform.

At one point during the rehearsal, an actor who was hired to help Mr. Duke with his enunciation remarked that "Duke is the kind of guy who says all the things you want to say, but can't." When he does, Mr. Trudeau is likely to be nearby -- silent, but smiling.