I love Doonesbury. It's extremely well drawn and researched, it's funny, it's topical, it's witty and it has an amazing cast of characters. I think it elevates the comics pages in some ways, and I'm always disappointed when I find a paper that has segregated it into another section.
I don’t think that Doonesbury should be on the editorial page of the newspaper for the same reason I don’t think Dilbert should be in the business section. It marginalizes the audiences for these strips. In the case of Doonesbury, I think it makes the strip feel like it’s not a regular comic, and that you should only read it if you’re well versed in politics.
There seem to be two types of Doonesbury readers: those who follow it every day and those who read it occasionally but get frustrated by the immense number of characters and political angle. I used to fall into the second category…. I thought Doonesbury was way too complicated and I didn’t get the jokes.
Then I read all the collections, starting with the very first strip where B.D. meets Mike. Some of the earlier strips were difficult to slog through. I think Garry Trudeau's art has improved more over the years than any other comic strip artist I can think of and the later years are a pleasure to read. But once I read the collections, I finally understood who all the characters were and how they related to each other. Trudeau makes a lot of references to previous events in the characters lives, and the jokes are very funny when you get them.
It's still the only comic strip to have won the Pulitzer prize- which happened in the early years, but I think is more deserved now given the level of reporting and research Trudeau puts into each strip. In 2006 Gene
Weingarten did
a fabulous in-depth article on Garry Trudeau in the Washington Post which I highly recommend if you have any interest in Doonesbury. I grant that the strip has some inconsistencies and the characters only seem to age every ten years. But overall, it's a great read.
Doonesbury is the only strip that has really dealt with the Iraq war and it is continuing to do so in a poignant and intriguing way.
Trudeau has given me an inkling of the anger and healing that happens after an amputation... something you don't see in Garfield every day. Not all subjects are political though. Two years ago, there was a fantastic series on a character applying to college, which was relevant to anyone who's been through the experience.
If you do decide to read the collections, start with the big omnibus editions that contain multiple years. It will give you more consistency than the short books. Go in this order:
The Doonesbury Chronicles,
Doonesbury's Greatest Hits,
The People's Doonesbury,
Doonesbury Dossier and
Doonesbury Deluxe. There's lots more after that if you're interested (and the artwork gets a lot better) but the first few books should at least give you a good character base. The books mentioned above are readily
available in
libraries, bargain bins and used bookstores everywhere.
If you do decide to read the old strips, remember that some of the political strips are extremely timely to the period they were written. I feel it's okay to skip them if they're not making you laugh. The point of reading the collections is really to understand the relationships between the characters.
Flashbacks: Twenty Five Years of Doonesbury is a great book and is a good place to get a primer and context.
If Doonesbury overwhelms and confuses you, give it another chance. Pick up a collection. Start reading the strips regularly. Read the
Doonesbury website (which is part of
Slate.com). You don't have to know everything about politics to find it funny, I promise.
For the first time ever, Calvin and his stuffed tiger will legally appear on something other than a book. The United States Postal Service is releasing a collection of "Sunday Funnies" stamps in July, 2010. Ironically, the Calvin stamp is included with several long running comics that haven't known when to leave the party.
In 2006, Andrews McMeel released a beautiful three volume set called The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. I've never read it. Do you know why? Because it contains every single strip. If I don't read it, there's always a possibility that I'll find one more book or one more strip I haven't read.
Have you read every Calvin and Hobbes strip and wish there were more? Check out Frazz, currently in the newspaper and on the web. It's got a similar philosophy and sense of humor that Calvin does, with its own quirks thrown in. It's one of my favorite comic strips.
