FAQs
Beta-fresh answers, uploaded weekly
Lets face it, our favorite comic strip is often obscure or inconsistent, and key characters are sometimes left stranded for years. Long-suffering readers are within their rights to demand some clarification. Use the "Ask GBT" form to email us your questions, and we will frequently answer some of the best!
Characters
It was nice the way Sam's eyes changed recently. And I see that's not the only way she's got character 'development,' if you know what I mean. But I'm a little confused. Shouldn't she be 19 now? Does Sam age differently than other characters?
Mark Allen | Characters | Portland, OR | December 31, 2011Comic strip time unfolds by its own rules, as when a single conversation takes six days. In regards to B.D. and Boopsie's teen, perhaps some clarity can be offered by revisiting her birth, which reminds us how peculiar the courtship of her parents was.
I don't remember Doonesbury ever including Santa Claus in the strip, or addressing Christmas at all. Is Trudeau part of the War on Christmas?
Henry Inness | Characters | Galesburg, IL | December 23, 2011If we didn't know better, we'd take this to be a thinly-veiled attempt (a successful one, we might add) to summon visitations by a few of our favorite ghosts of Doonesbury Christmases past. Merry Holidays!
Donald Trump's hair this week is extraordinary. A few years back there was some Trump storyline in which we witnessed the intricate process by which his look was achieved. Could you please run that by us again?
B. Camozzi | Characters | Elkton, OR | December 13, 2011With pleasure. Here's a link to the 2007 series that explicates the construction of the coif du Trump.
With all the sexual harassment allegations fired at Herman Cain, can we please revisit GBT's awesome send-up of an actual elected official dogged by harassment allegations -- Herr Gropenfuhrer?
Alan | Characters | Melbourne, FL | November 20, 2011A timely request indeed. The elected official you refer to was, of course, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and we are happy to feature this series from 2003.
Roland occupies the same universe as Mike, Mark, B.D., and Zonker. But was he ever part of the Walden crowd?
Mike Irwin | Characters | Maumelle, AR | October 31, 2011While never a member of the legendary Walden Commune, Roland has interacted with various of its denizens in the past -- most notably while researching a notorious cover story for Time magazine, an episode chronicled in this 1974 sequence.
Despite the insecurities Alex has displayed in the current storyline, didn't she and Drew generally get along as roomies?
Kris K. | Characters | San Jose, CA | June 09, 2011Indeed they did. Alex's first months at MIT were pretty rough academically, and her friendship with Drew was instrumental to her survival in Nerdville.
Seeing Trump back in the strip reminds me of the series many years ago when J.J. was hired to paint murals on The Donald's yacht, and taught him to pronounce "trompe l'oeil." Trump's whole "I may run for president" performance has been covered in the strip before, has it not?
Jack Cerf | Characters | Chatham, NJ | April 19, 2011Twice! Twenty-four years ago, when this 1987 Trump "trial balloon" series ran, Mike and J.J. were still married and living on the Lower East Side. The Trump 2000 presidential campaign banged up against that of former Ambassador Duke -- who, as it happens, was serving as captain of the Trump Princess during J.J.'s 1987 noe-rococo loo project.
When I heard that Liz Taylor had died I immediately remembered that she was in Doonesbury once, but I can't remember when. When?
K. Berg | Characters | Aptos, CA | March 23, 2011When John Warner of Virginia, then married to the legendary actress, was elected to the U.S. Senate, Congresswoman Lacey Davenport and her husband Dick attended a soiree honoring "Senator and Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor," as recounted in this series from January 1979. Although the Warners were furious at the time, and GBT was censured by the Virginia Assembly, we revisit this small annoying moment for Ms. Taylor as our way of honoring her larger-than-life life.
As long as the Red Rascal is passing into legendhood, can we please take a look back at his human origins? When did Jeff first show up in the strip?
Phil | Characters | Minneapolis, MN | March 18, 2011At the time of his sudden and dramatic entrance, the mere mortal subsequently revered as the Red Rascal had not even received his nomme de Redfern yet, as chronicled in this series from the end of 1982.
The Royal Wedding is a conflict on Zonk's calendar? Can you run a refresher course on his time as an English peer? I don't remember the title or how he got it.
Peg | Characters | Calgary, CANADA | March 08, 2011Your memory lapse is regrettable but understandable, and we are pleased to revisit the 1986 episode in which the High Prince of Inner Space acquired an actual Old World title. Cheerio.
