Customer Reviews

40: A Doonesbury Retrospective

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First, I have to admit that I'm a lifelong Doonesbury fan, so I'm a bit biased, but this book is a huge and beautifully produced volume. From the same folks who produced the Complete Far Side and the Complete Calvin and Hobbes, with the same attention to detail and quality. The selection of strips is excellent, and there were quite a few, particularly Sunday strips from the early years, that I don't think have ever been reprinted before (and I have all the early paperbacks and every big anthology). The reproduction is excellent - and either they were all reproduced from the original art or the book was designed to make it appear as if they had. Either way, the art looks great. And Trudeau gives some new and unique perspective to each character and his 40 years with the strip.

On the downside, I found it odd that they printed some strips out of order and some publication dates that they gave were obviously incorrect. And I do wish they'd included more early Sunday strips, since as I said, many of these have never been reprinted. Since this was supposed to be a Doonesbury retrospective, I also would have liked to have seen some coverage of Doonesbury in other media (the animated TV special, the Life and Rolling Stone magazine features, the Broadway show that was actually in-continuity and moved the characters in the strip forward) as well as some of the few merchandising products that GBT sanctioned through the years.

Now - to explain the title of this review... Seeing this book, which Trudeau says represents about 13% of all the published Doonesbury strips, has made me really hungry for a complete reprinting, like IDW Books is doing with the fun, but less deserving Bloom County. I know that unlike other strips getting the "complete" treatment (Peanuts, Dick Tracy, Bloom County, etc.) Doonesbury is still an ongoing production, but if they started now, it would take 10-15 years to get the entire body of work in print. I hope that GBT is still well and producing work at that point to worry about that issue. But this is a body of work that cries out for a high quality complete archive. For now, I guess we'll have to be content with this beautiful, giant sampler.

This is an excellent book for Doonesbury fans or for anyone who would like to see the genesis all the way up to the present. The only thing I did not like was that it leaves out all the cartoons relating to Watergate, Reagan, Monica, New Orleans, Dubya and other politically charged times as I was looking forward to that biting humor. Oh well. Even without that stuff it is great to see the evolution of the myriad of Doonesbury characters. If you are or know a Doonesbury fan, this book is well worth the $67 Amazon charges (versus $100 at bookstores).

This Doonesbury retrospective is a joy to have especially if one is the least bit nostalgic. Also a great volume for all us old hippies and hippie "want-a-bees." I have followed this "cartoon" almost since its beginning and after so many years a person feels that they know the characters as real people. The author has chosen the best of the best to illustrate the progression through the years and a big plus is the occasional musings on the main characters as he shares his thoughts on his characters minds. Interestingly, some of his insight has come after the character was developed.....and so you can see how they tend to take on a personality and evolve hardly without Garry's help.

Another plus for me is being able to sit and study the art work. It has always been fascinating to realize how one tiny ink mark can denote so much expression on the faces. Garry is a true master and this book reminds us of his skill at drawing, often audacious satire, and story telling as he took us through the good and bad of so many years.

The book is an extremely well done and complete compendium of the life and times of Doonesbury's world. It is hard to believe that the crew is 40 years old and still entertaining and educating us with such amazing insight and passion.

It does not, however, translate well on Kindle. The strips are almost impossible to read without a magnifying glass and there is no way to enlarge them to improve the situation. Changing font size or zooming does not affect the comics. Using PC or Mac Kindle with a very large monitor will no doubt make things better, but that defeats the reason you downloaded it to your e-reader in the first place.

Like the previous reviewers have stated, this IS a heavy book. But for 40 years of memories and history, what do you expect?

I really liked watching the characters I know and care about, evolve.

My only complaint: I wish there were more political strips in the book. I understand the author's point about not wanting dated/potentially unfunny material in the text, but I wanted more history. I was too young to remember most of the politics of the 70s and 80s, and I would have liked the Doonesbury strips as reference.

First it is obvious, this is a humongous Doonesbury; it is a challenge to hold and read; but if you are a fan meet it - feet on hassock, knees propped up and turn the heavy stock pages. There are 5 easy to read black and white strips per page, and the colour Sunday strips take up one page.

Garry Trudeau gives a four page introduction and then for each section, a two page description of the character, the inspiration and background of them. If you are a fan; Trudeau's words on the creation of these characters are alone, almost worth the price of the book.

Some of my favorite strips are not included, but as Trudeau explains in his introduction - this is only 13% of the over 14,000 published strips.

It starts with the basic strips done in college mainly centering around B.D. and then Mike. There are sections focusing on: Michael Doonesbury, B.D., Mark Slackmeyer, Zonker, Boopsie, Phred, President King, Rev. Slone, Joanie Caucus, Roland, Duke, Jimmy Thudpucker, Lacey Davenport, Alice Schwartzman, J.J. Caucus, Alex Doonesbury, Zipper and Jeff, and Elias. There is also a two page pullout with character connections and a legend showing relationships.

This would make such a great gift for Doonesbury fans, even educators could use the strips for political science and social science examples of the last 40 years. It can show those who were not there... and take those of us that were... back to events and movements and years gone by, but most of all, to the wonderful Doonesbury gang.

The first question to answer is this-- why buy this massive mountain of a book if, like me, you've already gathered every regular compilation of Doonesbury strips?

Open-ended narrative forms (comic strips, comic books, tv series, etc) present a challenge if they have a long and successful run. How exactly do you read them?

It's not a new problem. Dickens (and many 19th century fictioneers) wrote magazine serials, and you can make an argument that reading all of those chapters printed together as a "novel" is like watching your complete series dvd collection of LOST episodes and calling it a movie.

Walt Kelly used to edit together sections of the run of POGO into what were arguably graphic novels, but other than that, the best way to approach a run of a regular strip, particularly one that is only partially devoted to story continuity, remains elusive.

Trudeau's answer on this occasion is to filet down to the strips that dealt with his cast of characters, so that this gigantic beast pays almost no attention to the political and societal figures who have populated the strip, except where they intersect the arcs of Mike, Joannie, Mark, BD, Duke, etc. Here stories like the disintegration of Mike and JJ's marriage and his courtship and marriage to Kim are compressed and clear, instead of disappearing into the larger noise of the strip.

So this book features very little of Trudeau the political cartoonist and focuses instead on Trudeau the novelist of the comic pages, and the sweep and growth over that forty-year span is exhilarating, like a light Russian novel or a really long jazz solo. It highlights how Trudeau has used and re-used his materials, and how he has let his characters grow in ways that are both sweet and hilarious.

Yes, you could sit with your shelf of old Doonesbury books and by speed-reading, flipping and skipping, you could perhaps give yourself the same effect (I know-- I've tried it). But this is better.

It's true that for the long-time collector, there's almost no new material here (a few new essays by Trudeau, a smattering of strips that weren't in the other books), but mostly what is here is a new, different way to see what you've seen before. It's worth the price of admission.

Trudeau's work still is funny and fresh and re-reading the old strips takes me back 40 years. When the book arrived, I sat in my office for two hours flipping through it and found most of my favorite old strips - like "It's a baby woman!". Still looking for, "When the going get tough, the tough get going, and in your case, I would suggest Mexico". He really captures every era with both humour and dead on accuracy. No hiding from him. You can tell why he won a Pulitzer Prize.

700 pages of Doonesbury?!? This was a Christmas present from my wife, and was the prize of the bunch. I've been reading Doonesbury for about 20 years, starting as a teenager. I have followed Mike through all his trials, and am happy to see the torch pass to Alex.

I have seen most of these panels in other collections, but having them in this order, dated, helps me place where I was when these came out. That was great! I loved the two page blurbs about the characters and learning where they came from. It's also good to know that Trudeau is a normal guy with a normal (to him) job.

My only complaint is I wish it was longer. I probably wouldn't be able to lift it, though!

All in all, a crowning edition to my collection.

My hometown newspaper for many years refused to print "Doonesbury," and I remain deeply grateful to a college classmate who, at irregular intervals, would mail me bundles of carefully clipped-out cartoons. It was a real highlight to look at Garry Trudeau's skewered sense of current events through the glasses of his cartoon. And it demonstrates I'm far from neutral in my opinion.

This retrospective brings the same pleasure. Although it's reportedly only 14% or so of Trudeau's total output, reading it takes you through the history of the last 40 years in a delightful way. While everyone describes Trudeau as a "liberal" and left-wing, he's more accurately described as a satirist who's willing to poke fun at left or right. Trudeau drew Bill Clinton as a waffle; not a terribly sympathetic characterization. Regardless of politics, it's hard to argue with his brilliance. Not only has he created a satiric history of the last four decades; he's drawn a wonderful story around a series of characters and their extended relationships with friends, families and enemies.

Beyond the pleasure of seeing the stories sketched out over the years, Trudeau has also included essays on his principle characters, old and new, telling readers their origins and their development. B.D., Mike himself, Rev. Sloan; all are based on real people to some extent.

Trudeau has kept the cartoon current. Not just his amazingly moving series on our troops in Iraq and at home. Roland Hedley's utterly inane tweeting; Duke's pimping for the dictator of Bezerkistan; dealing with the dementia and death of our parents. The art has improved over time, and there's more poignant moments, but Trudeau has kept it fresh. Very few 40-year old cartoons can say the same.

The volume is produced by the same folks who did The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin & Hobbes) (v. 1, 2, 3) and The Complete Far Side 1980-1994 (2 vol set). It's very high quality printing and binding, and ships in a slip box for additional protection.

Sure, it puts your legs to sleep if you read it too long. But you'll be laughing too hard to care. A first class treatment of a first class artist. My very highest recommendations.