Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury [Paperback]

G. B. Trudeau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1995

"Garry Trudeau is the premier American social and political satirist of his time." --Newsweek

"Not since Thomas Nast has there been a more effective political and social cartoonist." --Oakland Tribune

Doonesbury has managed to be articulate, abrasive, political, compassionate, misunderstood, misprinted, and outrageous--but one thing it's never been is complacent. Garry Trudeau's creation has chronicled American history and culture in a parallel universe. And through it all, Doonesbury has always been honest, entertaining, and way, way cool.

In Flashbacks, Trudeau collects his thoughts and cartoons in a highly annotated four-color book. Through its pages, Flashbacks reunites the disparate personalities that make up the cast of Doonesbury: Mike, Zonker, Boopsie, Joanie, Lacey Davenport, Mark Slackmeyer, and, of course, Uncle Duke.

Flashbacks is a compendium of the many singular moments of Doonesbury, moments that mark the times of our own lives.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A must for any fan, this annotated collection of more than 800 strips, from the late '60s to 1995, includes comments from Trudeau and many of his satirical targets. From its beginnings in the Yale University student paper, Doonesbury quickly spread through newspapers in the U.S. and across the world, and the strip is currently featured in more than 1400 publications. Its strength has always been its nimble response to the ever-changing landscape of American culture, and even though many of the events in this volume have passed into history, or even obscurity, the humor is as fresh as ever.

For almost three decades, Trudeau has offered a refreshingly satirical take on everything from Watergate to Zippergate while following the ups and downs of a cast of characters that have become as well-loved as any in literature. The comments from newspapers, politicians and other that surround the strips reproduced in Flashbacks serve a dual purpose. They provide a context for readers who may not have been born when Nixon was president, and they amply demonstrate the enormous impact of Doonesbury on the American political landscape. It's funny too! --Simon Leake

Review

In its 25 years, Doonesbury has managed to be articulate, abrasive, political, compassionate, misunderstood, misprinted, and outrageous. Garry Trudeau's creation has chronicled a 25 year period of American history, politics, and culture in a parallel universe. From the shock waves of Watergate to the technowar in the Gulf, from the controversial tour of Reagan's brain to the landmark tobacco trials, through it all, Doonesbury has always been honest, entertaining, iconoclastic, and way, way, cool. In Flashbacks, Trudeau collects his thoughts and cartoons in a highly annotated four-color Doonesbury masterpiece. -- Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 331 pages
• Publisher: Andrews and McMeel; Original edition (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0836204360
• ISBN-13: 978-0836204360
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

G. B. Trudeau's Doonesbury has tracked and explored 40 years of American culture through six wars and eight presidential administrations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hail,hail,the gang's all here!, October 14, 2002

By 

Ventura Angelo (Brescia, Lombardia Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury (Paperback)

Here we find the first CharlieBrownish debut of Mike, and also the first appearances of B.D. the Jock, zonked Zonker and Marvelous Mark, and also Bloopsie, Joanie Caucus, and the immortal Duke, whose Chinese saga makes one of the best pages of the book. Here you can follow the graphic evolution of the strip,and the psychological evolution of the charachters in the course of American and world history. A must for the Doonesbury fans!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look back in irony!, June 25, 2001

By 

WFK "alt historian" (Wolfsberg, Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury (Paperback)

Has it really been 25 years that Doonesbury is making his contributons to our survival in a world gone mad? This book makes it possible to look back, not in anger but irony. The problems from back then are gone, replaced by even worse ones, the cast has grown older but Mike and his friends are still with us. Great!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Consistently relevant, original, and hilarious, January 30, 2005

By 

A. Abruzzese (St Paul, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury (Paperback)

It seems like the comment that I have heard most frequently from others about Doonesbury is that they feel they can't get into it, because the story lines are long and drawn-out, and they assume a depth of knowledge about the characters on the part of the reader that could only have come from reading the cartoon over a long period of time. This book is a great opportunity for those who have not followed Doonesbury since it began (or, who perhaps were not alive when it began, as I was not) to follow the development of the strip from its earliest days through very recent times. It's also a great book for long-time Doonesbury fans, because it provides a lot of additional materials, comment from Trudeau, comment from a number of cartoon subjects over the years (check out what Donald Trump said about it), etc. This book is also great for people who like Doonesbury and would like a book to call their own, but don't want to spring for a whole set of collected strips in book form that have been released over the years, because it provides a fairly comprehensive collection of the strip in one volume.

Doonesbury has been a chronicle of our times since the 60s, and in my view, along with "Calvin & Hobbes," has been the most consistently original and consistently humorous strip appearing on the comics page in recent times. Let's hope it is around for another 25!