Characters

FAQs

Beta-fresh answers, uploaded occasionally

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 answer those we can on the Blowback page, and also archive the answers here.

Q: This week's strips have been a minor revelation -- Mike Doonesbury has a mother? Who knew. Why haven't we heard about her before?
-- E.A., Portland, OR | Characters | August 16, 2006 20:50
A:Actually we have, though it's been a while since she made an appearance in the strip. In the interest of introducing relatively recent readers to a passel of Mike's Oklahoma kith and kin, here is a 1981-82 series in which he journeys home to The Sooner State, followed by a 1985 series in which The Widow Doonesbury testifies before Congress.
Q: The Straw Poll about Alex's college future was supposed to end at midnight, Monday 5-21. So what happened? Where's she going to school?
-- G.J., Portland, OR | Characters | June 08, 2006 11:52
A:Interesting question. Pull up a chair.

The previous Straw Poll invited readers to choose among three academic futures for Alex Doonesbury: Should she go to Rensselaer, Cornell, or MIT? Voting was brisk. Wait, let us rephrase that: Voting was insane, rampant, ingenious, and impressively ruthless. An MIT student put up "Doonesbury Voting Hack", a web site (adorned with art borrowed from the Town Hall) which enabled would-be-ballot-stuffers to spew out over a million votes in a single night. "We're all running cgi hack scripts" lol'd one MIT blogger, "I've voted 3 or 4 thousand times!" Fortunately the prophylactic measures swiftly implemented by the DTH's crack tech crew kept most of the votes from making it into the poll.

The idea of outing the main culprit was briefly considered (a 5'8", 115-lb. freshman from New York -- it's amazing what you can find out about a person online), but as he left a clear trail and probably didn't expect the hack to be as successful as it was, it seemed enough to deny the MIT network access to our servers. Besides, we had to take his thoughtfulness into account: "Please," he cautioned on the updated version of his hack site, "only keep one instance of the program running at a time so we don't kill the server again."

Meanwhile Rensselaer had also stepped up to the plate -- or rather made their own attempt to move it. As campus blog entries indicate, token reservations were overcome ("It would be entirely unethical of me to stuff a ballot box, or suggest any others use the same, with command lines such as...") and a curl was disseminated, intended to accomplish pretty much what the MIT script had done using Flash. The Rensselaer effort was less successful -- still, several hundred thousand votes bounced off our servers. By the time a handful of indy hackers made their run at the Straw Poll, the ballot box was adequately unstuffable.

Cornell blogage shows that students there were watching the fray ("Me thinks the site is being bombarded by a script war between Troy and Cambridge..."), but a higher, or more urgent, course was taken. ("We're at a disadvantage, because we've got finals now and presumably no one has the free time to write a Cornell spamming script.") The Cornell alumni office had early-on taken an above-board interest, alerting alums to the situation and urging them to vote, but this effort did not bring Cornellians to the poll in numbers sufficient for Big Red to catch up. "We're obviously not trying hard enough to cheat," lamented a dismayed blogger. However, students and alums managed to post many passionate, articulate, humorous, and convincing posts on our Blowback page, all making the case that Alex should head to Ithaca. In acknowledgement of this impressive and moving effort, the Doonesbury Town Hall is pleased to award Cornell the Doonesbury Straw Poll Congeniality Award.

As for the question at hand -- Where will Alex go to school? -- the will, chutzpah, and bodacious craft of the voting public will be respected. A careful check of the applicable rulebook indicates that queering the results was not specifically prohibited. And by tradition, engineers, hackers and techfolk will assume that in a problem-solving situation of this nature, there is no box out of which they are not expected to climb. The Doonesbury Town Hall thanks all those who took the time and trouble to vote, even those who voted only once.

Ms. Doonesbury will be attending MIT.

Q: The story of B.D.'s wounding and recovery has been fascinating to follow, and brings to mind, vaguely, the memory that his buddy Ray got blown up back in Gulf War I. Obviously Ray survived to serve in Iraq, but what exactly happened to him back then?
-- C. Douglas, Wellington, NZ | Characters | March 31, 2006 16:50
A:Almost twelve years before B.D. lost his leg in Iraq, he lost his first Humvee when the vehicle he and Ray Hightower were riding in was destroyed by an artillery shell. Ray's injury was serious enough to take him well out of the combat zone, but put him in psychological jeopardy by placing him under the jurisdiction of Navy morale officer Trip Tripler ? former college roommate of Sal Doonesbury. We are pleased to present Ray's not-so-excellent adventure for you here.
Q: B.D.'s counselor, Elias, started out black. Now he's white. What gives?
-- Terence, Paris, FRANCE | Characters | March 01, 2006 14:17
A:Actually, Elias has always been Latino, born in Puerto Rico. The confusion is strictly the result of a technical problem. In the b&w dailies, a crosshatch pattern was used to indicate Elias' skin. The 2-19-06 Sunday strip shows the correct color tone. But when the dailies were colored at the syndicate for online posting, the combination of color and crosshatching made Elias too dark -- hence the confusion. The problem was recently addressed, and the Elias strips in the DTH archive have been corrected. We apologize for the cognitive dissonance.
Q: My friend insists Zonker started out in the strip as a football player, but I find this hard to believe. Is it true?
-- Chris McVey, Sunnyvale, CA | Characters | February 09, 2006 09:23
A:Yes. Zonker and B.D. first met on the gridiron in a clash of personalities which set the tone for their enduring love/hate relationship. We are pleased to post this initial sequence for your viewing pleasure - shamelessly taking advantage of your timely question to announce the kick-off of Dude: The Big Book of Zonker. Here's flap copy from this delightful compilation (longtime DTH visitors will recognize the voice of Duty Officer David Stanford):

This breathtaking volume boldly, cheerfully, and blankly stares back across the stunningly copacetic life and times of Zonker Harris. From his Californian-American roots to his legendary status as surfer, nanny, and former sun god, his career trajectory has unfailingly carried him ever deeper into the homegrown heart of the American daydream.

?I am but one dude.?

-Zonker Harris

In all the annals of disengagement, the name Zonker Harris stands nonpareil. For over three decades, Doonesbury's Prince of Inner Space has consistently upped the ante on mellow, proving there is far more slack in a dude than social scientists had previously imagined. Expanding on the legacy passed down from such unplugged progenitors as Maynard G. Krebs and Jughead, the Z-man added his own baked-in-the-'60s style of endearing cluelessness to the essential but underappreciated American tradition of laissez-faire. With uncompromising commitment to a life of flow, Zonker has served as a role model and inspiration for several generations of latter-day dudes, from Jeff Spicoli to his own nephew Zipper.

Dubbed Walden's "Greatest Living Slacker" by his alma mater, Zonker has shown that winging it is a viable survival strategy, and has ever held true to his 'tude. As an undergraduate communard, he savored the natural glories of Walden Puddle (named as a tip of the visor to New England's founding chillhead). Now a professional nanny who took his charge surfing while still in diapers, Zonker Harris, man-child of the Golden West, continues to pass on the gentle wisdom of his kind.

Q: Is Ray Hightower's war blog for real? If so, what's the url?
-- Barry G., Pittsburgh, PA | Characters | September 29, 2005 21:46
A:Although Ray's blog, like Ray himself, only exists in the cartoon universe, we're happy to pass along links to MY WAR (which features a good collection of articles on "milbloggers"), LIFE IN THIS GIRL'S ARMY (which has links to other sites), plus THIS EXTENSIVE LIST of blogs.
Q: The therapists I work with, both OT and PT, have been enjoying the rehab-related strips about B.D.'s recovery, and they?re posted all over the department. We?d love to see a compilation of these strips in a book. You?re got the rehab thing down pat! I?m returning to active duty at Walter Reed to work as a PT with the troops going through amputation rehab, and hope to see more of B.D. as his rehab journey continues.
-- Marilyn Rodgers, Reseda, CA | Characters | July 29, 2005 13:38
A:We appreciate your timely query. As it happens, the Doonesbury book you request has recently been published by Andrews McMeel Universal. As their promotional materials explain: Thousands of U.S. soldiers have suffered grievous wounds in Iraq, and one of them happens to be a Doonesbury character. This special collection chronicles seven months of cutting-edge cartooning, during which B.D. and readers of the strip got an up-close schooling in a kind of personal transformation no one seeks. THE LONG ROAD HOME: One Step at a Time collects the first seven months of Doonesbury strips about B.D.'s journey. It follows him from Baghdad triage through hospital treatments, awkward visits from friends, agonizing exercise regimens and gatherings with his fellow amputees. It also depicts the anxiety of B.D.'s family members, who support him by staying at - Fisher House - an actual non-profit organization operated by Fisher House Foundation, which gives housing to families of soldiers receiving treatment at major military hospitals. Published at the request of Fisher House for patients and their caregivers, The Long Road Home is a tribute to soldiers. Here Trudeau sets aside politics and his opposition to the Iraq War to portray the immense impact combat has on an individual soldier's life. He researched the B.D. storyline at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he visited wounded soldiers and amputees. As Trudeau notes, "Whether you think we belong in Iraq or not, we can't tune it out; we have to remain mindful of the terrible losses that individual soldiers are suffering in our name." The Long Road Home includes a foreword by U.S. Senator John McCain, who writes: "Trudeau tells the story of B.D. - and the Fisher house - and he does it very, very well. Biting but never cynical, and often wickedly funny, these comic strips will make you laugh, reflect and - in the end - understand. Like B.D., the thousands of soldiers who have left their health or their limbs on the battlefield have done so in the service of all of us. These brave men and women astonish us all with their spirit. In sacrificing themselves, they sacrifice for us." Trudeau is donating all royalties from The Long Road Home's sale to the Fisher House Foundation. For more information on Fisher House, visit www.fisherhouse.org , call (800) 294-8560, or send email to info@fisherhouse.org . To read the New York Times review, click here
Q: Zonker has always been my favorite, but why is he mooching off B.D. and his family? I remember about 20 years ago or so, he won the lottery by buying one single ticket. I slacked off on my reading for a while back then, so I must have missed something. What happened to Zonker's millions?
-- T. Fairchilds, Troy, Ohio | Characters | July 06, 2005 17:02
A:Ultimately the bulk of Z's windfall went to rescuing Duke. While serving as president of Club Pre-Med, an offshore medical college, the former ambassador had been drugged, zombified, and sold into slavery. Functioning, barely, under the moniker 'Legume', he was working for Haiti's Former-President-for-Life Duvalier when Zonker purchased him after intense negotiations. The balance of Zonker's much-diminished fortune proved adequate for purchasing a slightly used British title from Lords-R-Us -- hence his transformation into Lord Zonker, Viscount St. Austell-in-the-Moor Biggleswade-Brixham.
Q: Who is 'Andrews,' the toady who has popped up in the strip lately. The only Andrews I can find in the guv-mint is Bob Andrews, a Congressman from New Jersey. He's certainly on the toady-ish side, but doesn't seem to wield the power of the guy portrayed in the recent strips. Is this a composite character, or is he meant to be a particular toad?
-- Janet Hartwell | Characters | March 30, 2005 17:22
A:Actually the recently-appointed Secretary of Toady Affairs is a recurring character who has built up quite a dossier in the strip -- including his role as the Universal Petroleum exec who hired Duke to parachute into Iran in 1979. Both his likeness and his name (and the petroleum company's name) are tributes to GBT's first editor, the late Jim Andrews, who was co-founder, along with John McMeel, of Universal Press Syndicate. Doonesbury was their first syndicated feature.
Q: Is it true that Duke represents Hunter S. Thompson? How long has he been appearing in the strip?
-- K. T., Baltimore, MD

Wasn't the character Duke based on the writer Hunter S. Thompson? If so, does Thompson's death mean Duke will kill himself too?
-- Paul, NY, NY

Characters | March 14, 2005 08:53
A:The late Hunter S. Thompson was indeed the initial inspiration for Doonesbury's Uncle Duke, who FIRST APPEARED IN THE STRIP in this July 1974 series. Their paths diverged as Duke took on a life of his own, and over the decades his ever-evolving career has differed dramatically from that of HST.

These links from the early years sample high and lowpoints of his stints as GOVERNOR, AMBASSADOR , PUBLIC SPEAKER and LOBBYIST.

The Town Hall respectfully raises a hefty tumbler to Hunter S. Thompson, a powerfully innovative and influential journalist and writer whose voice will be missed. Here are links to Tom Wolfe's Wall Street Journal essay on Thompson, which likens him to Mark Twain, a San Francisco Chronicle article which highlights his political acumen, and a piece by Larry Kramer on editing his column.