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: Okay, I'm intrigued by Zonker's recent comment that Duke was once "brutalized and jailed" in Tehran. Could you please share the graphic, gory details?
-- J. Demarest, Sacramento, CA | Characters | August 22, 2009 16:21
A:In the summer of 1979, Duke parachuted into Iran on a secret mission for Andrews Petroleum. By January, 1981, he had been missing for a year and a half -- last seen facing a firing squad. As a new president took the oath of office in Washington the Reagan Era began, and a group of Americans who had long been held hostage in Tehran were released -- including one known as ?the bald spy.? The Lexington, Kentucky Herald heralded Ambassador Duke's sudden reappearance: "Welcome home, well done -- whatever it was you did over there." The account of Duke's captivity appears here.
Q: In today's strip Roland mentions that his headset once "burst into flames." Sounds exciting! When did it happen? May we see the event again?
-- Mike Irwin, Seattle, WA | Characters | July 13, 2009 15:39
A:The aforementioned flameout was a highlight of the 1988 Democratic Convention, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia and resulted in the nomination of Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen. You can relive the excitement here.
Q: It's May and you still have not introduced an icon for Obama. C'mon, what's it going to be then, eh?
-- Lawrence J. Caldwell, Medford Lakes, NJ

When are you going to introduce an icon? Is Obama above political satire, or are you afraid someone will come and break your legs?
-- Richard G., Baltimore, MD

I have been hoping to see what the "symbol" for President Obama will be in your strip. If I've missed it, please forgive me.
-- Mark, Pickerington, OH

Characters | July 01, 2009 13:14
A:We appreciate the interest of the hundreds of readers who have written to ask -- with varying degrees of impatience -- whether there will be a Doonesbury icon for President Obama. Suggestions for an image have been generously forthcoming -- halo, basketball, Ray-Bans, Blackberry, teleprompter. This week the strip sheds some light on the subject, giving us a welcome opportunity to revisit POTUS graphics from the past.
Q: In the online Doonesbury trivia game, there is a reference to Mike firing Alex's boyfriend. Although I am an avid reader, and obsessed enough to play the trivia game, I seem to have missed this chapter. I didn't even get that Alex had ever had a boyfriend before Toggle, never mind that he had worked for or been fired by her father. Any chance you could catch me up?
-- Helen Reiss, Brooklyn, NY | Characters | May 24, 2009 18:54
A:With pleasure. We take you back to the late summer of 2000, and the aftermath of Mike Doonesbury successfully purchasing a dotcom startup concept from unlikely entrepreneurs Jeff Redfern and Zipper Harris. As Mike, Kim and Alex launch iVulture, they quickly encounter the complex human resource issues to which you refer.
Q: According to a recent FAQ, CIA Agent Havoc had a hard time serving as a "mentor" to Jeff Redfern. As Jeff is clearly a loser, I'm curious. What was his learning curve like?
-- Jerry S., Sacramento, CA | Characters | April 30, 2009 23:00
A:It's not clear that learning was involved, but Jeff did manage to make some things happen, as is evident in this July 2002 sequence -- which fortuitously also offers some backstory on Havoc and Akbari.
Q: Okay, I know I've seen the CIA character with the cowboy hat before. Can you please refresh my memory? What's his deal?
-- Gene C., Oakland, CA | Characters | April 20, 2009 16:36
A:Agent Havoc has been operating in the region since at least 2001, when he and Roland Hedley shared a cave in Afghanistan, and, in one of his most difficult assignments, served as mentor to Jeff Redfern. But he has been operating in the strip since 1986, when, as part of the Reagan administration's program to aid the Contras, he made his first appearance.
Q: I've been watching the advancement of Alex with glee, and also laughing at the wonderful interaction between Mike and Kim as a married couple. But I managed to miss their entire courtship and marriage. Would it be possible to see the highlights of their meeting and becoming a couple?
-- Schuyler Corson, Ames, IA | Characters | March 27, 2009 13:39
A:Indeed it would. Come along as we journey back to Seattle in the winter of 1996, where a Steve Forbes presidential campaign event provides the setting for a fortuitous encounter between two employees of Bernie's Byte Shack -- Mike and Kim.
Q: Okay, so I read that Roland Hedley is actually posting tweets on Twitter. As a complete newb, how do I get in on this?
-- Paul B., Sacramento, CA | Characters | March 17, 2009 15:19
A:It's plenty easy. Just go here to read Roland's complete tweets. Note that the tweeters Roland is following include Karl Rove, Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, John McCain, Shaq and Tina Fey. Click on any of those and you can go to their site and add them to your own list.
Q: As an avid (addicted?) reader since 1974 and an RVer, I could tell you where the strip is positioned in papers from Boston to San Francisco, Fairbanks to Miami, and lots of places in the heartland. I raised my kids on Doonesbury (liberals, all, despite their father), am still cutting out strips for my 38 year old son, and I have all the books (he gets them in the will). But I have never been able to find the birth of Alex. Can you please help me? (BTW, I find it interesting that both Alex and Sam, the daughters of the original characters Mike and B.D., have names that are gender-free.)
-- Amy Lauber, Randolph, NJ | Characters | March 09, 2009 14:58
A:The event occurred so unexpectedly that it's not surprising you missed it. Mike would have too, if he hadn't been watching TV. Here's the 1988 sequence chronicling Alex's birth.
Q: Though I've read the strip avidly since the late seventies, I've had some long dry stretches. I remember perfectly when Joanie's daughter showed up, but I missed the introduction of Duke's son. How did it happen?
-- M. Klaassen, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA | Characters | March 04, 2009 14:36
A:It all began back in January, 1995 when "Father Duke" approached House Speaker Newt Gingrich about obtaining federal funding for a national chain of for-profit orphanages. "Nothin' But Orphans" was launched shortly thereafter, under the capable supervision of Honey Huan, setting the stage for the unexpected arrival of the Earl of Duke.