Recent FAQS

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: B.D. and Mark seem to have a strained relationship. The source of this conflict must be way back, since I have no recollection of the two having issues. When did it happen? What was its root?
-- Mike Irwin, Sequim, WA | Characters | May 22, 2008
A:Football hero B.D. and campus radical Mark banged heads from the start, different by nature and in principle. Though they met in the Walden dorms and went on to become habitues of Walden Commune, their interactions during the first five years of the strip were only occasional -- and usually confrontational. Here's a look back.
Q: In the Flashbacks section I recently saw a week of 1973 strips about a young, blond just-returned Vietnam POW who comes to Walden. Wikipedia informs me that this was about the time when young Lt. Cmdr. John McCain got back from his long stay at the Hanoi Hilton. Was the POW character modeled specifically on him?
-- Carl R. Schilt, North Bonneville, WA | Characters | April 25, 2008
A:No, but we appreciate your asking the question. It provides us an excellent opportunity to post these strips about former-POW Skip Willis. Enjoy!
Q: I have a vague memory of Roland Hedley reporting from Afghanistan at some point. Did that actually happen, or did I imagine it? If so, when was it? Thanks.
-- Bob C., Portland, OR | Characters | April 16, 2008
A:Indeed. In the summer of 1980, seven months after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Roland abandoned the abundant epaulets of his traditional reporter garb and donned more colorful attire in order to report from near the front lines. As this series of strips shows, his highlight reel is the richer for it. Roland's gambit echoed that of Dan Rather, who reported from inside Afghanistan while wearing traditional Mujahadeen garments and headdress -- winning him the nickname "Gunga Dan".
Q: In the 2/22/08 strip Mark refers to his "imaginary boyfriend". Is there something about Chase that I've misunderstood all these years?
-- Kevin Billinghurst, Vaxholm, SWEDEN | Characters | March 14, 2008
A:In recent exchanges with B.D., Mark has referenced an off-stage boyfriend who, mysteriously, has yet to surface. As to Chase, it sounds like you missed the strips which chronicled Mark and Chase's messy breakup. We're happy to bring you up to speed by providing this link.
Q: I see there's a new Doonesbury book out. I feel like I've missed a few. Would you please tell me the sequence of titles that have come out since the last big anthology, The Bundled Doonesbury? Thanks.
-- G. Polhemus, Carmichel, CA | Out There | February 22, 2008
A:The Bundled Doonesbury (which came with a PC-only CD-Rom containing all the strips through May 1997) was followed by these annual collections: Buck Wild Doonesbury; Duke2000: Whatever It Takes; The Revolt of the English Majors; Peace Out, Dawg!: Tales From Ground Zero; Got War?; Talk to the Hand; Heckuva Job, Bushie! and, most recently, Welcome to the Nerd Farm!. Also published during this period: the large-format Dude: The Big Book of Zonker; two books chronicling B.D.'s wounding and recovery, The Long Road Home and The War Within; and Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox.
Q: I don't remember Doonesbury ever including Santa Claus in the strip, or addressing the holiday at all. Is GBT part of the War on Christmas?
-- Hank I., Galesburg, IL | Storyline | January 09, 2008
A:If 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!
Q: Did Zonker Harris ever officially graduate from Walden College? If so, what major did he accumulate enough credits in?
-- James Falk, New York, NY | Characters | December 25, 2007
A:Zonke's extended career as an undergraduate -- which he referred to as "the best nine years of my life" -- ended unexpectedly when the budding tannist was forced, against his will, to accept a degree. As dramatized in the 1983 Broadway show Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy, Zonker's big moment brought two revelations: that his first name is "Edgar", and that he had no idea what his major was.
Q: We now interrupt nearly three weeks of great cartooning to plug the next great internet venture...Pandora. What's the deal? Does GBT have an early stake in this company?
-- J.T., Tivoli, NY | Storyline | December 10, 2007
A:Not yet. Nor do his fortunes seem likely to improve, as 37 years of references in the strip to products, trends, bands, movies, books, TV programs, websites and celebrities have inexplicably failed to yield anything more fungible than the case of Wild Turkey he received in 1977. GBT didn't help his case in the Toggle series by mocking Celine Dion; Pandora founder Tim Westergren, it turns out, is a big fan.
Q: How'd Joanie and Rick get together? Was courtship involved?
-- Joshua Eliason, ISRAEL | Characters | November 30, 2007
A:Berkeley law student Joanie Caucus was working on roommate Ginny Slade's Congressional campaign when Rick Redfern journeyed west to cover it for the Washington Post. Courtship indeed ensued, though Rick was unaware of it at the time. The denouement of this three-week series chronicling their coming-together was dropped by 30 papers, leading M.I.T. students to picket the Boston Globe.
Q: In a recent Flashback strip, Joanie's first husband, Clinton, plays a tape recording from their "youngest daughter". What happened to this other daughter? Does J.J. have a sibling we don't know about?
-- Frank Light, Cincinnati, OH | Characters | November 05, 2007
A:You have come across one of the few anomalies in the structure of the Doonesbury universe. Evidence would indeed suggest that at one time there was another child. And then there wasn't. So it goes.