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: OK, so I have been reading Doonesbury from the start, and know how to spell it. Today's comic heaves the question: Where did the name "Doonesbury" come from? What was its genesis?
-- Dennis Degen, Frederick, MD | Creating the Strip | October 09, 2007
A:GBT created the name "Doonesbury" by combining "doone" -- prep school slang for a socially clueless "genial fool" --and the last name of his college roommate, Charles Pillsbury.
Q: When is Honey Huan going to appear in one of the Duke2000 videos?
-- Josh Frydman, London, England | Characters | September 06, 2007
A:A timely inquiry. We have just posted The Official Announcement, which features the inimitable Honey Huan hosting the press conference announcing Duke's run for the White House. Ms. Huan is portrayed by actress Lauren Tom, who also played the role in the Broadway show, A Doonesbury Musical. You can view all 30 of the 3-D animated D2K videos in Duke's Video Dump.
Q: Okay, so what is MST? It's mentioned in the 6/22/07 strip. I'm guessing it's not "Mountain Standard Time."
-- Dave Gracer, Providence, Rhode Island
Storyline | August 11, 2007
A:MST stands for Military Sexual Trauma -- and it's not surprising you haven't heard it before. Although the problem is not new, the coinage is recent enough that it's not yet included on some military acronym lists. Here's some background on the subject.
Q: I don't think you meant for Alex and Drew to be 'B' students. MIT grades on a 5.0 scale. You should get the numbers right.
-- Ken Fujimoto, SF, CA

You've probably already received 4,000 emails about this, but today's comic said that Alex's roommate had a 4.0 GPA. At MIT that means a B average, because MIT uses a 5 point scale.
-- Lisa Danz, Los Altos, CA

June 06, 2007
A:It was more like 40 than 4,000, but we appreciate all the MIT folk who took the time to write and set us straight. However, GBT tells the Town Hall that had he known the MIT system, he still might have opted to use 4.0 in the strip. In fiction, accuracy sometimes has to take a back seat to other considerations, such as clarity. Since most of the world views 4.0 as a perfect grade point average, giving Drew a 5.0 could create confusion. Is she making it up? Is she exaggerating for comic effect? Anything that creates friction, that slows the reader down, can throw off the timing of a gag. Humor doesn't work if the reader is puzzled. Still, let's give MIT credit: The 5.0 system is an ingenuous innovation, allowing as it does middling MIT students to impress outsiders with their 4.O GPAs. Like Harvard, whose student newspaper calls all its reporters "editors", MIT knows how to let its large alpha population feel the love.
Q: Now that Mark and Chase are splitting up, I'd love to see the Sunday strip again that was about the two of them at home, having dinner, sharing a glass of wine -- a normal couple. There was very little dialog and not really any "story", but the strip moved me so that I've remembered it all these years. Could you please dig it up? Thanks.
-- Lucy Goszkowski, Annapolis, MD | Characters | June 06, 2007
A:Consider it dug. Here's the 10-5-97 domestic bliss Sunday to which you refer. Good times...
Q: In light of the recent passing of journalist David Halberstam, do you have any plans to re-run those terrific strips in which he was a character (and which he apparently loved)?
-- Alex Balk, New York, NY | Storyline | May 17, 2007
A:We do now. Thanks for asking. Here's the two-week 1979 series in which David "Tome" Halberstam interviewed Rick Redfern to within an inch of his life.
Q: What is that "Whack...hissss" sound that loads with each new comic? Where did it come from?
-- Karen Hopkins, Nevada City, CA | Out There | April 27, 2007
A:That appealing pair of tones is an actual audio recording of a digitally reproduced comic strip being snapped into the display chamber and sliding into viewing position. This remarkable feat of recording was accomplished at the sound studios of Mr. Fred Newman, the voice of Duke in the Duke2000 animated videos.
Q: When Duke came out of his coma recently he was working as a lobbyist on K Street with his son, Earl. Where did Duke get a grown-up son? I clearly missed something.
-- Alan A., Arcata, CA | Characters | April 04, 2007
A:One snowy winter back in the mid-90s, Duke, inspired by the opportunity to take advantage of federal funds available for the purpose, made the improbable decision to turn his Colorado spread into a 24-bed orphanage. Naturally the undertaking, despite Honey's typically competent efforts as administrator, ended badly. But for Doonesbury readers there was an unexpected upside -- the addition of Earl to the cast, as depicted in this series.
Q: The 3/4/07 Sunday strip shows Duke posting his "campaign videos" on YouTube. And I see that they are actually there. What's the story on these? Where did they come from?
-- B.H., Philadelphia, PA | Out There | March 20, 2007
A:Seven years ago, Former Ambassador Duke launched his maverick "Whatever It Takes" campaign for the White House with this stirring declaration: "I want to be the ferret in the pants of government." E-campaigning from his headquarters at the E-Z Rest Motor Lodge in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Duke set out to prove that an average citizen, with nothing more than a laptop, a few spam speeches, and a sackful of soft money, could make political history.

Duke's campaign was amply chronicled in the strip itself, but GBT also worked with Protozoa, a San Francisco dotcom (since defunct), to create a 3-D animated Duke, capable of interacting in the real world in real time. Using cutting-edge motion-capture technology, and drawing on the voice-and-movement talents of Fred Newman, this project resulted in several hours of innovative animation which was so ahead of then-existing bandwidth capabilities that only now, two election cycles later and thanks to YouTube, can it be widely viewed and fully appreciated.

Duke's insurgent effort as a Reform Party candidate won him a small place in the history books, and put the outspoken candidate live on "Larry King", "Today", and dozens other shows. In a multitude of short campaign films such as "Healer-in-Chief", "Stirred, Not Shaken", "Forgotten White Guy", "Poodles" and "Apocalypse 2000" (with a Doors soundtrack), Duke managed to confound conventional wisdom on a dazzling array of topics.

You can view the Duke2000 videos here on our site, at Duke's Video Dump, or on YouTube. Additional D2K episodes will be posted weekly over the months ahead. To find out more about the project, you can read this extensive article from Wired magazine.

Q: Can anyone explain to me why the U.S. President is represented by a floating, damaged, Roman legionnaire's helmet?
-- Ron, Dublin, IRELAND | Characters | March 05, 2007
A:During the first years of Dubya's presidency, the former governor of Texas was represented in the strip by a cowboy hat (as in, "all hat and no cattle") floating over an asterisk (referencing his contested ascension). With the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, the commander in chief donned a more appropriate piece of headgear -- a Roman helmet, whose horsehair crest has, like his imperial presidency, deteriorated over the course of the war.