Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 03, 2014

The year was 1970“Bridge Over Troubled Waters” by Simon & Garfunkel was the number 1 song.“M*A*S*H” was the most popular movie.Baltimore Orioles won the World Series.Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl.

Really, really going back in the reruns. Mike and B.D. still young and optimistic. Though B.D. is already losing his optimism.

The first Doonesbury! At last, what we’ve been asking for, when we see reuns! Thank you!

Geez, this thing’s a year younger than I am. (Bear was whelped 12/02/1969). ;-D

First run on 26th Oct 1970http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1970/10/26#.UxQmQON_sd0 Mike

According to Wikipedia: "Doonesbury’s syndicate, Universal Uclick, announced on May 29 that the comic strip would go on hiatus from June 10 to Labor Day of 2013 while Garry Trudeau worked on his streaming video comedy “Alpha House,” which was picked up by Amazon Studios. Sunday strips returned as scheduled, but the daily strip’s hiatus was extended until November 2013. After Alpha House was retained for a second series in February 2014, Trudeau announced that he would now only produce Sunday strips for the foreseeable future."

Won’t be seeing ya in the funny papers…

How far this strip has come!

Thanks Garry! At least some of us can remember and others can learn the history of the characters we have come to enjoy. And we can smile at the pokes and jabs of historical moments that have come and gone in our political history.

It was only a few years ago that the book of this era, curiously called “There’s still a few bugs in the system” disintegrated and was consigned to the recycle bin. Wish I had cared for them better

Really…1970? I can’t believe I am that old.

OK, which one of us hacked the site?

Well, 42 years is a pretty good run. The strip brought a lot of pleasure. I’ll enjoy the reruns from the old days, and the new ones on Sunday.

You asked for ityou got it

Good. I didn’t start reading this strip until the mid 80s.

Well, I’m disappointed. Eyery possible best wishes to Trudeau for his current work, but still, I’m sad for this decision. Reruns are not my thing at all and having new Doonesbury only on Sunday is something that leaves a bad taste in your mouth …

I love it. Have all the books so very familiar with these story lines. A chance to read the roots of Mike and B.D.’s relationship and the beginning of one of the greatest strips in comic history!

Well, damn it. Doonesbury is all but dead then

One heck of a ride one the way back machine

Love the old strips!

Me too, man. October. I was 2S, student deferment. Still have your draft card?

GT is working on alpha house. It will be great.

Thanks GT for reading my post and starting from the beginning.

That’s one more strip in my email that’s reruns. The list is getting long.

Oh I remember these old ones from my first Doonesbury collection book not long after the script went national. I am old :).

@DaBoogadie@packratjohnI rotated back to the world in June, ’69 after having served 12 months, 17 days, 6 hrs. and 26 minutes uninterrupted in the Nam, before the lottery. I probably threw away my draft card – or burned it – when reclassified as as 4A, “women and kids first!” My dad died at 85 and he still carried his draft card even after having served 2 hitches in the USN. Those were the days.

This could mean that it will be 42 years until the next new strip (other than Sundays). Glad to see the classics starting from the start!!

Fantastic! Are you going to run Doonesbury from the start. I love it. And a big “thank you”!

Excellent! These are the reruns I’ve been wanting to see!

Sweet.

I forgot how much it looked like a college kid was drawing it for a college newspaper.

Thanks for all the great strips, Garry, and thanks for keeping them up for Sundays.

Doonesbury came out when I was 35, and I loved it from the beginning.

I’ve got that pulp, have had it since I was a kid, from the early 70s. Been a fan since elementary school.

It’s always good to see a public person responding to his following..To catch up:I was living in KC, so we were thrilled to see the Chiefs win, especially because we didn’t think they would (they’d lost to Green Bay 35-10 in the first SB). I remember a guy saying, “That Joe Kapp is so crazy, he could do anything, and there’s a big chance we might lose.”.And my number was 333, so I went ahead and dropped my deferment knowing they’d never get to me and I’d be done with it. One of the few things I still thank Tricky Dick for.

I started reading the strip regularly when both Joanie and I were in law school, 1974. If GT wants to throttle back to Sundays-only after 44 years of turning out the wittiest, most intelligent comic of my lifetime, I think he deserves it. If you decide it isn’t worth your time any more. gm, gosh, we’ll miss you.

This one and many of those that followed were published first in GT’s Yale cartoons with some interesting differences. The unhappy roommate here was originally a woman. BD appeared later, first and foremost as the manic Yale quarterback

Back to the start thanks to Garry T. On his Alpha House project.

My number was 90 in 1968. I was 4F. None the less I had to attend ROTC in my freshman year at South Dakota State University. I got excused in my sophomore year, but I had to pretend to the university president that I thought I’d have a heart attack on the parade grounds. These days I get blank looks when I use strange words like 4F and ROTC.

1st Doonebury? Cool! Only Sundays new???NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gary, glad to see how these characters met each other. It’ll be fun to see how this all began

Too young at the time for the draft, but old enough to enjoy the strip back then all the way through present day. I’m happy for Garry, sad for us. But we still have the new Sunday strips to look forward to. :-)

Wow, memories, loss, sadness. I’m really getting old. I was a freshman when college deferments ended, followed by married deferments. (or maybe it was the other way round..) sophomore year I got my “Greetings from the President”. That was a shock, and that was when I figured out kids of politicians and rich people didn’t get drafted. After bending over naked for inspection in a line with 75 others I got creative. ROTC took me in and when this strip was published I was in Pilot school. A little over a year later I was bombing Hanoi. Kids today have no clue how good it is to be able to make your own decisions about your path to the future. I’m glad they do, and I wish so many of us from that era could have had the same. It’s been wonderful to read your strip for so many years Gary, but I am truly going to miss it.

I can’t believe it’s been this long. I first read this strip in the Michigan State daily newspaper, The State News, and I read it every single day after that.

Ah, youth! Too bad it’s wasted on young people.

Like they did with Foxtrot Go Comics should have Doonesbury Flashbacks for the dailies. Then those who want to see the new Doonesbury on Sundays only just get that 1 comic a week.

What a co-incidence. Trudea is going on hiatus around the time that Obama’s presidency crashes and burns. He’ll return back when he can educate the peasants that Hillary had nothing whatsoever to do with Obama.

Consider for a moment – six million Americans have lost their healthcare, with nary a mention for Gary. Labor participation has reached Great Depression Levels. America’s credit standing has been downgraded for the first time ever.

And what’s the issue Gary decides to bow out on? He gloats that pampered movie stars are more likely to support the Left.

I believe Gary will live to regret running the strip from the beginning… his current work suffers greatly in comparison. Back in 1970, Trudea was able to laugh at himself and the Left. Today, all he can do is insult, pout and make excuses.

There would be if a sizable number of people knew the strip was still being done. These days, Doonesbury is in the same ballpark as “Grit Magazine” – which is also still being done.

I don’t know how any history teacher could ever get across things like the end of the war or the Watergate scandal without using Doonesbury as a teaching aid. And in fact, they don’t. Having talked with folks too young to remember such things, I find that their knowledge and understanding of that time is virtually nonexistent.

I don’t know how I missed hearing that Doonesbury was going Sundays-only. That is VERY big news. Well … it was a good run.

I think new Sundays only will only apply so long as GT has to also help with the production of alpha house, which is another terrific thing GT is involved with. Check it out on amazon instant video.

Think I became a “regular” reader sometime in high school. I was in 6th or 7th grade when Doonesbury started. And I had the S&G album “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”

And thus comes the end of a good comic.Into reruns we go Calvin.

Well I for one would rather “go back in time” for “vintage” Doonesbury than risk what my paper might put in its place. And if Mr. Trudeau is on vacation (or whatever) for a while, I say we hold his place. I have all the books, and sometimes go back just to get a giggle from the early days.

@Arne ChristiansenYour name screams Viking’s fan. Probably spent a lot of cold Sundays at the old Met.

Scarred me for a second, thought Wall Street shut him down for calling them a bunch of NAZI’S yesterday. Which they are.

Yep, that’s the very first one. Love it. Have it.

Great trivia Q, btw.

hagger, you did not read very closely yesterday. Did not call Wall Street nazis. They called those who were mean to them NAZIs. Hypersensitive

Now THIS is more like it!!

oh Mike looks like such a ….. whatever. Its a wonder BD let him survive a tackle or two.

It’s sad, but we have to respect the decision. I hope it’s not permanent. I was really enjoying Alex and the twins.

Wow, is somebody having a major meltdown? Maybe the world isn’t fitting his internal world view any longer?

Disillusionment really hurts.

Interesting that all the comments here are, intelligent, informative, reflective and non judgmental. Also fun to read. So refreshing. GT, you have done us proud all these years, and, though I will miss the weekday comics, I will enjoy the nostalgic trip and look forward to Sundays. I am gathering a lot of “classics.” Calvin, Cul de Sac, For Better, Fox Trot, Bloom County, and now this….