Why this is so I don’t know, but Mike’s glasses have done that since (checks archive) the second Doonesbury daily strip in 1970, and probably since Bull Tales. It may be a bit late for GBT to change his style now.
Amy’s t-shirt says “I ❤️ Joy”, another reference (along with her “classic antiques rogue” look) to the Lovejoy novels and TV series. See John Campbell’s comment on the August 6 2024 strip, and my reply, for more on Lovejoy.
I didn’t, but I was curious enough to seek it out. Mike and Kim went to Vietnam on their honeymoon in May 1997, and Kim sought out her closest surviving relative, a second cousin who worked in a Nike factory for $8 a week. I have also refreshed my memory of a July 1992 seqence when a teenaged Kim received a National Merit Scholarship, which seems to be her last appearance before the Forbes meeting.
Kim was a regular character during the 1970s as a child, then reappeared when she accidentally wandered into a Steve Forbes campaign meeting that Mike was attending in February 1996.
Traditionally the lead time for Sunday strips was well over a month, to allow for color separation, physical distribution, early printing of the comics section and so on. I imagine it could be shorter now as much of that is done digitally, but I doubt it’s got down to 11 days, even if GBT could write and pencil an immediate response.
Why this is so I don’t know, but Mike’s glasses have done that since (checks archive) the second Doonesbury daily strip in 1970, and probably since Bull Tales. It may be a bit late for GBT to change his style now.