Where's My Doonesbury?

I'm a hold out.  I admit it.  I get my news from the morning paper.

 

Yes, the paper.  That gets-all-over-your-fingers newsprint that is rolled up and rubber banded together and tossed from an old rusted vehicle onto my driveway at 5am.  The same kind of newspaper my grandparents and my parents read, religiously, every day.  back then, there were several papers in the house each day; the NYTimes in the morning, Newsday in the afternoon, and The NY Post under Daddooooo's arm each evening.  Bubba and Zayda took the Forward and the Herald Tribune.  My youth was surrounded by articles with by-lines, but I was less interested in the facts they were reporting than in the features towards the back.

 

Erma Bombeck led me to The Burrow.  Sam Goody ads led me to NYC and days flipping through record bins.  The theatre reviews told me what I would not be seeing.  But the main event was the comics.  Every day, there was the comics.

 

They were always in the same place on the page; Peanuts at the top left, Doonesbury at the top right.  I skipped some of them; Prince Valiant never caught my heartstrings the way that Brenda Starr did.  But Doonesbury was my touchstone.  Generationally relevant, snarky and subversive, Gary Trudeau was not only a great story-teller, he was married to Jane Pauley, a 1970's and '80's hero of mine.  She went where few women sought to tread; I just knew he had her back.

 

Moving from city to city, I was less and less impressed by the caliber of the news reporting.  I kept up my NYTImes subscription for my brain, but always had the local paper for the sports and the comics.  Mostly the comics.  In San Francisco, we called The Chronicle The Comical; the quality of the reporting was suspect at best.  But, I could sit at the table amidst cheerios and blueberries and pancake syrup and demonstrate for my children that reading the newspaper was how a responsible adult began her day.

 

Now, they open Yahoo! and see the headlines, then follow links and blogs for the details.  If they want comics, they search them out.  It's much too much work for me.  I'm happy to have the Arizona Star do the work so that I can sit at the table and reap the rewards.

 

I came home from Chicago a while ago, opened the paper, and found that there was no Doonesbury in the comics page.  I called, wondering where it went, and the woman on the phone said that Gary Trudeau was taking a vacation. 

 

I thought nothing more of it at the time... figured he was ill... he's my age... it happens.

 

Then, today, on FB, someone posted a Doonesbury cartoon.  I searched, and found that he's been publishing all this time.

 

I was lied to. 

 

I sat in stunned silence, staring at the screen, barely able to read the joke. 

 

I was lied to.

 

I'd been too uncurious to search out details, or I'd have known before today.  That's on me.  But removing my favorite comic without telling me?  That's outrageous ... and on them.

 

If Brenda Starr (mine, not the red-head in the papers of long ago) weren't on the editorial staff I'd cancel my subscription right now.  But she is, and I want to read her, and there is all that local news that no one else covers and I do need to know why the highway project is behind schedule and why the streetcar is a year behind in starting so I suppose I'm stuck.

 

Still, I want Mike and Zonker and Joanie Caucus and Alex and her babies... especially her babies as I get ready to welcome mine.  Where did they go? Why did they go?  When will they come back?  To whom do I address these meaningful questions? 

 

HELP!!