Garry Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury announced earlier this month that he was taking a three month vacation. Subscribing papers could opt for three months of free re-runs. Some have opted to run guest comic polls. Here’s a break down of what I’ve read:
» The Star-Gazette is running Scott Stantis’ Prickly City afer 61% of readers polled voted for a substitute strip rather than re-runs.
» Speaking of Prickly City, The Bradenton Herald will be running a guest comic in Doonesbury’s spot with Scott’s feature as the first guest.
» The Erie Times-News will use the hiatus to “unveil a new local feature, which will involve readers.” No indication of what that might be. Methinks a poll.
» The Ocala Star-Banner will be running Richard Thompson’s Cul de Sac as the first of four guest comics. No word on what other comics will run.
I’m sure there are many more. If you’re aware of others not mentioned above, leave them in the comments.
Alan, welcome back. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is running Prickly City.
The Journal Gazette has picked up Edison Lee for the duration of the Doonesbury hiatus. We have been informed that several other papers are also planning to substitute Edison for Doonesbury re-runs but I do not have specifics at this time.
LA Times is running several test strips during the hiatus. I believe one of them is “Dog eat Doug” by Brian Anderson.
Congrats Anne, maybe they’ll make extra room for it after the hiatus! Best of luck on that!
Thanks Rick, we’re keeping our fingers crossed!
Rich not Rick! Geez! Or in the words of Homer Simpson “Doh!”
Washington Post is running a variety, but starting with Daddy’s Home by Anthony Rubino Jr. and Gary Markstein.
Chicago Tribune is using On A Claire Day as a replacement.
Tribune must be seriously thinking of adding “On a Claire Day” to their lineup. They also test-runned Claire when “Cathy” went on a vacation.
Other “Doonesbury” replacements:
Rockford Register-Star: Candorville (only Monday through Saturday; no Sunday replacement until at least April 13th).
Roanoke Times: Pearls Before Swine
Standard-Times (MA.; Web site is SouthCoastToday.com): Candorville
Baton Rouge Advocate: various strips (Mutts; F Minus; Get Fuzzy; DeFlocked; The Knight Life; Pickles). Paper may be dropping Doonesbury permanently along with Peanuts, For Better Or For Worse, B.C., Mallard Fillmore, Family Circus, Ziggy and Magic Eye (those last three strips listed run only on Sundays). Advocate also wants to expand Pearls Before Swine from a Sunday strip to a seven-day-a-week strip.
Ventura County Star: Little Dog Lost
York Daily Record: various strips starting with Tundra
Bay City (Mi.) Times: Sound Off – a feature allowing local readers to opine (Doonesbury ran in the editorial pages).
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: various strips starting with Tundra.
San Francisco Chronicle: Candorville
Yakima Herald Republic: Tundra and The Other Coast. Family Tree was dropped.
The Los Angeles Times is running a replacement strip “Cafe Con Leche” by Charles Gary. Not too funny the first day. The Riverside Press-Enterprise is running old strips.
New York Daily News is running F Minus. Daily News has been available in Tampa Bay area for a while (NY Post has been available for about a year-and-a-half here).
The Bradenton (Fla.) Herald’s editors’ blog gives a bit more insight on the changes, and how readers are reacting. We’re considering more changes based on feedback — including yours.
The link:
http://bradentonherald.blogspot.com/2008/03/doonesbury-takes-vacation.html
The Philadelphia Inquirer today has “Single and Looking”, referred to as a sample comic strip.
The Tampa Tribune is running Red and Rover. Hope it is not permanent, but anything goes around here…