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Guilty.

I was reading the Bloom County omnibus but I think it’s basically the same

🙋‍♂️

As an 8 to 14 year-old, reading Doonesbury and Bloom County anthologies while pooping was just the way it was done.

I had the Uncle Duke action figure.

"you realize, of course, that it makes no sense."

FUCK

Some of us read Doonesbury in the daily newspapers concurrent with those world events.

Did not own, but did frequently read. Understood some things, but yeah, probably missed more than I got. So thanks for calling me out like this

Took me a loooooong time before I understood what David Halberstam meant when he said of Woodward and Bernstein, "I kiss their Guccis." (Read as "guckies," and presumed to be a part of the human body.)

hey

I mean, yes? Since we seem to be sharing faves, here's mine.

I remember reading the Trump strips in the 80s (I think) and wondering who this asshole was.

Genuinely one of the best descriptions there's ever been of this place

I confused my mom by knowing something about Watergate in 7th grade. We are… apparently legion? I thought I was the only one!

Dear God this is exactly how I learned all my Reagan history as a gen X kid in the 80s

this book was a prized possession of mine.

Plus those few of us old enough to have owned those collections as college students and appreciated all of it.

I was born in 1971. One of my earliest memories is my mom refusing to explain Watergate to me. I credit Doonesbury for giving me the knowledge I craved.

My dad would explain the Doonesbury or Bloom County references I didn’t get. I got a hell of a political education at a young age thanks to those comic strips.

I bought a Doonesbury collection jointly with my first boyfriend and we worked out an elaborate locker custody schedule when we broke up.

I just bought the entire run.

Feeling seen, as the kids say.

I loved doonesbury, being as young as I was, I probably did miss stuff

Ok so this hits a bit close to home

Ouch, got me

How dare you

OK, but it was actually my PARENT'S copy. I also found a Mike Royko book in the Xmas stash & assumed it was for 10 y.o. me because it had a cartoon on the cover. I read every column surreptitiously & was shocked when my dad unwrapped it on Xmas. I am very normal.

but also lived for Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes and Life is Hell. We understood these 3 better, but they still left a dent in our psyches that is sometimes helpful and sometimes not.

until high school my understanding of vietnam came from doonesbury

😳

You couldn’t be more wrong. Way off. Not even close. They were Bloom County anthologies.

*Claimed* to understand about a third of it.

My Mom got my Dad a cat and he named it Phred, but it was a while before I knew what a VC terrorist was.

This site also is honored to host the foremost Doonesbury scholar around, my friend @paulinraincity.bsky.social of the great Reading Doonesbury blog: readingdoonesbury.com/2026/06/10/a...

A World Where Rage Was Funny and Insecurity Was Loveable: Peanuts, Doonesbury and the Long 1960s.On 30 November 1970, five weeks into Doonesbury’s run, protests against the Vietnam war began to figure into the strip’s plot lines after “Megaphone” Mark Slackmeyer tried to occupy the offic…readingdoonesbury.com

goddammit

That’s not true at all! I didn’t *own* it; I was reading my dad’s old copy.

It me.

definitely knew who uncle duke was before I ever read hunter thompson

I would honestly pay $1000 for the full Doonesbury omnibus, from Yale to present. The daily history he did was incredible

I feel seen

Oof

Except for those of us who owned the Doonesbury collections our children read ... (I remember reading "That's guilty! Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty!" the day it hit print. I am old.)

omg it me

Oh come on we understood half

Yeah. Certain strips from my childhood are burned into my brain. bsky.app/profile/indi...

It me

This is unfair, I distinctly remember reading Doonesbury in the newspaper and wondering why there was a talking building with a saddle on a rail fence in front of it ...

And Bloom County. (Ack!)

I bought the CD-ROM when I was a bit older.

I feel seen

unnecessary and mean to call me out like that

Hey, I had older siblings and thus understood over 50%!

Didn’t own any collections, but read it faithfully in the newspaper (I’m old 🤷🏻‍♀️).

*National Lampoon.

I feel like the first thing about Doonesbury that struck me as a kid must have been Trudeau’s conventions for depicting real-life politicians.

...Bloom County...but you're not wrong. (It was probably more than a third with Bloom County, really)

My parents had a small paperback and I read and re-read a bunch of Vietnam and Watergate strips when I was about 10. Whyyyyy

There should be a different colored checkmark awarded if you listened to Tom Lehrer, the First Family LPs, David Frye, the Smothers Brothers, or the Firesign Theater (not even a little high) as an actual child 10-30 years after their sell-by date. The biohazard symbol would work.

Why would you say this incredibly true thing

I mean they were my brother’s but I doubt he understood all of it either.

What if you were a Calvin and Hobbes kid (whose grandparents had a few of the books) and understood maybe half of it

For me, it was Pogo. My cartoon political references are more out of date than anyone else's! Do I win a prize? 😅

Never has an arrow struck more true.

@djolder.bsky.social

my entire career is making sure Doonesbury never mocks any of my work like it did the Apple Newton

My grandpa had a bunch of them. I can honestly say it wasn't until ten years or so after I'd read it the first time that the meaning of the title "Is This Your First Purge, Miss?" occurred to me at all.

I had Far Side books instead. Do I need to find a new social media site or can kids with comics containing confusing cows stay here?

*bam* oof, you got me

Kids just aren't learning their Abscam these days.

Pretty sure most adults didn't understand a full third of Doonesbury.

Dunno what Doonesbury is, yes

Hey! I understand half of it!

I gotta get back to my Doonesbury readthrough

I still have the Uncle Duke action figure around here somewhere

Ow

Please. It was Far Side. Thank you.

I got deep into Pogo and none of my friends knew what an Agnew was

Oh, I understood it. At least from the 80s on

Nothing on the internet has been aimed so squarely at the center of my being as this statement and the thread that trails it.

RUDE

I didn’t know we were a whole collective but apparently we are.

I preferred Bloom County mostly because I didn't get enough of Doonesbury

You say that like it's a bad thing.

When the kids in my class do something they aren't supposed to, I sometimes automatically say, "Negative, Captain America"

Hey. I understood at least half of it. 😜

I didn't own them, but my high school library had them so I read those instead.

I started my internet career in the comments section of Doonesbury.com after discovering the strip in the BRAVO FOR LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES collection.

Doonesbury Comic Strips by Garry Trudeau - July 08, 2026Welcome to Doonesbury's web site, which features not only each day's strip (easily enlargeable for your easy-viewing pleasure), but also the daily SayWhat? quote, a constant flow of reader Blowback, a...doonesbury.com

Ouch. Owned.

The Guardian in the UK published Doonesbury strips for a while, which was at times incredibly confusing for British readers. I think everyone who stuck with it is here now.

I’m still trying to understand this Peanuts strip after 50 years.

It me, but a third is generous same goes for Pogo

Firstable, public library but yes Secondable, how dare you

Don't call me out like this

Ouch

Not wrong. And I attribute my childrens' relative stability to growing up reading Calvin and Hobbes collections and understanding as much of it as possible.

Some of us were furries reading Bloom County and being totally normal about politics and penguin feet instead.

I'm 10 years older than the median but I still get your theory.

bsky.app/profile/mich...

Ahh… it was Dilbert, for me. But hey, same difference. ^^;;

That's where I first learned about Trump.

I was precocious. I understood half.

My father explained a lot of the watergate stuff to me. But I went a long time not knowing who Hunter S Thompson was, much less recognizing his avatar.

god damn that was too accurate

This is Bloom County erasure

Next time you come for me like that, send a town car.

Mad Magazine for me. Read Doonesbury in the newspaper but not religiously.

Never had any Doonesbury collections, but it and Bloom County were my go-tos in the paper after reading the latest Calvin & Hobbes

There are people who didn’t own Doonesbury collections as children?

I enjoyed Doonesbury in the paper, but I had the Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes and Far Side collections. For the discerning gentleman. 😎

/people who decided at age 13 to become jaded but dedicated Simpsons fans

I feel seen.

Also Bloom County, in my case

How should I feel about being called out by a complete stranger like this?

I remember seeing Kissinger at Nixon's funeral when I was 12 and my stepdad asking how I knew who he was and being like "I've spent the last few years reading your old Doonesbury collections"

I feel seen

“I’m so low-brow” I think to myself as I gaze at my Far Side collection

*chuckles nervously while clutching this*

Oof

Yes, and . . . for some reason a grandparent bought me a collection of Pogo comics when I was like 10, and I learned so much about America and the world in the 50's, none of which made sense to me at the time.

I never liked Doonesbury.

Bloom County, please.

1/4 if I’m being honest with myself

Hey! it was Bloom County and I understood about TWO thirds of it.

I had the variety of neurodivergence where I religiously read early 2000s Newsweek as an 11 year old for some reason

*read them in the public library after stopping while walking home from school

Bloom County, but yes

🙋‍♀️

I feel seen now.

I am dead

The Far Side was a better guide, imo

i'm in this post and i don't like it

That’s me.

"Iran Contra. Is that something to do with the Nintendo game?" -Me, 9

I had a "mid-seventies" review when I was about 12. Ask me anything about Watergate, the fall of Saigon, or Nixon going to China. Zonker Harris achieving the "ultimate tan" is also a highlight.

Yeah this is me, a hundred percent.

Oh sure, ignore Cathy, hater.

I remember when Jane and Garry got married. Boopsie was my first cartoon crush..lol

How dare you (describe my childhood so accurately)

For me, Bloom County presented similar delights/challenges.

God help me, Lizzy; as a child from 9-12 I collected and read paperback collections of Art Buchwald columns. Ask your great-grandparents, if they happened to read the Washington Post.

I’m pretty sure I understood more than that. (Yes, I may have looked up some references. So? That was normal at the time! We even had a dedicated library period in school.)

I grew up reading those strips in real time. I hope I got most of it.

See also: the lyrics to It's the End of the World As We Know It.

I only kept one scrapbook in high school, carefully clipped from the Sunday comics so they would be in color, consisting entirely of Honey’s subversive translations for Uncle Duke on acid. Along with Bloom County, Doonesbury confirmed that I was not insane the world was.

Fuck

1995

I assembled my Doonesbury collection as an adult, thank you very much, and I'm at two-thirds and quite proud of that.

Mine had all the strips about Nixon and Vietnam.

It was the Far Side but you're not wrong.

yeah, 37-43-year-olds

🚪

Doonesbury was a common cultural thread among liberals in the 1970s, but I feel like MASH was the really big deal iirc correctly, the last TV episode of MASH was of Super Bowl-ish magnitude

Just popping in to state that I read them in real time as they appeared. And I still have copies of the Utne Reader. (Exeunt)

Goddamit

Dammit, Lizzie, that's my fucking back you just threw out

Most of what I know about 20th century American history, politics, and culture is from reading Doonesbury, Bloom County, and MAD Magazine as a kid / adolescent and listening to Dr. Demento during the same time period.

Ow. Right in the “reading my father’s collection”

Not fair! Some of us owned them as teenagers!

We didn't have any collections, but we did have a WaPo subscription which ran Doonesbury (in the editorial section, if memory serves). There was a lot I didn't get, but it did set me up to recognize Ramtha's School of Enlightenment when I randomly drove past it about 15 years later. IOW: fair cop.

I feel seen

Nooooooooooo

Oh Gods. You see me.

Herblock erasure!

I am, indeed, guilty! Guilty! GUILTY!!!

GOD-DAMMIT. (also Bloom County)

Lolllllll

Doonesky

Wait what kind of kids collect Doonesbury!?

Little too on the nose there, Lizzie.

I was a teenager, but yes.

Oh no, do I have to add this to my bio?

Jesus Lizzie give me a warning before kneecapping me like that

I used to checkout Doonesbury from the library, but like you said, I barely understood 1/3 of it

Funny story: Due to *extreme* incompetence on the part of my high school, my parents pulled me out, and homeschooled me via a variety of methods - assigned reading, online courses, and continuing ed classes at the local university (from which I eventually matriculated and graduated),

Jesus Christ, I hope you are using your powers for awesome.

I didn't need to buy my own because the school library had a shelf-full of the collections, which was basically the same thing.

My parents owned it and as an early unsupervised reader I went to this after Peanuts. It was...quite the leap.

🙋‍♂️ had a cat named Zonker

Guilty as charged

"But the pension fund was just sitting there." Me: what's a pension? Still read it.

Correct. Jeopardy winners and Doonesbury readers. Garry was also generous via email with questions I had about some 1973 Ehrlichman strips that never ran for my book How Comics Were Made. I found a printing mold of the originals.

Jules Feiffer collection for me, but yeah same ballpark

Ouch - last week I almost made a comment referencing the Rev. Scot Sloan (the hip priest)

Ok OUCH

I have taken a direct hit, and I am sinking.

I feel personally attacked

Fans of Doonesbury should check out all the Saranac Winter Carnival buttons Trudeau has designed over the years.

O!M!G!

Skeletor You Fool Its MeALT: Skeletor You Fool Its Mestatic.klipy.com

I did learn a lot about Caribbean Medical Schools though

Imagine reading those at a very young age and being from Germany.

I also loved them, but I guess I must have missed things since i was a kid.