Bigger than Doonesbury
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So, then… Doonesbury…
The thing is, I don’t really have a problem with The Guardian dropping Doonesbury. Change is change, newspapers are newspapers, it happens all the time. Sure, it’s a bit of a shock, losing one of the few newspaper strips in the English speaking world that actually has some intellectual and political bite, but it’s their prerogative. But being something of an aficionado in these areas I was curious as to why. What had prompted them to drop it? What processes does a newspaper editor go through when considering the removal of a comic strip?
When it was revealed the strip was dropped for space reasons, well, I found myself bordering on the apoplectic. Which is, y’know, so unlike me. At least I think it is.
Fact is, for me this isn’t really about Doonesbury. It’s about how the comics, and for that matter editorial cartoons, are treated by newspapers. Generally they are looked down on as filler, not having the weight of words or the artistry of photography. If space is an issue then the first thing to go is the funnies, and sadly this is often understandable because the vast majority of newspaper strips, especially in the US, are utter shite. But that’s another issue.
The Guardian, however, has a long standing reputation as a publication that understands the value of its cartoons. Not just in the way it values its recipes and crosswords as valuable hooks for regular readers, but as an art form. Steve Bell, Posy Simmonds, Steven Appleby, Kate Charlesworth and many others have or had long stints in the paper and many British cartoonists such as Jonathan Edwards and Tom Gauld get regular work there. Their coverage of comics and graphic novels has of late been pretty good not just giving lip service but running long excerpts by the likes of Joe Sacco. And of course there was Chris Ware winning that First Book award a few years back. When it comes to the national media The Guardian is a friend of comics.
But what really galls about this decision is that having spent so much time and care crafting what is, in my opinion, a wonderfully designed newspaper, the comic strip they’ve been running for something like 25 years has been dropped with such myopia because the design wasn’t quite thought through to the final pages.
In their defense, the feedback department has been very rapid, addressing the issue by 1.30pm and getting that admission of dumbassitude by three. At this moment a good eighty people have sought out this post and registered their opinion. So, as they say, all is not lost.
But the fact that this happened in the first place, the fact that The Guardian of all papers felt it was fine to casually shit on a comic strip, that pisses me off.
Related: Over in US Land, Tom Spurgeon picks up on the shitstorm.
In other news, I’m really impressed with that front cover. So it’s not all gripes and moans.
Update: G2 editor just posted a comment to that massive thread. Doonesbury will return next week with a catch-up page on Friday. I’ll post his admission of defeat in the comments. By the gods things move fast in this internet age!
This is the personal blog and main internet hub-thing for Pete Ashton. What you'll find here is a seemingly random collection of stuff I want to talk about and share. 
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Hey Pete,
Check back at that editor’s blog post.
You won.
Here’s what G2 editor Ian Katz wrote:
“OK, OK. I’m coming out with my hands in the air. I’m walking…very…slowly. Please don’t shoot! I was the man who bumped Doonesbury from the new G2 and who, as several of you have pointed out, failed even to extend the courtesy of warning you in advance. Apologies for the last bit for starters. Let me explain. When we decided to switch to the smaller half berliner format for g2 (which brings far more advantages than disadvantages) it was quickly clear that some bits of the section would be squeezed for space, even though the overall space in the new G2 is the same as in the current one. It’s about the way the pages fit together: if you put two strips on a single page, it doesn’t leave space for anything else remotely substantial. We tried various combinations of strips and crossword and copy and by far the most successful was the one that we’ve used on the back page of G2. Some of you have been grumpy about the column that takes up some of the space on the back page but over the week I think you’ll see some old favourites in that slot, and some new columns that I think you’ll grow to love. Obviously design problems would not have been enough alone to warrant dropping Doonesbury - after all design is meant to enable you to fit what you want in the paper, not dictate what goes in. But the design problems got me wondering how many people actually read it. I’ve never been a regular follower of the strip - though I’ve always appreciated it’s acuteness - and it often seemed to me to be symptomatic of an obsession with all things American in the UK media that sometimes seems to skew our coverage away from the rest of the world. I wondered too if the commitment to running Doonsebury daily was getting in the way of developing new cartooning talent closer to home. Like some of you who have posted here, I’m a fan of Dix and wanted to find him a more regular home in the Guardian - he will have a weekly slot in the new G2. So will the brilliant Perry Bible Fellowship, by a long way the funniest new strip I have seen in years.(Before you all point out that means we must have space for Doonsebury, I should explain that it’s much easier to find weekly slots - there are always one or two holes in any newspaper over the course of a week.) So, as I say, I began wondering, and asking around, about how many people actually read Doonesbury. The vast majority of people I asked - and we asked all those who looked at dummies of the new paper during the research leading up to launch - said they did not. One or two wise heads said touch it at your peril. They - and you lot - were right, and I was wrong. Happily this particular error of judgement (unlike many of the countless others I have made) is easily put right: Doonesbury will be back in G2 from Monday. We’ll run a catch-up omnibus for the week on Friday and start the daily strips again next week. (I hope you’ll bear with us for a few days till then - I think it would be better to find it a good home, than squueze it into the first crack we can lever open.) And I’m sorry, once again, that I made you - and the hundreds of fellow fans who have called our helpline or mailed our comments address - so cross. The good news is that we now know just how strongly you feel about it and no damn fool features editor is going to mess with it - for at least 25 years. Now I’m going home, if I can just get off this sword.”
oh boy
I was thinking along these - it’s just stupid edtorial & design decesion putting comics again at the bottom of the shitheap again & pointing out that Ive popped a wee rant on their
a href=”http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/editors/archives/2005/09/12/your_first_reaction.html”>your_first_reaction along the lines of:
reproduced in full through lack of confidence that it won’t be edited out
& there you are spouting off in a similar vein - which is kinda gratifying - but I came to the obvious conclusion already
I really hope that they pick up on a challenge - I really want to see something like that - I always have - the optimist in me yearns for it.
yeah - the Perry Bible Fellowship is sorta funny - it made me laugh a few times when I read it back when - good use of juxtaposition, but really that’s the ‘gag’ there - that’s yer lot… - but it’s not like - a UK person… imagine getting Ralphie to write something with someone who could translate his timing? (I only say that Ralphie writing, because I know darn well they’d balk at his drawings - not seeing the subtlety in the simplicity)
Personally I’d much rather have Perry Bible Fellowship in there. Doonesbury gets by on being political and vaguely lefty (for America) but is about 80% filler. I’d actually like them to have taken the opportunity to bump Doonesbury and Steve Bell and got some new people in that haven’t been hacking out the same in jokes for 30 years. I really like Dix who does some fill-in work when Bell is away, and I think Steve Bell’s editorial cartoons are vastly superior to his stripwork, especially in the new colours.
Oh well, the same old jaded shite wins again, so much for an all-new Guardian.
(for the record, the headlines look wack and don’t scan well)
It’s not an either/or. PBF is still going to run along with some other stuff. In fact after this furore I think we might well see an increase in comics in G2.
And like I said, this wasn’t about Doonesbury per se - it’s the principle of the G showing that at the end of the day the most expendable part of the paper is the comics.
I was cool with the decision - things change after all - until I discovered it was purely done for space reasons. That’s when I flew off the handle.
There’s an apology proper inside today’s G2, and it gets mentioned in todays Steve Bell strip.
“Doonesbury gets by on being political and vaguely lefty (for America) but is about 80% filler.” Um. Well, when I look at most “new” strips, there’s so much less in them than the typical GBT fare. In fact, I think his use of four panels to get across complex and pointed humour is nothing short of brilliant. And he’s managed to stay above politics himself while having characters deeply involved politically and directly in politics (some “lefty”, some right wing).
Perhaps - and I don’t mean to put words on your blog - you’re just assuming that because he’s been skewering the establishment for over 35 years he must be past it. But that’d just be… ageist? Change for change’s sake is always wrong.