What a long, strange strip it's been! Doonesbury has managed to be articulate, abrasive, political, compassionate, misunderstood, misprinted, and outrageous—but one thing it's never been is complacent. Garry Trudeau's creation has chronicled American history and culture in a parallel universe. And through it all, Doonesbury has always been honest, entertaining, and way, way cool.“I don’t read Doonesbury. He glorifies drugs.” —Former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater   Welcome to the age of pivots. Two centuries after the Founding Fathers signed off on happiness, Zonker Harris and nephew Zipper pull up stakes and head west in hot pursuit. The dream? Setting up a major grow facility outside Boulder, Colorado, and becoming bajillionaire producers of “artisanal” marijuana. For Zonk, it’s the crowning reset of a career that’s ranged from babysitting to waiting tables. For Walden-grad Zip, it’s a way to confront $600,000 in student loans.   Elsewhere in Free Agent America, newlyweds Alex and Toggle are struggling. Twins Eli and Danny show up during their mother’s MIT graduation, but a bad economy dries up lab grants, compelling the newly minted PhD to seek employment as a barista. Meanwhile, eternally blocked writer Jeff Redfern struggles to keep the Red Rascal legend-in-his-own-mind franchise alive, while aging music icon Jimmy T. endures by adapting to his industry’s new normal: “I can make music on my schedule and release it directly to the fans.”   He’s living in his car.     G.B. Trudeau’s Doonesbury is now in its fifth decade, and has chronicled American life through eight presidents, four generational cohorts, and innumerable paradigm shifts. His political sitcom Alpha House, starring John Goodman, is available on DVD and by streaming from Amazon Prime.   For the record, Trudeau always inhaled back in the day. As President Obama once explained, “That was the point.”

The Weed Whisperer

$29.99

"Hilarious! " -- Jake Tapper, ABC News

"Hilarious! " -- Karen Tumulty, TIME

"Hilarious! " -- Erin Moriarity, CBS News 

In March of 2009, Doonesbury's intrepid journalist Roland Burton Hedley, III, opened a Twitter account and began to tweet. A lot. Four weeks later, a sampling of his 140-character missives was published in The New Yorker to great acclaim, and his posts were featured in a one-on-one "tweet-off" in the Columbia Journalism Review. Rushed into print, this groundbreaking volume is the first book-length Twitter collection by a single author. With dozens of Doonesbury strips and over 500 tweets, it presents the best of Hedley's work -- frontline micro-blogging from the self-anointed dean of Washington journotwits.

Eight months into this project, author G.B. Trudeau can confirm that Twitter is a colossal sinkhole of time, but is gratified that he has found a way to monetize Roland's inane postings. (Follow Roland_Hedley.) When not writing comedy haiku on Twitter, Trudeau writes and draws the Pulitzer-prize-winning comic strip Doonesbury for 1100 newspapers worldwide, and lovingly curates his web presence at Doonesbury.com. He also hosts a milblog called The Sandbox.

From the book:

"Just spotted colleague Terry Moran in hall. Could wave, but easier to tweet. Hey, dude." 10:49 AM Mar 18th from Tweetdeck

"Bumped into an old stalker of mine at Borders. She'd lost some weight and looked terrific, but I tweeted 911 anyway. Cops arrived from 3 states." 1:43 PM Mar7th from Blackberry

"I refuse to apologize for making time for my kid's ball games, so I usually end up not going." 9:13 AM May 4th from web

"Had close call watching MJ memorial service. They ended 'We are the World' before I could jimmy open my gun closet and blow my brains out." 12:33 PM Jul 7th from web

"While speaking last night, someone threw panties on stage. Or boxers. Whatever. Times like that, always ask myself: What would The Boss do?" 5:13 PM Mar 12th from web

"Kabul. Awakened by huge blast in hotel lobby. Suicide bomber blew up complimentary breakfast buffet. Off to find bagel." 3:14 PM Apr 8th from Tweetdeck

"Accompanying HMMV patrol, used on-board computer to order Ab Rocket. And because I acted when I did, receiving second one absolutely free." 8:01 PM Apr 13th from Blackberry

My Shorts R Bunching. Thoughts?

$8.99

Doonesbury.com's The War in Quotes is a startling account of the Iraq War, told entirely in the words of those who conceived, planned, advocated, and executed it. Presented in chronological order in thematic groups against a timeline of key events, this astonishing record of remarks both public and private speaks for itself, chronicling the dramatic unfolding of America's first preventative war.

THAT WAS THEN 

"Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you put in place. How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the U.S. military?" --Dick Cheney, 1991

MIND-SET

"F*** Saddam. We're taking him out." --George W. Bush, to three U.S. senators, March 2002

WMD

"If the president wants to go to war, our job is to find the intelligence to allow him to do so." --Alan Foley, director, CIA Weapons Intelligence, to staff, December 2002

THE PLAN

"There was no guidance for restoring order in Baghdad, creating an interim government, hiring government and essential services employees, and ensuring that the judicial system was operational." --3rd Infantry Division's official after-action review

INSURGENCY

"I really qualify it as militarily insignificant. They are very small. They are very random. They are very ineffective." --Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, June 18, 2003

REALITY

"Does [the Iraq war strategy] make America safer?" --Sen. John Warner

"I don't know, actually." --Gen. David Petraeus, in Senate testimony, September 11, 2007

Doonesbury.com's The War in Quotes

$9.99

Launched as a military blog (or "milblog") by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau in October 2006, The Sandbox is an online forum through which service members in Afghanistan and Iraq share their stories with readers here at home. In hundreds of fascinating and compelling posts, soldiers write passionately, eloquently, and movingly of their day-to-day lives, of their mission, and of the drama that unfolds daily around them.

A dog adopts a unit on patrol in Baghdad and guards its flank; a soldier chronicles an epic day of close-call encounters with IEDs; an Afghan translator talks earnestly with his American friend about love and theology; a dad far from home meditates on time and history in the desert night under ancient stars; a Chuck Norris action figure witnesses surreal moments of humor in the cramped cab of a Humvee --Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan presents a rich outpouring of stories, from the hilarious to the thrilling to the heartbreaking, and helps us understand what so many of our countrymen are going through and the sacrifices they are making on our behalf.

* I really feel like most people look at this war as little more than a television event. How many have ever taken the time to stop and think about what we go through every day over here? The bullets, rockets, and IEDs are not the hard part. The hard part is knowing that life goes on back at home. --FC1 (SW) Anthony McCloskey

* The man looks at me, his jaw working in anger. For a brief second, I get the impression that he is going to attack, and then suddenly, as if the energy has gone out of him, his shoulders slump slightly and he looks down at his brother's body. --1LT Adam Tiffen

* Out here in the desert, Time is King; the minutes are his minions and the months his sabers by which you are knighted. The King controls all that you do, when you come and go, and how long until you see your children. --Capt. Lee Kelley

Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox

$16.95

This breathtaking volume boldly, cheerfully, and blankly stares back across the stunningly mellow life and times of Zonker Harris. From his Californian-American roots to his legendary status as surfer, nanny, and former sun god, his career trajectory has unfailingly carried him ever deeper into the homegrown heart of the American daydream. A puddle-plumbing denizen of Walden Commune, Harris spent his formative years as a bodaciously freaked-out college student. His innovative decoding of the rites and rituals of the burgeoning counterculture put him on the cover of Time. Forced by a strategic oversight to graduate from college, Harris blazed a path to glory on the pro tanning circuit. His triumph in the George Hamilton Cocoa-Butter Open set a high watermark for the sport.

Family values led Harris to devote considerable time to helping his stunned parents refill their empty nest. Extended-family values propelled him into a career as a professional nanny, in which capacity he has indeed taught the children well--especially Sam, who was surfing the long board while still in diapers. Later, leveraging his political cluelessness, Zonker served on the disastrous Duke2000 presidential campaign. A devoted foot soldier in the war against AIDS suffering, Zonk is held in high regard among SoCal's medical marijuana community for the efficacious potency of his magic brownies. Unfazed by worldly success, he remains a true and gentle freak. After all, he humbly notes, I am but one dude. 

Dude

$19.95

[Trudeau ranks as] one of the foremost sociopolitical satirists of recent decades." 

While some in the Doonesbury universe seek office, others serve. Alex and her Seattle co-hordes devote their young, restless, and body-pierced Deaniac energy to hooking up "flash art" with politics. Half a world away in Iraq, a major bad boy from stateside devotes himself to liberating the city of Al Amok, ruling with a steady hand, a full glass, a devoted Chinese handler, and an economy based on looting. As fate would have it, B.D. finds himself heading upriver on an apocalyptic mission to terminate Al Duke with extreme prejudice, a story line so made-for-TV that B.D. feels compelled to bang out the screenplay on his laptop in real time. Fortunately for the man known to Honey as "sir," the media red-lights the hit, though car bombers quickly pick up the option and put the project back in play.

In the homeland, a wartime president has the answer to almost all the questions ("9-11") but tries to shelve the still incomplete story of his own National Guard duty back in the daze. Mark and Zonk join the war against trash politics by offering a $10,000 reward for any witness who can collaborate the flightsuit-in-chief's account, but their efforts, alas, come to naught. Yes, it's a divided nation. On the west coast sexual assault charges accompany a rise to power, while back east they mandate a fall: Walden College's acting coach, Boopstein, lets accusations of way-personal fouls force her football team off the field. Sex parties for recruits? "Who knew we were that competitive?" marvels President King, ending Boopsie's gridiron apprenticeship with two little words: "You're fired."

Talk to the Hand

$16.95