Doonesbury's absence in Memphis

[jdelac...@gmail.com]

newspapers.com has been adding papers from the Memphis Commercial Appeal and with that, an interesting tidbit concerning Doonesbury.

The newspaper first ran Doonesbury on January 25, 1971 (three months after it's syndication launch) and ran until Garry Trudeau began his first sabbatical in January 1983. Then, when Doonesbury returned in October 1984, the Commercial Appeal ran the strip but not at the specific length that Trudeau requested (at least 44 picas; the Memphis paper was running it in 37 picas). Anyway, not complying with Trudeau's specific request led to the Commercial Appeal dropping Doonesbury in December 1984. It remained absent through at least July 15, 1986 but looking at papers from 2021, Doonesbury did return at some point (they're carrying the Daily reruns and the new Sunday strips).

Can anybody in Memphis remember when Doonesbury got reinstated by the Memphis Commercial Appeal?

[jdelac...@gmail.com]

And here was the article from the Commercial Appeal announcing their decision to drop Doonesbury in 1984.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88496410/the-commercial-appeal/

[Freezer]

If I don't reply to this jdelac...@gmail.com post, the terroists
win.

I know they moved it to the classifieds some time in the 1990s.
Other than that, couldnt say.

[jdelac...@gmail.com]

> I know they moved it to the classifieds some time in the 1990s.
> Other than that, couldnt say.

As it turned out, it was actually August 8, 1988 (Doonesbury returned to the Sunday paper on August 7, 1988). Here was the clip announcing Doonesbury's return.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88827977/the-commercial-appeal/