Doonesbury has a new protagonist

Doonesbury has an official new lead character: Alex Doonesbury, the daughter of Mike Doonesbury, who has been the comic's protagonist for more than 40 years. Writing for ThinkProgress, Alyssa Rosenberg does a great job of summing up Alex's appeal, and what it means to have a new generation at the fore of one of the most significant, long-running comic-strips in America:

Daily cartoon strips may not get as much credit as they ought to for shaping the cultural zeitgeist, but throughout her life, and mine, Alex Doonesbury’s been one of the best female characters, of any age, in any medium. She’s a child of divorced parents with a complicated relationship with her mother that made her mature and self-protective rather than the victim of cliche trauma, and loving, collaborative tie to her stepmother, a Vietnamese refugee adopted by American Jews. In addition to both of these women, Alex has a father who spars with her on politics, works with her on business projects, and treats her like a mature person with worthy ideas. She’s been a full member of the cast almost from her birth because she was that important in Mike’s life, and she became so in ours. Alex is a computer genius without falling into sexy hacker tropes, and her skills brought her closer to her parents and all the way to MIT, a point of pride so fierce that MIT students rigged the voting to win her as a fictional fellow student. And her love story with Toggle, a disabled veteran with less education and a decidedly different family background from Alex’s own, has been part of Doonesbury’s transition into a more expansive portrait of American life.

Alex Doonesbury Succeeds Her Father as ‘Doonesbury’s Main Character’ (via The Mary Sue)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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wizardru

That’s….huh.

HOLY SHIT I FEEL REALLY OLD NOW.
http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood

Unless Gary Trudeau’s daughter is writing the strip now, the same generation is “at the fore of one of the most significant, long-running comic-strips in America.”
dragonfrog

Anyone else notice a distinct lack prepositions the linked article?
- s2redux
  
  Also noun plural and verb tensed.
ComradeQuestions

Or, you know, this week’s strips are just a joke.
- jerwin
  
  You’re probably one of those people who don’t take mail silo week seriously.
- Mike Harris
  
  Exactly. There’s no way this is legitimate — people are actually taking this as a serious development?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Art-Salmons/100001016539462 Art Salmons

Sounds absolutely horrible, which has been the norm for Doonesbury for about 30 years now.
- Boundegar
  
  Either you’ve been diligently reading something you think is horrible, or you’re judging something you’re not reading.
  - glatt1
    
    Doonesbury really appeals to my eye. I’m always drawn to it as I’m reading the comics. But I also always regret it. I make a conscious effort to skip over it, but sometime read it anyway. I’ve been aware of it for at least 25 years, and it’s been really uninteresting that entire time. But the drawings are nice.
    - franko
      
      i’ve been reading it for 30 of those years, and it’s been fantastic the entire time. i really don’t know what you are talking about.
    - bzishi
      
      This is the danger of comics. I don’t see Doonesbury often since the newspapers I read tend to put it into the political section. But the Family Circle comes up and bites me all the time. I have to be fast to cover it with something or else the comics will be ruined for the day.
      - franko
        
        “one look makes your whole day just suck” is the common quote around our house about that comic.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

Calling Mike’s summer daydream
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  Of course, that turned out to be real once before, too. Remember how he got to Seattle?
http://twitter.com/Epers Eddie Perkins

Those noses are finally starting to really freak me out.
- septimar
  
  Yes! At first I didn’t know what these things in their faces were supposed to be, then I realized, WTF, those are noses? I could never focus on the story, just on the noses.
http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

I, for one, welcome our new Doonesbury overlords. (Hey, it worked for Gasoline Alley.)

Unless, of course, this is a joke. In which case, I reaffirm my support for our former Doonesbury overlords.
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

In other news, Popeye is now the protagonist of Thimble Theater and Krazy Kat has become the protagonist of The Dingbat Family.

Doonesbury has had an ensemble cast more or less since the beginning. I don’t think anyone would have noticed if there had been no announcement. In fact, a more hardcore fan than me might argue that Mike hasn’t been the main protagonist for a while now, or that there were stretches of several years where Zonker or Duke seemed to be featured more prominently than Mike.