Saturday, December 26, 2009

1. Still a Few Bugs in the System (June, 1972)



This collection reprints 122 daily strips from Oct 26 1970 to June 4 1971
66 strips from the period are not included (see comment for list)

Interestingly, the strips in this book are not in their original publication order, but are presented almost at random. It contains 122 strips, and not the 124 typically seen in the books of the period, as two pages are given over to an introduction by Art Buchwald.

The cover of the first edition was in black & white, and colored for subsequent reprints. Zonker’s helmet and smoke trail appear on the cover, although the character did not appear until a little later on, making his first appearance in the second book.

The number of strips omitted – 66 – seems to be the most cut from any period I have seen thus far. There are 69 omitted from "Speaking of Inalienable Rights, Amy...", but most of those were collected in Doonesbury's Greatest Hits. Apart from several short strips, entire storylines are missing from this book. Among those not collected include Mike and B.D.’s skiing trip to Vail and the introduction of Didi.

This book was later repackaged as two titles under HRW’s Popular Library imprint, “Even Revolutionairies Like Chocolate Chip Cookies” and “Just a French Major from the Bronx.” These books are reformatted to only contain two panels per page.

3 comments:

G.G. said...

The following strips were omitted from this book:

Wed. Nov 18 1970
Thu. Nov 19 1970
Fri. Nov 20 1970
Sat. Nov 21 1970
Wed. Nov 25 1970
Wed. Dec 2 1970
Fri. Dec 4 1970
Mon. Dec 7 1970
Wed. Dec 9 1970
Thu. Dec 10 1970
Sat. Dec 12 1970
Mon. Dec 14 1970
Tue. Dec 15 1970
Fri. Dec 18 1970
Sat. Dec 19 1970
Mon. Dec 21 1970
Mon. Dec 28 1970
Tue. Dec 29 1970
Wed. Dec 30 1970
Fri. Jan 1 1971
Mon. Jan 4 1971
Tue. Jan 5 1971
Wed. Jan 6 1971
Fri. Jan 8 1971
Sat. Jan 9 1971
Wed. Jan 20 1971
Mon. Jan 25 1971
Wed. Jan 27 1971
Mon. Feb 8 1971
Thu. Feb 11 1971
Fri. Feb 12 1971
Mon. Feb 15 1971
Wed. Feb 17 1971
Thu. Feb 18 1971
Fri. Feb 26 1971
Sat. Feb 27 1971
Mon. Mar. 1 1971
Tue. Mar 2 1971
Fri. Mar 5 1971
Sat. Mar 6 1971
Tue. Mar 9 1971
Mon. Mar 15 1971
Tue. Mar 16 1971
Sat. Mar 20 1971
Wed. Mar 24 1971 – Mon. Mar 29 1971 (Mike & BD’s skiing vacation in Vail)
Fri. Apr 2 1971
Fri. Apr 9 1971
Thu. Apr 22 1971
Mon. Apr 26 1971
Tue. Apr 27 1971
Fri. Apr 30 1971
Sat. May 8 1971
Sat. May 15 1971
Mon. May 17 1971 – Thu. May 20 1971 (introduction of Didi)
Mon. May 24 1971
Wed. May 26 1971
Fri. May 28 1971
Sat. May 29 1971
Mon. May 31 1971

Anonymous said...

Is it BD on the second cover ? Wow, he actually already had hair ! Or is it just a character looking very much like him ?

G.G. said...

No, that is actually just the French major from the Bronx, pretending to be Quebecois to alarm Michael. He only appears in one strip, I believe. Thanks for writing!