"Doonesbury" began its life on October 26, 1970 when cartoonist Garry Trudeau started to chronicle the adventures of several characters of various professions and backgrounds. These included real life United States Presidents, to nerdy freshman college student turned Senior Citizen Michael Doonesbury, who the strip was named after.

Often political in nature, the comic was created in the middle of the 1960s and 1970s anti-establishment counterculture, and has provided a well noted Liberal viewpoint. The "doone" in the strip's title is American slang for someone who is clueless, careless, or inattentive. "Doonesbury" was a daily comic for most of its existence. Since February 2014, "Doonesbury" has run repeated strips from Mondays to Saturdays, and a new strip on Sundays.

Originally a continuation of "Bull Tales," the Yale University student newspaper, "Doonesbury" made its debut in 28 newspapers on October 26, 1970. "Doonesbury" was also recognized as the first comic strip from Universal Press Syndicate. "Doonesbury" began Sunday strips on March 21, 1971. Many of these early strips were reprints of Bull Tales cartoons, with adjustments to their drawings and plots. By the 2010s, about 1,400 newspapers around the world carried "Doonesbury" strips.

"Doonesbury" became the first daily comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize, in Editorial Cartooning to be exact. This occurred in May 1975. Then-President Gerald Ford told the Radio and Television Correspondents Association, "There are only three major vehicles to keep us informed as to what is going on in Washington : the electronic media, the print media, and "Doonesbury," not necessarily in that order."

For one year, from 1983 to 1984, the "Doonesbury" characters comprised a group of college students who lived in a commune near Walden College, where they attended classes. During this time, Garry Trudeau assisted in the creation of a Broadway musical of his comic strip involving the graduation of "Doonesbury's" main characters. With Opening Night on November 21, 1983, the adaptation performed 104 times at the Biltmore Theatre in Midtown Manhattan.

After this hiatus, the "Doonesbury" characters began to grow older and were portrayed as baby boomers. Their careers included law enforcement, the dot-com industry, advertising, and other such jobs. Real life current events, with fictional results, became mirrored in "Doonesbury" through the characters, their children, and periodic new characters. In 1994, Trudeau received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award. In 1995, Trudeau received the society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Personal symbols of political figures have often been displayed in "Doonesbury" Comic strips. For instance:

-Arnold Schwarzenegger as a large hand due to accusations he groped women

-Ronald Reagan as "Ron Headrest" a Max Headroom computer-generated, video character imitation

-George W. Bush as a disembodied voice in a Stetson hat because he had been the Governor of Texas. This gave way to an asterisk after his controversial election, and finally a Roman military helmet, which became steadily worn during the War on Terror following September 11, 2001's attacks on the United States

-George H. W. Bush as a disembodied voice to indicate his lack of personality

-Bill Clinton as a talking waffle because of his triangulation strategy where he placed himself above both sides of the political spectrum

Next Time: "Doonesbury" Controversies (there have been several over the years)