Many Run Alternate 'Doonesbury'

Posted Tuesday, September 9, 2003 12:00 am

By: Dave Astor It was expected that many newspapers wouldn't run this past Sunday's "Doonesbury" mentioning masturbation. But the number turned out to be unusually high.

When contacted by E&P Online, an American Color spokesperson said 84% of its newspaper clients opted to publish a substitute Sept. 7 strip by Garry Trudeau. These 200-plus clients include papers that use American Color prepress services or get their Sunday comics printed by American Color Graphics.

"Doonesbury" runs in about 1,400 daily and Sunday papers, meaning the American Color figures don't represent every Sunday client of the Universal Press Syndicate comic.

The Sept. 7 strip mentioned a real-life study saying regular masturbation might help prevent prostate cancer (Syndicate World, Sept. 4). Ironically, many newspapers discuss sex and other potentially controversial topics outside their comics sections, but many of these same papers feel the funnies should be "family-friendly" because they have a lot of younger readers.

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Many Run Alternate 'Doonesbury'

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