Product Description

This breathtaking volume boldly, cheerfully, and blankly stares back across the stunningly mellow life and times of Zonker Harris. From his Californian-American roots to his legendary status as surfer, nanny, and former sun god, his career trajectory has unfailingly carried him ever deeper into the homegrown heart of the American daydream.A puddle-plumbing denizen of Walden Commune, Harris spent his formative years as a bodaciously freaked-out college student. His innovative decoding of the rites and rituals of the burgeoning counterculture put him on the cover of Time. Forced by a strategic oversight to graduate from college, Harris blazed a path to glory on the pro tanning circuit. His triumph in the George Hamilton Cocoa-Butter Open set a high watermark for the sport.

Family values led Harris to devote considerable time to helping his stunned parents refill their empty nest. Extended-family values propelled him into a career as a professional nanny, in which capacity he has indeed taught the children well-especially Sam, who was surfing the long board while still in diapers. Later, leveraging his political cluelessness, Zonker served on the disastrous Duke2000 presidential campaign. A devoted foot soldier in the war against AIDS suffering, Zonk is held in high regard among SoCal's medical marijuana community for the efficacious potency of his magic brownies. Unfazed by worldly success, he remains a true and gentle freak. "After all," he humbly notes, "I am but one dude."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371525 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
G.B. Trudeau's Doonesbury has tracked and explored forty years of American culture through six wars and eight presidential administrations.

Customer Reviews

"The energy we bring to our endeavors will light our country! The glow from that fire can truly light the world!"

What a surprise ,when I spotted this latest Doonesbury book. I have been a fan of this strip ever since it started and it gets better all the time.I have almost all the books that have come out over the years and in some ways this is the best yet.
Rather than cover a span of the strip over a period of a year or so;this book takes a radically different approach. It takes one of the main characters,Zonker, and follows his journey through life from the earliest days of the strip up until his friend ,B.D.,returns from war,missing a leg; and is finally resorted to getting a job. As expected, his job doesn't work out and he must decide what to do with the rest of his life. What do you know;he decides to go back to college;"to retool for the future".
When snapshots from the strip are all gathered together like this;it brings back many fond memories.
I've always enjoyed the stories and issues in the strip;but I have also been intrigued by the growth and changes that have taken place in the illustrations and the artwork.
I have also followed the strip "Dick Tracy" by Chester Gould and those who continued it;ever since I was a kid.Way back in the days of Mumbles,Gravel Gertie,Junior,Tess,Pruneface, and all.
Both of these strips are a real study in the improvement in the artwork.Without a doubt, Comic Strip Art has developed into an important artform.
As you go through this book,pay attention to the art and see how it progresses from a very simple form of sketching to a greatly sophisticated art form.If there is any place where this book falls short,it in that most of it is in Black& White and doesn't reproduce much of the outstanding color panels of recent years.
In spite of that: I thoroughly enjoyed this latest addition to my Doonesbury collection.

Dude, The Big Book of Zonker, is Great
Zonker, one of the chief characters in the daily cartoon "Doonesbury", is an excellent collection of "Zonker's Greatest Hits". We follow Zonker from his introduction more than 30 years ago to his contemporary trouble-making.

Doonesbury really is a national treasure, and Zonker is the funniest character in Doonesbury. Among the funniest episodes are the ones where Zonker talks to his plants (and they talk back). Very original, very humorous.