The series premiered in 1970.

Doonesbury is primarily a political newspaper strip that chronicles an array of characters from many walks of life, and it has some predilection for political issues of the USA. The character of Michael Doonesbury started as a college student and has now moved on to be a senior citizen.
In the strips there are numerous other, changing characters of which 24 seems to be somewhat recurring. The series carries the dialogues inside the panels but there are no speech balloons.

The strip's title is a juxtaposition of Doone (can, among others, be slang for someone gone out to lunch) and the latter part of Trudeau's roommate's name at Yale University, Charles Pilsbury.