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No More Color Comics Day for Stars and Stripes Readers

Published: March 28, 2026 1 minute 11 comments

Military men and women were notified this weekend that syndicated comic strips are now verboten for their Stars and Stripes newspapers. The Weekend Edition published on Fridays ran the following on page one:

A couple months ago Stars and Stripes was made aware that “The Pentagon … would take over editorial content decision-making” for the newspaper that has had a long history of editorial independence.

The military newspaper publishes five days a week with the Friday issue being the Weekend Edition.

Thursday, March 26, 2026 was the last day that S&S saw a daily comic strip page printed.

Stars and Stripes comics page for March 26, 2026

The recent daily comic strip lineup had consisted of: Bizarro, Loose Parts, Frazz, Pearls Before Swine, Non Sequitur, WuMo, Carpe Diem, and Beetle Bailey.

The Weekend Color Comics section was not available this weekend. Instead a notice was posted (scroll down):

Stars and Stripes Weekend Sunday Comics notice for March 27, 2026

That made the “Sunday Comics” published on Friday March 20, 2026 the last color comics supplement:

The most recent (March 20, 2026) Sunday Comics lineup for the Stars and Stripes consisted of: Beetle Bailey, Doonesbury, Zits, WuMo, Loose Parts, The Other Coast, Marvin, Baldo, Carpe Diem, The Argyle Sweater, Pearls Before Swine, B.C., Over the Hedge, Speed Bump. Strange Brew, Frazz, Garfield, Red and Rover, Crabgrass, JumpStart, and Prickly City.

This ends an eighty year tradition of Sunday color comics in at least some Stars and Stripes editions.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution, February 21, 1945

Before the 1945 color comics Stars and Stripes editions were publishing black and white syndicated daily comic strips like Blondie, Li’l Abner, and Joe Palooka during World War Two.

Most famously Bill Mauldin’s Willie and Joe and Milton Caniff’s Male Call were appearing in European editions with the full support of General Eisenhower.

The weekly comic strip Gunston Street by Basil Zaviski remained in this weekend’s edition (March 27, 2026).

Gunston Street by Basil Zaviski and The N. Y. Times crossword puzzle
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Comments 11

  1. Artists have no concept of the “real” world of politics or culture. That’s why we can’t have them commenting. They might be making sense and we can’t be having THAT…dogs will be marrying the cats that haven’t been eaten by Somalis and Bernie Sanders considered a statesman.

  2. Did Stars and Stripes ever carry the Peanuts comic strip?

  3. I can see how reading a subversive comic strip like Beetle Bailey could lead to widespread rebellion or something like that. Nice that they referred to the Department of Defense.

    1. All this to dump Doonesbury. Snowflakes.

    2. The reference in a reasonably “official” publication made me wonder whether the actual name could be legally changed merely by imperial fiat.

  4. The demise of the comics was a shock. The content of the first paper on Friday under the new “guidelines” was disappointing. It was not yet down to the tripe propagandizing readers in the Vietnam War days, but the trajectory is evident. A disservice to service members everywhere.

  5. Interesting. The “Doonesbury” shown in the article is last Sunday’s strip.
    Is it policy to display a week old strip or did today’s strip not meet Editor Kegsbreath’s standards?

    1. The Doonesbury (and the other color comics) shown were the last Sunday Comics section published by Stars and Stripes from the March 20-22, 2026 weekend. As the news item says “today’s strips” no longer exist in Stars and Stripes after March 26, 2026.

  6. Hopefully after Trump’s disasterous reign is over and we elect a Dem into the White House, Stars & Stripes will get its journalistic independence back along with comics, associated press, etc.

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