Why the full Doonesbury doesn't run in San Diego

To Whom It May Concern: Have you ever noticed that comic readers in San Diego don’t receive the artist’s full comic? Notice the missing panels in “Peanuts” and “Doonesbury” in the enclosed Sunday comics sections of the San Diego Union-Tribune and the North County Times. But the same cartoons run completely in the L.A. Times. — Ken, Cardiff

In some secret back room of the U-T lurk thousands of clipped-out “Peanuts” panels that never saw print. The N.C. Times overflows with deleted “Doonesbury” drawings. If you demand full cartoon value for your Sunday buck, you are definitely shortchanged in some papers. According to United Features Syndicate, which distributes “Peanuts,” Sunday papers have different space availabilities for comic strips. Rather than ask a cartoonist for two or three renditions of each Sunday comic to suit these formats, the artist includes a drawing that in the funnies biz is called a throw-away panel. It’s a panel that can be eliminated without ruining the joke. Space-challenged papers dump the throw-away and run the rest. In your “Doonesbury” sample, the throw-away shows some guy staring at a bunch of pine trees. In “Peanuts,” it’s Linus holding a ball. Neither one is necessary to the story. And I’m pretty amazed that any guy who reads three Sunday papers has time to notice stuff like this.