Barney & Clyde is a daily newspaper comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 created by Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten

Gene Weingarten

Gene Weingarten is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for both his serious and humorous work...

, his son Dan Weingarten, and cartoonist David Clark

David Clark (cartoonist)

David Clark is an American illustrator who has produced work in newspapers. He received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Illustration Award for 1996 for his work. He has illustrated several children's books. , he is the illustrator for the syndicated comic strip Barney & Clyde, of which...

. Syndicated

Print syndication

Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....

 by The Washington Post Writers Group

The Washington Post Writers Group

The Washington Post Writers Group is a press syndication service composed of opinion journalists, editorial cartoonists, comic strips and columnists. The service is operated by the Washington Post.-Writers:...

, it debuted on June 7, 2010. It appears in The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, The Miami Herald

The Miami Herald

The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...

, the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

, and many other newspapers.

Barney & Clyde is believed to be the first American comic strip created by a father-son team. On Father's Day

Father's Day

Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June but it is also celebrated widely on other days...

 2010, Gene Weingarten wrote about the unusual genesis of this collaboration.

Characters and story

Barney & Clyde is about an unlikely friendship between a billionaire

Billionaire

A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...

 and a homeless man

Homelessness

Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...

. The title characters are J. Barnard Pillsbury, owner and CEO of Pillsbury Pharmaceuticals, a multinational drug company, and Clyde Finster, of no permanent address. In early 2011, Clyde revealed to Barney that they had been classmates in grade school. Other prominent characters are Lucretia Pillsbury, Barney's trophy second wife; Cynthia Pillsbury, Barney's iconoclastic 11-year-old daughter from his first marriage; and Dabney Mountbatten IV, Clyde's homeless, and lawless, sidekick. Clyde's cute companion rabbit is named Adolf. When panhandling, however, Clyde refers to Adolf by his "stage name," which is Fluffykins McNeedsahug. Other recurring characters include Ms. Foxx, Barney's secretary; Duane Butkis, Barney's lickspittle assistant; Katy, Cynthia's best friend; Consuela, the Pillsburys' cook and housekeeper; Charles, the Pillsburys' chauffeur and manservant; Ebenezer Pillsbury, Barney's father; Jeremy, who runs a soup kitchen called The Pauper's Palace; and Dr. Mollenhoff, a veterinarian. Dr. Mollenhoff is loosely modeled after Molly Weingarten, the veterinarian daughter and sister of Gene and Dan Weingarten.