40 ─ A Doonesbury Retrospective

Garry Trudeau’s slogan for the twenty-fifth year of Doonesbury was, “What a long strange strip it’s been…” and that’s even more spot on for the fortieth anniversary. What began as Bull Tales in the Yale Daily News in 1968 became Doonesbury when it debuted as a Universal Press Syndicate feature in 1970. The strip followed the lives of college roommates B.D. and Mike Doonesbury from their first encounter through the intricate life turns they experience, along with the cadre of eccentric and engaging characters they encounter over the next forty years. Always political, relentlessly pointed, expertly drawn and written, Doonesbury is a classic in its own time, and this book commemorates that special place in cartoon history it holds.

G. B. Trudeau has been drawing his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip for more than forty years. In addition to cartooning, Trudeau has worked in theater, film, and television. He also has been a contributing columnist for the New York Times op-ed page and later an essayist for Time magazine. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He lives in New York City with his wife, Jane Pauley. They have three grown children.

Trudeau maintains a vivid online presence at www.doonesbury.com and offers deployed troops a forum via his milblog The Sandbox.

Online:
www.doonesbury.com