Garry Trudeau

Garretson Beekman (Garry) Trudeau (born 1948) was a comic-strip cartoonist, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of "Doonesbury, " playwright, and animated cartoon-maker for film and television.

Garry Trudeau was born in New York to parents of Canadian ancestry. When he was five his father, a doctor, moved to Saranac Lake, New York, where Garry spent an idyllic childhood. His parents divorced in 1960, and Garry was sent to St. Paul's school in Concord, Connecticut, where he compensated for the school's overemphasis on sports by concentrating on art. During his years at Yale University, where he prepared his B.A. and M.F.A. in the School of Art and Architecture, he began to spoof his fellow students and the staff in "Bull Tales, " in which most of the antics of the liberated generation were irreverently portrayed.

In 1970 John McNeel and Jim Andrews inaugurated the Universal Press Syndicate by publishing Trudeau's work under the less offensive title of "Doonesbury, " a name concocted from the Yale slang for a good-natured fool ("doone") with the last syllable of a roommate's surname. Trudeau's lack of reverence for public persons soon got him into trouble. Indianapolis publisher Eugene Pulliam canceled the strip soon after its debut in the Indianapolis Star, the Phoenix Republic, and the Muncie Press. In 1972 it was banned by the editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, Perry Morgan, but reinstated after reader protest. An episode in which then Attorney-General Mitchell was declared guilty of Watergate misdemeanors was canceled by Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, by the Los Angeles Times, and by the Boston Globe. The Providence Bulletin moved Doonesbury off the comic pages on to the editorial page, and later there was trouble with the Philadelphia Bulletin over the alternation of an offending word.

Despite the controversies, Trudeau was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and received an L.H.D. (Doctor of Humane Letters) from Yale in 1976. In 1977 he received an Academy Award nomination and a special jury prize from the Cannes Film Festival for his film "A Doonesbury Special."

He later expanded his activity into theater and television, one of the offerings being a series of television spoofs on the 1988 election campaign: "Tanner, '88." His work has been collected into many albums.

In 1980 he married Jane Pauley, the CBS television show host, and had three children, twins Ross and Rachel and Tom. He was extremely reticent by nature and refused to discuss his private life.

Trudeau's comic strip was considered by some, such as Art Buchwald, as "some of the best satire that has come along in a long time." Michael - "Mike" - Doonesbury, the eponymous figure, is a good-natured, undistinguished fellow with a pencil shaped nose and granny glasses, not too successful with the opposite sex, and generally bemused by the antics of his companions. The cast of characters surrounding him date from the exuberant and unconventional early 1970s in the campus world. Many of them refer to known personalities: "Megaphone" Mark Slackmeyer (activist Mark Zanger), "B.D." (grid star Brian Dowling), the Rev.W. S. Sloan, Jr. (The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.), Uncle Duke (journalist Hunter S. Thompson), and Congresswoman Lacey Davenport (Millicent Fenwick?). To these are added figures representative of topical groups: Zonker Harris, the hippie; Joanie Caucus, the liberated wife and mother, who abandons her family to go to law school; Virginia, her Black roommate, with her hanger-on lover, the flashy Clyde; Phred, the engaging Vietnamese terrorist; Boopsie, B.D.'s addle-brained sexy girl friend; Honey, Uncle Duke's Chinese admirer; Black Panthers, and a number of precocious children. All of these mingle with and comment on figures currently in the real world, chiefly those involved in political upheaval: Nixon; John Mitchell; James Dean; Gerald Ford ("Snowbunny"); William Simon, the Treasury "Czar"; Kingman Brewster, president of Yale. Ronald Reagan's brain is dissected and found to be equipped only to see a rosy past; George Bush is depicted as an absence surrounding a pair of lips.

In 1983 Trudeau decided to take a leave of absence in order to "graduate" his characters into the 1980s. After 1983, he resumed work with a newly-sharpened pen, taking on such sensitive topics as negligence in the Navy after the Iowa tragedy, "Star Wars, " anti-abortionists, homelessness, and the invasion of Panama.

Trudeau's pungent satire was often seen as offensive chiefly to conservatives, but he was equally unsparing of trendy behavior of any variety: drug dealers and takers, like Uncle Duke; yuppies living in redecorated coldwater attics in New York; ecologists going to the extreme of refusing to diaper their children; house husbands; and two-income parents who hire anyone, such as Zonker, to baby-sit while they pursue their careers. Trudeau did not hesitate to tackle the delicate subject of AIDS and the embarrassed and embarrassing public treatment of the theme. This sequence was withdrawn by the Boston Globe, but reinstated because of general protest.

Trudeau's jagged drawing techniques (due in part to the influence of Jules Feiffer) and spidery script did not win much praise from artists, but his penetrating humor was compared to Daumier's. Occasionally an underlying anger - for example, regarding the slaughter of villagers in Vietnam, the plight of Cambodian refugees, or the Kent State massacre - recalls the satire of Defoe. Yet there was less malice than concern in Trudeau's comments. He defended his attacks on our national and social weaknesses by declaring, "Obviously, all of the institutions of this country are understandably imperfect. They are in any society. But it cannot be considered sanity to hide the imperfections from our children so that they will grow up blind to them. Is it not better to tell the truth, even in hyperbole, and hope that they will do something about it?" (response to Sharp Whitmore on the Iowa incident).

Trudeau's aim was defined by himself to be "to let the small meannesses of life face each other in distortion, stretched, juggled and juxtaposed, but always lit with laughter to ease the pain of self-recognition; to seek out the vignette that speaks much to the lives of many; to distill and refine language so as to epitomize; and to look everywhere for simple meanings…."

The fact that "Doonesbury" was at both the top and the bottom of opinion polls among comics readers suggests the impact of Trudeau's social criticism. As the 1990s began, Trudeau began working on a new project. The project was a film about AIDS. Trudeau has centered many of his cartoon strips around AIDS. He states that the focus is to create awareness. In 1995 a celebratory book was released by Trudeau called Flashbacks: Twenty-five Years of Doonesbury.

Further Reading

World Encyclopedia of Comics (1976), edited by Maurice Horn, places Garry Trudeau in the context of world-class cartoonists and analyzes his comic strip. Contemporary Literary Criticism (1980) edited by Dedria Bryfonski and Gerard J. Senick, provides interesting analysis and comment. Contemporary Authors (Volumes 81-84), edited by Frances Carol Locher, and Something About the Author (Volume 35, 1984), edited by Anne Commire, both offer more recent comments on Trudeau's work. Who's Who in America (45th Edition, 1988-1989) contains a recent, but very brief, biography. Among Trudeau's best-known works are: Doonesbury (1971; play, 1983), The Doonesbury Chronicles (1975) Doonesbury's Greatest Hits (1978), and Rapmaster Ronnie (with Elizabeth Swados; 1984).

(Garretson Beekman Trudeau, Garry Trudeau, Garry B. Trudeau)

When G.B. Trudeau's comic strip "Doonesbury" debuted in syndication in the fall of 1970, Richard Nixon was president, the Viet Nam war was ongoing, and campus unrest made headlines across America. The popularity of the seven-days-a-week strip earned Trudeau a Pulitzer prize in 1975, a Time cover story in 1976, as well as a healthy measure of controversy. Run in more than 1,400 newspapers throughout the United States on its thirtieth anniversary in 2000, "Doonesbury" has achieved sustained popularity among liberal-minded baby boomers due to its hard-hitting and confrontational nature. Trudeau's partisan political commentary took aim at targets that included U.S. presidents George Bush, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, as well as highly charged topics such as the War on Terror, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and abortion. "He is as much journalist as artist—an investigative cartoonist," Jonathan Alter wrote in Newsweek. "Trudeau," Alter continued, "is the premier American political and social satirist of his time."

Trudeau was born in New York City and raised in upstate New York in an affluent family with a lengthy pedigree that includes former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His parents divorced when he was twelve, and the following year he was sent to a New Hampshire boarding school. Shy, small for his age, and more interested in art and theatre than in football, he was unhappy at St. Paul's, where jocks were popular and where he was teased for his lack of athletic prowess. Trudeau did gain some positive attention from his peers when his first cartoon character, "Weenie Man," appeared on advertisements for hot dogs at school football games. He was also coeditor of the school yearbook, president of the school's art association, and winner of the senior-class art prize.

After graduation, Trudeau enrolled at Yale University, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in graphic design, edited the campus humor magazine, and wrote a column for the Yale Daily News. "Doonesbury" was born as "Bull Tales," a strip Trudeau produced during his junior year and which poked "sophomoric fun at mixers, campus revolutionaries, Yale President Kingman Brewster," and the fuss over a college football superstar, according to a Time contributor. Other recognizable figures from the early days include Yale's Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (the Reverend W.S. Sloan, Jr.), campus activist Mark Zanger (opinionated "Megaphone" Mark Slackmeyer), and the late "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson (Uncle Duke), the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Trudeau's alter ego is low-keyed optimist Michael J. Doonesbury.

Picked up by Universal Press Syndicate and debuting in twenty-eight newspapers, "Doonesbury" was an immediate success. For many years, the action centered on the Walden Puddle Commune, where series regulars lived while attending the fictional Walden College. The experiences of Trudeau's characters frequently reflected contemporary social and political events. "Megaphone" Mark Slackmeyer, for instance, found his background as a campus activist helpful when he organized a trucker's strike during the energy crisis of the early 1970s. B.D. traded his football uniform for fatigues and served in Vietnam, where he befriended Phred, a Vietcong terrorist. The town was also a haven for characters like 1960s throwback Zonker Harris, among others. In the early years, Trudeau introduced fortyish wife and mother Joanie Caucus, and she became one of Walden's most popular residents. Joanie left her husband and enrolled in law school when one night Mr. Caucus put his arm around her and declared, "My wife. I think I'll keep her." "I broke his nose," Joanie subsequently explains, in true feminist fashion.

As "Doonesbury" continued its run, the strip has shadowed the evolving perceptions of politics and society that Trudeau shares with his predominately liberalminded fan following. In its first decade it addressed the Watergate scandal, women's liberation, and the resignation of President Nixon in 1974. In 1976, the strip attracted attention when Joanie Caucus and her boyfriend, Rick Redfern, engaged in sexual relations before marriage. That same year "Doonesbury" referred to President Gerald Ford's son as a "pothead." In 1985 Universal Press Syndicate refused to distribute a controversial "Doonesbury" strip that parodied a antiabortion film titled Silent Scream by introducing Silent Scream II: The Prequel, which follows the short life of "Timmy," a twelve-minute-old dividing cell. The political correctness of the 1990s prompted a "Doonesbury" plotline focusing on mega-popular conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. In the ever-more-politically sensitive post-9/11 world, "Doonesbury" has flaunted the PC trend and continued to present its creator's opinions on politics, as well as on the subsequent war with Iraq and the politicking that surrounded it. As Trudeau explained in his interview with Alter, "if you bring a certain amount of taste and judgment there's nothing that can't be addressed in comic strips."

While Trudeau's editorialist tendencies have been praised, his artwork has been less-highly commended. Calling his early work "crudely executed," the cartoonist himself quipped to an interview with Dave Astor for Editor and Publisher: "I always thought my main contribution to the comics page was that I made it safe for bad drawing, that 'Cathy' and 'Bloom County' and particularly 'Dilbert' would have been unthinkable had I not challenged the assumption that competent draftsmanship was prerequisite to a career in cartooning." Despite his rough start, critics have noted improvements in his drawing over the life of "Doonesbury," particularly after the late 1980s.

Working in his New York City studio, Trudeau first draws his strips in pencil, which gives him the freedom to make changes. An inker redraws the penciled lines, keeping the final product virtually identical to Trudeau's pencil originals. The strip is submitted about ten days before publication, while the Sunday color panels must be finished five weeks in advance. To keep "Doonesbury" as current as possible, Trudeau often works right up to his Friday deadlines. "If I'm lucky there will be two or three ideas that kind of jockey for position in my mind through the week, which I will bone up on," he explained to Alter. "Somewhere around Wednesday or Thursday, I'll start making the final cuts and commit to one story line. The process for me is very much sitting down and holding a casting call to marry an idea with the right characters and the right story." The nonstop and often humorous antics of politicians means that Trudeau is never at a loss for ideas, which is important in creating satire based on the rapidly changing current scene.

Finding fodder for his humor keeps him well-read and in touch with the media; Trudeau scans numerous newspapers and magazines and keeps files of clipped articles. With a reputation for thorough research and timeliness, he was praised by a Time contributor as, "more than any of his comic-page contemporaries,... a true journalist." In creating his sequence about the Iraq war, in which character B.D. loses a leg in the fighting, Trudeau went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to interview wounded soldiers, invited by the Pentagon. The sequence, collected in book form as The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time, featured an introduction by Republican maverick U.S. Senator and former POW John McCain. "How cool is that?," Trudeau commented to Nancy Shute in U.S. News & World Report. "I thought his participation would underscore the point that caring for our veterans isn't a partisan issue."

Despite the widespread attention given his comic strip, Trudeau has guarded his privacy; to evade a Baltimore Sun reporter, he once reportedly hid in a bathroom for four hours. During his early career he was occasionally sighted at political conventions and Congressional hearings, and even accompanied President Gerald Ford's press entourage during a trip to China in 1975. Into the 1990s and 2000s Trudeau became increasingly visible, however, and participated in several print interviews, as well as a televised interview on ABC's Up Close with Ted Koppel in 2002. While his audience has broadened in the years since "Doonesbury" first ran, the demographic of Trudeau's readership has not. "I have a feeling my audience is aging with me," the cartoonist was quoted as commenting in Editor & Publisher.

In addition to the daily newspaper, the "Doonesbury" strips have been collected in dozens of soft-cover books and are available via the extensive online archives at Doonesbury.com. In a a Nation review of the 1984 collection Doonesbury Dossier: The Reagan Years, Robert Grossman noted that the anthology "may be the most entertaining and lucid chronicle of the present era we have." The critic added that the book "reads as smoothly as a novel, and its characters exhibit far greater realism than we have come to expect from the funnies." Of Doonesbury.com, Reason essayist Jesse Walker described it as "one giant hypertext novel, a nearly complete guide to the Doonesbury universe."

As "Doonesbury" entered its thirtieth year in 2000, many critics, as well as the strip's own creator, marveled that something so timely could run such a long course without becoming stale. "I think all the cartoonists admire Garry's originality," Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz once told a Time interviewer. "He's gone into areas that haven't been touched before." A Time writer surmised that "Trudeau's greatest gift is the ability to present ... satire without bile, to put strong statements in the mouths of gentle characters-to demonstrate, as Mike Doonesbury says, that, 'even revolutionaries like chocolate-chip cookies.'"

As Trudeau views it, his comic strip "has always been a kind of Rorschach test for its readers," telling a contributor to the Washington Post: "To the extent to which it is a diary for a certain generation, it becomes a way of mirroring both change in the culture and change in the individual who is reading the strip."

Although Trudeau downplays his contribution to American culture, a Time reviewer maintained that "for most readers, to be tired of Doonesbury is to be tired of life." David Rubien noted in a Salon.com profile of Trudeau's virtual world: "'Doonesbury,' harsh as it can be, has a warm, fuzzy quality that celebrates the inherent absurdity of Homo sapiens."

Career

Cartoonist and writer. Cartoonist for Yale Daily News, 1969–70; operator of graphic arts studio in New Haven, CT; writer and illustrator of syndicated comic strip Doonesbury, 1970–. Co-producer, with Robert Altman, of television film Tanner '88; co-creator, with Dotcomix, of Duke2000.com (animated Web site), 2000. Former columnist for New York Times.

Awards, Honors

Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, 1975; Academy Award nomination for animated short film, 1977, for A Doonesbury Special; Special Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 1977; Drama Desk Award nominations for book and lyrics, 1983, and Grammy Award nomination for cast show album, 1984, for musical Doonesbury; (with Robert Altman) Cannes Television Festival gold medal for best television series, British Broadcasting Press Guild award for best imported program, Emmy award, and four ACE award nominations, all 1988, all for Tanner '88; Reuben Award for outstanding cartoonist of the year, National Cartoonists Society, 1996; National Endowment for the Arts grant; honorary degrees from colleges and universities, including Yale University, Colgate University, Williams College, and Duke University.

Writings

"Doonesbury" Compilation Books

• Doonesbury, foreword by Erich Segal, American Heritage Press, 1971.
• Still a Few Bugs in the System, Holt (New York, NY), 1972, selections published as Even Revolutionaries Like Chocolate Chip Cookies and Just a French Major from the Bronx, both Popular Library (New York, NY), 1974.
• The President Is a Lot Smarter than You Think, Holt (New York, NY), 1973.
• But This War Had Such Promise, Holt (New York, NY), 1973, selections published as Bravo for Life's Little Ironies, Popular Library (New York, NY), 1975.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) Doonesbury: The Original Yale Cartoons, Sheed & Ward (New York, NY), 1973.
• Call Me When You Find America, Holt (New York, NY), 1973.
• (With Nicholas von Hoffman) The Fireside Watergate, Sheed & Ward (New York, NY), 1973.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) Joanie, Sheed & Ward (New York, NY), 1974.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) Don't Ever Change, Boopsie, Popular Library, 1974.
• Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!, Holt (New York, NY), 1974.
• The Doonesbury Chronicles, Holt (New York, NY), 1975.
• Dare to Be Great, Ms. Caucus, Holt (New York, NY), 1975.
• What Do We Have for the Witnesses, Johnnie?, Holt (New York, NY), 1975.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) We'll Take It from Here, Sarge, Sheed & Ward (New York, NY), 1975.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) I Have No Son, Popular Library, 1975.
• Wouldn't a Gremlin Have Been More Sensible?, Holt (New York, NY), 1975.
• (With Nicholas von Hoffman) Tales from the Margaret Mead Taproom: The Compleat Gonzo Governorship of Doonesbury's Uncle Duke, Sheed & Ward (New York, NY), 1976.
• "Speaking of Inalienable Rights, Amy ...," Holt (New York, NY), 1976.
• You're Never Too Old for Nuts and Berries, Holt (New York, NY), 1976.
• An Especially Tricky People, Holt (New York, NY), 1977.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) As the Kid Goes for Broke, Holt (New York, NY), 1977.
• Stalking the Perfect Tan, Holt (New York, NY), 1978.
• Doonesbury's Greatest Hits, Holt (New York, NY), 1978.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) Any Grooming Hints for Your Fans, Rollie?, Holt (New York, NY), 1978.
• (Under name Garry Trudeau) A Doonesbury Special: A Director's Notebook (book version of animated special; also see below), Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1978.
• We're Not out of the Woods Yet, Holt (New York, NY), 1979.
• But the Pension Fund Was Just Sitting There, Holt (New York, NY), 1979.
• And That's My Final Offer!, Holt (New York, NY), 1980.
• A Tad Overweight, but Violet Eyes to Die For, Holt (New York, NY), 1980.
• Guess Who, Fish-Face!, Fawcett (New York, NY),1981.
• (With Nicholas von Hoffman) The People's Doonesbury: Notes from Underfoot, Holt (New York, NY), 1981.
• In Search of Reagan's Brain, Holt (New York, NY), 1981, sections published separately as We Who Are about to Fry, Salute You and Is This Your First Purge, Miss?, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1982.
• He's Never Heard of You Either, Holt (New York, NY), 1981.
• Do All Birders Have Bedroom Eyes, Dear?, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1981.
• Ask for May, Settle for June, Holt (New York, NY), 1982, sections published separately as It's Supposed to Be Yellow, Pinhead, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1983.
• Gotta Run, My Government Is Collapsing, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1982.
• Unfortunately She Was Also Wired for Sound, Holt (New York, NY), 1982.
• You Give Great Meeting, Sid, Holt (New York, NY), 1983.
• The Wreck of the Rusty Nail, Holt (New York, NY), 1983.
• The Thrill Is Gone, Bernie, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1983.
• Sir, I'm Worried about Your Mood Swings, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1984.
• Confirmed Bachelors Are Just So Fascinating, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1984.
• Dressing for Failure, I See, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1984.
• Doonesbury Dossier: The Reagan Years, Holt (New York, NY), 1984.
• Check Your Egos at the Door, Holt (New York, NY), 1985.
• That's Doctor Sinatra, You Little Bimbo!, Holt (New York, NY), 1986.
• Death of a Party Animal, Holt (New York, NY), 1986.
• Calling Dr. Whoopee, Holt (New York, NY), 1987.
• Downtown Doonesbury, Holt (New York, NY), 1987.
• Doonesbury Deluxe: Selected Glances Askance, Holt (New York, NY), 1987.
• We're Eating More Beets!, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.
• Talking about My G-G-Generation, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.
• Give Those Nymphs Some Hooters!, Holt (New York, NY), 1989.
• Read My Lips, Make My Day, Eat Quiche and Die!, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1989.
• Recycled Doonesbury: Second Thoughts on a Gilded Age, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1990.
• You're Smokin' Now, Mr. Butts!, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1990.
• The Doonesbury Stamp Album, Viking Penguin (New York, NY), 1990.
• I'd Go for the Helmet, Ray Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1991.
• Welcome to Club Scud, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1991.
• What Is It, Tink, Is Pan in Trouble?, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1992.
• Quality Time on Highway 1, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1993.
• The Portable Doonesbury, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1993.
• In Search of Cigarette Holder Man, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1994.
• Washed out Bridges and Other Disasters, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1994.
• Flashbacks: Twenty-five Years of Doonesbury, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1995.
• Doonesbury Nation, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1995.
• Virtual Doonesbury, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1996.
• Planet Doonesbury, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1997.
• The Bundled Doonesbury: A Pre-Millennial Anthology, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1998.
• Buck Wild Doonesbury, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1999.
• Duke 2000: Whatever It Takes, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2000.
• The Revolt of the English Majors, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2001.
• Peace out, Dawg!: Tales from Ground Zero, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.
• Doonesbury Redux, Gramercy Books (New York, NY), 2004.
• Talk to the Hand, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2004.
• The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2005.

other

• (With David Levinthal) Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941–43, Sheed & Ward (New York, NY), 1977.
• A Doonesbury Special (animated film), National Broadcasting Co. (NBC-TV), 1977.
• Doonesbury (musical; produced in Boston, then on Broadway 1983), Holt (New York, NY), 1984.
• Rap Master Ronnie (musical; produced off-Broadway, 1984), Lord John, 1986.
• Tanner '88 (television series), Home Box Office, 1988.
• Also lyricist for Doonesbury musical cast show album. Author of television mini-series Duke 2000, 2004. Contributor to books, including Comic Relief: Drawings from the Cartoonists' Thanksgiving Day Hunger Project, Holt (New York, NY), 1986; and Tribute to Sparky: Cartoon Artists Honor Charles M. Schulz, Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center (Santa Rosa, CA), 2003. Contributor of articles to Rolling Stone, New York, Harper's, Washington Post, and New Republic. Contributing essayist for Time. Editor of "Cartoons for New Children" series for Sheed.

Adaptations

Rap-Master Ronnie was filmed by Cinemax in 1988.

Biographical and Critical Sources

books

• Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 12, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1980.

periodicals

• American Enterprise, September, 2001, David Schaefer, "When Politics Becomes a Joke," p. 14.
• Booklist, June 15, 1986, p. 1492; September 1, 1988, p. 25; October 1, 1990, p. 241.
• Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1981; September 14, 1985.
• Chicago Tribune Book World, November 24, 1985, Rick Kogan, "Why Would a Popular Cartoonist Turn to Theater? Listen to Rap Master Garry," pp. 4-6.
• Christian Science Monitor, January 27, 1982.
• Editor & Publisher, September 30, 1995, David Astor, "'Doonesbury' Man Discusses His Strip," p. 30; May 25, 1996, p. 34; February 7, 1998, David Astor, "Tinsley vs. Trudeau in Funny Page Flap," p. 40; October 23, 2000, Dave Astor, "Trudeau Is 'Amazed' His Comic Endures," p. 31; December 9, 2002, Dave Astor, "G.B. Trudeau: TV or not TV?" p. 5.
• Esquire, December, 1985.
• Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1983; September 11, 1983; December 3, 1989; July 8, 1990; December 23, 1990, p. 10.
• Ms., November, 1985, pp. 101-102.
• Nation, October 27, 1984, Robert Grossman, "Zonker's Reagan," p. 427.
• New Republic, August 1, 1988, Maureen Dowd, "Eighty-eightsomething," p. 37; April 27, 1992, p. 14.
• Newsweek, Jonathan Alter, "Doonesbury contra Sinatra," p. 82; February 15, 1988, Harry F. Waters, "A Presidential Pretender: Garry Trudeau and Robert Altman Parody Politics," p. 82; October 15, 1990, Jonathan Alter, "Real Life with Garry Trudeau," pp. 60-66.
• New York Times, February 28, 1980; November 22, 1983; November 27, 1983; September 30, 1984; October 4, 1984.
• New York Times Book Review, December 7, 1975, p. 7; May 4, 1980; May 3, 1987, Mordecai Richter, "Batman at Midlife; or, The Funnies Grow Up," p. 35.
• Reason, July, 2002, Jesse Walker, "Doonesburied: The Decline of Garry Trudeau—and of Baby-Boom Liberalism," p. 48.
• Time, February 9, 1976, "Doonesbury: Drawing and Quartering for Fun and Profit," pp. 57-60, 65-66; June 24, 1985, p. 66; December 8, 1986, William A. Henry III, "Attacking a 'National Amnesia': Garry Trudeau Breaks His Vow of Silence to Skewer Reagan," p. 107.
• U.S. News & World Report, June 6, 2005, Nancy Shute, "A Tragicomic Strip," p. 17.
• Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1981, p. 42; December, 1981, p. 46; December, 1982, p. 46; April, 1985, pp. 69-70; April, 1988, p. 49; February, 1989, p. 307.
• Washington Post, May 31, 1973, Robert C. Maynard, "The Comic Strip Isn't a Court," p. A18.
• Washington Post Book World, December 2, 1973, p. 4.

online

• Doonesbury Web site, http://www.doonesbury.com/ (March 10, 2006).
• Duke2000.com, http://www.duke2000.com/ (July 6, 2004).
• Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/ (November 2, 1999), David Rubien, "Garry Trudeau."

Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau at a signing for Scotty McLennan's book Finding Your Religion
Born	Garretson Beekman Trudeau July 21, 1948 (1948-07-21) (age 61) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Cartoonist
Years active	1970—present
Known for	Doonesbury
Spouse(s)	Jane Pauley (1980–present)
Children	Rachel, Ross, Thomas
Awards	1975 Pulitzer Prize 1977 Nominated for Academy Award for Animated Short Film 1978 Jury Special Prize 1994 Newspaper Comic Strip Award 1995 Reuben Award

Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.

Contents 1 Background and education 2 Creative works 3 Private life and public appearances 4 Criticisms and controversies 5 Bibiliography 5.1 Non-Doonesbury publications 6 References 7 External links

Background and education

Trudeau was born in New York City, the son of Jean Douglas (née Moore) and Francis Berger Trudeau. He is the great-grandson of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, who created the world-famous Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York State. Edward was succeeded by his son Francis and grandson Francis Jr. The latter founded the Trudeau Institute at Saranac Lake, with which his son Garry retains a connection.^[1]

Trudeau is distantly related to the late former Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau via a common ancestor Étienne Trudeau.

Raised in Saranac Lake, Garry Trudeau attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He enrolled in Yale University in 1966 and later became a member of Scroll and Key. Garry was confident that his major would end up being theatre, but he discovered a greater interest in art design. A drawing by Trudeau of famous Yale quarterback Brian Dowling for the Yale Daily News led to the creation of a comic strip for the paper, Bull Tales, the progenitor of Doonesbury.^[2] Garry continued his studies with postgraduate work at the Yale School of Art, earning his M.F.A. in graphic design in 1973.

Creative works

In 1970, Garry's creation of Doonesbury was syndicated by the newly formed Universal Press Syndicate. Today Doonesbury is syndicated to almost 1,400 newspapers worldwide and is accessible online in association with Slate Magazine at doonesbury.com.

In 1975, he became the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer, traditionally awarded to editorial-page cartoonists. He was also a Pulitzer finalist in 1990. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1977 in the category of Animated Short Film, for The Doonesbury Special, in collaboration with John Hubley and Faith Hubley. The Doonesbury Special eventually won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Special Prize in 1978. Other awards include the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1994, and the Reuben Award in 1995.

He was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. Wiley Miller, fellow comic-strip artist responsible for Non Sequitur, called Trudeau "far and away the most influential editorial cartoonist in the last 25 years."

In addition to his work on Doonesbury, Trudeau has teamed up with Elizabeth Swados and written plays (such as Rap Master Ronnie and Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy). In 1988, Trudeau joined forces with director Robert Altman for the HBO miniseries Tanner '88 and the Sundance Channel miniseries sequel Tanner on Tanner in 2004. In 1996, Newsweek and the Washington Post speculated that Trudeau penned the novel Primary Colors, which was later revealed to have been written by Joe Klein.

Private life and public appearances

Trudeau married the journalist Jane Pauley in 1980. They have three children, Ross, Rachel, and Thomas, and live in New York City.

Trudeau maintains a low personal profile. A rare and early appearance on television was as a guest on To Tell the Truth in 1971, where all but one of the panelists failed to guess his identity.

Trudeau cooperated extensively with Wired magazine for a 2000 profile, "The Revolution Will be Satirized." He later spoke with the writer of that article, Edward Cone, for a 2004 newspaper column in the Greensboro, NC, News & Record, about the war wounds suffered by Doonesbury character B.D., and did a 2006 Q&A at Cone's personal blog about his new site, The Sandbox.

Trudeau granted an interview with Rolling Stone in 2004 in which he discussed his time at Yale University, which he attended two years behind George W. Bush. In 2006, The Washington Post printed an article that writer Gene Weingarten called, inaccurately, the "first extensive profile of him (Trudeau) in the 36 years since he began the comic strip." ^[3] He has also appeared on the Charlie Rose television program^[2], and at signings for his Doonesbury book about B.D.'s struggle with injuries received during the second Gulf War.^[4]

Criticisms and controversies

In August 2001, Trudeau fell for a report by the fictional "Lovenstein Institute" that stated that President George W. Bush had the lowest IQ (91) of any president in the past 50 years, and that former president Bill Clinton's IQ was exactly twice that of Bush. After mentioning it in Doonesbury, Trudeau made a public retraction.^[5][6]

In 2004, Trudeau made a widely-circulated offer of a $10,000 reward (in the form of a gift to the USO in the winner's name) for proof that George W. Bush fulfilled his military duties in the 1970s. (See George W. Bush military service controversy for more complete coverage). No one has collected on the offer.

Bibiliography

Main article: List of published collections of Doonesbury

Non-Doonesbury publications

• Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43 (with David Levinthal), Sheed, Andrews and McMeel, 1977. Library of Congress 76-52888. The cover shows two Wehrmacht motorcyclists. The book relates the story of Nazi Germany's Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front through archival photos and new photography of model soldiers. ISBN 0-8362-0708-4

• Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With Has Lost Its Meaning, by Scotty McLennan. Trudeau wrote the introduction and drew the cover cartoon.

• Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Andrews McMeel Publishing (October 1, 2007), ISBN 0740769456 ISBN 978-0740769450. Blogs by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

References

1. ^ The Trudeau Institute,Trudeau Institute
2. ^ ^{a b} Charlie Rose - GARRY TRUDEAU, Charlie Rose October 11, 2004, Uploaded on August 27, 2007 on Youtube
3. ^ Doonesbury's War, Washington Post, October 22, 2006
4. ^ "Doonesbury" & Private Lupo, Pentagon Channel, Uploaded September 27, 2006 on Youtube
5. ^ Lovenstein Institute Presidential IQ Report Hoaxes That Occurred in September, 2001
6. ^ Text of the Lovenstein Institute Email

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Garry Trudeau

• Doonesbury.com Profile on Garry Trudeau
• Wired profile of Garry Trudeau
• Garry Trudeau at the Internet Movie Database
• Charlie Rose Interview with Garry Trudeau
• NCS Awards
• Rolling Stone interview
• Army Times interview
• 2006 Army Times article
• Mother Jones interview
• Guardian article

Preceded by Paul Szep

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning 1975

Succeeded by Tony Auth

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