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Garry Trudeau Is Still Learning
...In the early years of his long-running strip, Trudeau repeatedly railed against the Vietnam War. “I got some hate mail for these anti-war strips,” he says. The cartoonist also skewered those who supported the unpopular war, including his central character, B. D., who was loosely based on Brian Dowling ’69, the legendary Yale quarterback. In a famous cartoon published in January of 1972, B. D. enlists in the army to avoid writing a term paper. This absurdist jab captured the cynicism of the era.
But in recent decades, Trudeau’s relationship with the American military establishment has taken a one-eighty. As retired General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George W. Bush ’68, tells me, “I’m a huge fan of Garry’s many strips on America’s armed forces. They have done an enormously valuable public service.”
The reason that the peacenik of yesteryear has managed to receive such kudos from the military’s top brass—including leaders of wars that Trudeau has adamantly opposed—is that for the past thirty-five years, the cartoonist has been documenting the plight of America’s soldiers with increasing seriousness and empathy. When asked in 2006 why his approach to covering America’s wars had changed, Trudeau replied simply, “When I was writing about Vietnam, I was 22. Now I’m 58. I know more.”... -
Celebrating a Half Century of Doonesbury
G.B. Trudeau has been producing his comic strip Doonesbury for over 50 years. It passed the half-century milestone two years ago, but I choose to celebrate the occasion two years later, on Doonesbury's 52nd...
In celebrating five decades of Doonesbury, Andrews McMeel Publishing, an arm of Trudeau's syndicate, produced one of the age's modern miracles, Dbury@50: The Complete Digital Doonesbury. The "book" is a box, and inside the box is a flash drive loaded with all 50 years of the strip, a searchable calendar archive, character bios, and a week-by-week description of the strip's contents. Also in the box is a "user manual," a 224-page book organized by year: every week's developments are summarized with brief descriptive statements ("Zonker packs for med school") for dailies and Sundays, preceded by a short essay that puts the week's strips into their historical context (hence, revealing the satire) and includes sample panels from the week. The text is supplied by David Stanford, who calls himself "duty officer"; but he could have more accurately described himself as a walking Doonesbury encyclopedia with highly perceptive vision and pleasingly glib verbal manner. His achievement herein is astonishing and commanding. And a pleasure to read...
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Garry Trudeau auctions 'Doonesbury' NFTs and signed prints to benefit Ukrainians displaced by war
Garry Trudeau has partnered with Heritage Auctions to offer 10 defining strips, along with an extensive character map and portraits, for the July 14 Doonesbury NFT Charity Showcase Auction. The sale of these NFTs, each with a print signed and numbered by Trudeau, will benefit the International Medical Corps’ work helping internally displaced persons and refugees affected by the war in Ukraine....
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Will Shortz Interiews GBT
POP Duos: People of Play. Will Schortz, Crossword Editor, NYT; Puzzle Master; NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday in conversation with Garry Trudeau, Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Doonesbury Cartoonist.
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The Wit and Wisdom of Garry Trudeau
Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau has spent 50 years poking fun at the absurdities of American life, but behind his satire is the belief that things can get better...
Say What?
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November 09, 2026
"Maybe I'm better off not getting involved." -- Trump, on 2028 election