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OK, so I have been reading Doonesbury from the start, and know how to spell it. Today's comic heaves the question: Where did the name "Doonesbury" come from? What was its genesis?
-- Dennis Degen, Frederick, MD
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GBT created the name "Doonesbury" by combining "doone" -- prep school slang for a socially clueless "genial fool" --and the last name of his college roommate, Charles Pillsbury.
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My newspaper, The Boston Globe, doesn't run the first two panels of your Sunday strip. Do they have the right to edit your work like that?
-- B.W., Lowell, MA
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Newspaper editors can choose among several formats for their Sunday color comic sections. Although the Sunday Doonesbury in its entirety typically consists of eight panels (plus a title panel), some formats can only accommodate six. For this reason, the first two "throwaway panels" are usually related to, but not necessary to, what follows. The good news is that you can always read the complete Sunday Doonesbury strip here at the Town Hall.
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Your daily archival Flashbacks feature, which shows the strip 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years ago, has a serious Leap Year flaw. Only occasionally would a strip that originally appeared on a February 29th have the chance to be displayed. How about dusting the nine neglected bissextile Doonesburys off and showing them the light of day?
-- M.B., New Haven, CT
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The fact that G.B. Trudeau was on sabbatical in 1984 whittles the Leap Year nine down to eight, but we are pleased to share those strips with you here. Thank you for suggesting this small adjustment, which we hope will put the Doonesbury Calendar back in synch with the cosmic flow of time.
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I read in the Kansas City Star that Doonesbury is 35. I wasn't around back then, so could you please post the very first strip? Thx.
-- J.M., KC, MO
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Doonesbury debuted on October 26, 1970. In celebration of the strip's 35th year, we're happy to post THE FIRST 35 STRIPS. Enjoy!
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IN MEMORIAM: ENZO BALDONI
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The Doonesbury Town Hall mourns the passing of Enzo Baldoni, a long-time friend and supporter of the strip. For many years Enzo translated Doonesbury into his native Italian, bringing the feature to his countrymen and making possible a shelf full of collections. Enzo's love of Doonesbury and comics was but one facet of a rich and well-lived life. He was not only a major force as an advertising creative with his group The Whales Strike Again, but also worked as a journalist and as a Red Cross volunteer. It was the latter two roles which drew him to Iraq (see BLOGHDAD). As these stories from CNN and the BBC show, his kidnapping and execution sent shockwaves far and wide. Italy's Olympic athletes wore black armbands and tags to commemorate Enzo during their final competitions in Athens.
Garry Trudeau has sent the following message to Linus, the Italian magazine for which Enzo translated Doonesbury for many years: "Enzo Baldoni brimmed with the kind of passion and joyfulness that we Americans like to associate with being Italian. Such was the size of his life force, that he literally laughed at death, always brushing aside the concerns of friends who begged him to stop exploring the world's most troubled regions. Chiapas, Columbia, East Timor, Iraq -- these were the kinds of places Enzo was drawn to -- out of compassion and concern and curiosity. When he left for Najaf earlier this month, he sent me his usual breezy email, informing me that he was off to do something well-intentioned but insanely dangerous. I told him to email again as soon as he left Iraqi air space, never imagining he wouldn't be able to cheat death one more time. And why not? He was Enzo the miraculous. He had always come home before.
"I do not speak or read Italian, so I was never able to evaluate our collaboration. However, since I seem to have Italian readers in abundance, I can only assume that he improved my writing, making it livelier and funnier. When we finally met during a trip to Italy in 1991, I could tell that the strip was in good hands -- nobody as effusive and generous of spirit as Enzo could fail to leave Walden a happier place than he found it. And nobody could have represented my intentions with greater fidelity -- he regularly wrote to inquire about some nuance that he felt he might be missing (but rarely was).
"Although we have not seen each other in some time, I will miss my friend tremendously. My thoughts are with his family and colleagues during this sorrowful time."
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In the June 9 strip published on Slate.com, the last panel reads "Tenet can't take all the blame." But, when I picked up my June 9 L.A. Times later that same day, the final panel read "Someone's got to take the blame." What gives? Are there alternative versions of the strip for more or less conservative publications, or do the local publications have some liberty in changing your text? Inquiring minds want to know (or at least I do).
--Ken Luer, LA, CAAre you aware that NY Newsday is censoring the strip? The name of Tenet was removed from the strips of 6-9-04 and 6-10-04.
-- Larry S., NY, NY
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The recent week of strips on the CIA had already been shipped to clients when director George Tenet suddenly resigned. GBT quickly re-wrote dialogue in the Wednesday 6-9-04 and Thursday 6-10-04 strips to reflect this development, and sent the new versions out. Some clients received them in time, but others (especially those not yet receiving the feature electronically) didn’t -- or failed to notice that they had. Hence the disparity between published versions.
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I just saw an article on the CNN site about your 9-7-03 Sunday comic about the masturbation study. Why did you agree to send out a substitute? Do you really think newspapers have a legitimate reason to pull your comic? I'm not saying you betrayed your art, I'm just curious about your reasoning.
-- Todd B., Houston, TX
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Actually, some of us who hold down the fort here were wondering the same thing. The quick answer is that offering a substitute was the price GBT had to pay to put the strip in play at all. This is how he explained it this week to the Sacramento Bee:
"The strip isn't really about masturbation or the prostate cancer study as such, but about the shifting nature of taboos and the inability of two adults to have a certain kind of serious conversation. It was inspired by a similar conversation I had recently with friends. The more traditional viewpoint (Boopsie's) is represented without mockery, so readers who share her discomfort shouldn't be offended. There's a laugh in there, but not really at her expense.
"Still, I understood that the mention of certain words per se would not be acceptable to some family newspapers, which is why we made the alternative strip available. This is likely a one-time departure from past practice, and it does not signal our intention to start supplying replacement strips (what Pogo's Walt Kelly used to call his 'bunny rabbit strips') every time there's a chance someone might be offended by the regular release. It's a 'South Park' world now, and younger readers are unlikely to be shocked or confused by anything they find in Doonesbury. Besides, our general experience is that most children don't understand Doonesbury in any event, and thus sensibly avoid it."
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Today's strip with Roland looks very familiar. What's going on?
-- S. Blue, Anoka, MN
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Do not adjust your consciousness. You are experiencing a "Doonesbury Flashback", an aberration fully sanctioned by syndicate policy. Closely observing the much-lamented early retirement of both Gary Larson and Bill Waterson, Universal Press wisely proclaimed that every UPS cartoonist with five years or more of active duty would henceforth receive a month of downtime annually. This humane shift was nothing short of revolutionary. Whenever GBT takes advantage of the much-needed opportunity for re-charging, UPS issues a week of previously-published "Doonesbury Flashback" strips. Such is the case this week. New material will resume on Monday, June 9.
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I noticed that something was "whited out" in the last frame of the 6-22 Sunday strip in my Gannett paper (Journal News). I went online to read the omitted name -- "Bill Bennett". Are they allowed to censor your strip that way?
-- Fredrica R., Bronxville, NYIn my local paper the last panel of Sunday's strip had been altered to conceal the name "Bill Bennett". It's a good bet someone scratched it out.
--T.C., Larchmont, NY
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According to an article in Editor & Publisher Online, Bill Bennett's name was obscured due to a snafu at American Color, which prints Sunday comics sections for hundreds of papers. Only the Journal News comics section was affected. "There must have been a bad spot on the film that caused a blur," explained AC accounts manager Andy Olsen, "It was totally accidental." Here at DTH&WP we're confident that an explanation so implausible must be true.
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Is there a location on your site that lists all of the real-life people who have been represented by an icon? Thanks!
-- John C., Houston, TX
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You just found it:
George H.W. Bush -- point o' lite
Dan Quayle -- feather
David Duke -- swastika
Newt Gingrich -- bomb
Bill Clinton -- waffle
Dubya -- asterisk (wearing cowboy hat)
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Is Michael dyeing his hair? When will he allow himself to go gray like the rest of us?
-- Ted Barnes, Cambridge, ENGLAND
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Mike's first gray hairs made their debut on the cover of Newsweek two years ago, but the gray has not yet massed sufficiently to be visible in either the Sunday strips or the colorized dailies.
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Do you draw the White House all over again each time you use it, or do you recycle old pictures? How long does it take to draw a White House panel?
-- Stan Beck, Knoxville, TN
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Each White House view -- indeed, each panel of Doonesbury -- is an original. The length of time it takes to draw one varies, depending on the level of detail involved, GBT's caffeine intake, and whether or not he's distracted by Letterman.
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When a computer shows up in the strip it is usually a Mac. Does Trudeau
compose cartoons directly on a Mac? Or does he use old-fashioned pencils?
-- H.R.H. Jock Yellot, Charlottesville, VA
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Trudeau uses a new-fashioned, .5 mm automatic pencil to draw the strip. His
tight drawings are then inked in by longtime assistant Don Carlton. Sundays
are scanned and colored using Photoshop on a Mac.
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Ever since the war in Afghanistan began it seems like the daily strips have
become even more timely than usual - almost as if they are drawn one day and
published the next. Has the lead time been cut to make sure GBT can keep up
with the rapid pace of Operation Enduring Freedom? Or has he just been
lucky?
-- Jeff Levy, Providence, RI
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GBT's schedule is unchanged -- Friday evening delivery of six strips that
begin appearing ten days later, on the following Monday. (The Sunday lead
time is six weeks). This is a narrow lead-time for a strip cartoonist, but a
vast delay by the standards of an editorial cartoonist, who can address
events on a next-day basis. Doonesbury's lag time is long enough to make it
perilous for GBT to address fast-breaking and unpredictable stories.
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Is it just me, or does the artwork look subtly different now? Are you trying
something new? It looks pretty cool.
-- Kris Verdeyen, Houston, Texas
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Thanks for noticing. The line artwork hasn't changed, but the Sundays are no
longer colorized using traditional methods (assigning colors from a chart
and letting the printer fill them in). Beginning with the 12/9/01 strip we now use Photoshop on a Mac to create subtle and elegant palettes, using "dirty" colors and more gradations. Going digital also allows us to work outside the boundaries of the black line (note the vapor exhalations on 12-23), and change some of the black line art to color to create a more 3-D effect (see 12-16). New colormaster is Design Monster's George Corsillo, longtime special projects collaborator, who last worked with GBT on the "Doonesbury@Starbucks" literacy project.
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Will the strips that were pulled after 9-11 run in the future?
-- J. Smolin, Ames, Iowa
Have strips been pulled before? Will the public ever see them? Is there a
book of "lost" Doonesbury strips out there?
-- L. Shaver, Lombard, IL
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There are several precedents. In 1985, Trudeau deferred to his syndicate and
pulled a series on abortion from syndication, but "Silent Scream II: The
Prequel" was included in the next Doonesbury book. The 9-17 series of
dailies, a follow-up on the controversial 9-2 "Bush IQ" Sunday, will follow
a similar path.
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Would you please put me in a strip? I am a fat white guy. So the next fat
white guy I see in one of your strips, I will know it is me! Ha, ha! What an
ego booster, true or not!
-- Curt P., Crystal River, FL
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Since it costs us nothing, we'll bite. Next fat white guy is you. Enjoy.
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How about portraying G.W. as a beer can under a cowboy hat?
-- Dave Preisendanz, Phillipsburg
Why not replace W's empty cowboy hat with an empty crown? It would seem appropriate since he was annointed, not elected.
-- R. S. Goodrich, Idaho
What's the deal on the Dubya icon? First it was just the cowboy hat with the empty space below. Now he's got an asterisk. What's that all about?
-- Michael Imber, Weston
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Since half the country will always believe Bush lost the election, future historians and teachers are going to have some serious 'splainin' to do in regards to the 2000 election. |
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I read the comic where Mark is telling everyone where he gets the George W.
Bush quotes for the strip, and he says all the quotes are real. Is this
true? How could Bush say such things that don't make any sense?
-- Jeff, Philadelphia
I've seen a number of strips quoting George W. Bush verbatim on a variety of
issues. As a service to your browsing public, would you please publish all
these quotations together in one place
-- Miriam, Syracuse, NY
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There are already numerous online sources. Our favorite during the campaign
has been Jacob Weisberg's "Bushisms", an ongoing feature at www.slate.com .
Weisberg welcomes contributions from alert Dubya-watchers. |
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Why the re-run today? What is it they don't want us to see?
--Scott Dickson
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This will happen whenever GBT takes a vacation (or
occasionally gets the flu.). If a newspaper exercises its editorial
prerogative and chooses not to run a particular strip or series, it will
usually say it is doing so. A replacement would not normally be provided by
the syndicate in such a situation. Thanks to the Internet, such a decision
won't keep you from viewing the strip. Visitors to the Doonesbury Town Hall,
of course, can see every strip, every day. |
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What are Mr. Trudeau's sources for news?
--Anthony Santosha, Athens, GA
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In terms of media consumption, GBT can best
be described as an omnivore, but he starts his day with the
usual suspects -- The New York Times, The Washington
Post and USA Today. |
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The Sunday, March 7 strip seemed to play
off a recent Straw Poll on the budget surplus. It's bad enough
the government is run by polls. Is Doonesbury now being
done this way?
--Ben Kealy, Atlanta, GA
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The Sunday strip -- which is created with a
five-week lead time -- was definitely the horse, not the cart,
in this instance. But it's not a bad suggestion... |
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A devoted follower of Doonesbury
I must confess that I prefer to read the strip in book form
-- more continuity than with the tantalizing daily. Is there
an authoritative chronological listing of the Doonesbury
books?
--Noah Diamond, NYC
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The list of books on the CD-ROM that comes
with The Bundled Doonesbury is complete through Spring
1995. We are hoping to add an updated list to GBT's CV's at
some point. But you'll get most of the strips if you stick with
the large format anthologies, which should be read in this order:
The Doonesbury Chronicles, Doonesbury's Greatest Hits,
The People's Doonesbury, Doonesbury Dossier, Doonesbury
Deluxe, Recycled Doonesbury, The Portable Doonesbury,
The Bundled Doonesbury. If you want the really
condensed version, just read Flashbacks. |
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My hometown paper has been running repeats
of Doonesbury this past week. Is Trudeau on vacation?
--Jenna Morris, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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If the headline above a familiar-seeming strip
says "Doonesbury Flashback", then a vacation (or a bout with
the flu) is underway. Otherwise, you are either experiencing
deja vu, or worse, Trudeau is repeating himself. |
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What happened to Zeke after Duke and
son grabbed him?
--A.B., Sydney, NSW
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Zeke was convicted of interstate trafficking
in stolen Beanie Babies. He served 30 days of a 90-day sentence,
and has since returned to the Seattle area. |
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I've heard that GBT no longer draws Doonesbury.
True?
--
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False. The strip is currently being produced
the same way it has been for over 26 years. Trudeau writes the
strip alone, and then does tight pencil drawings. The drawings
are then either shipped or faxed to his assistant Don Carlton,
who traces over Trudeau's finished drawings in ink. The rumor
that Trudeau no longer draws the strip was started by Entertainment
Weekly. When the magazine subsequently learned that the writer
of the piece had wildly exaggerated Carlton's role, it printed
a retraction and apology. By then, of course, the damage had
been done, proving once again that a lie does indeed circumnavigate
the globe before the truth can get its pants on. The irony of
the episode was that after years of being blamed for the artwork
in Doonesbury, Trudeau suddenly found himself unable to get
credit for it. |
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Should an assistant on the strip, such
as Doonesbury's Don Carlton, get co-creator credit?
--
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Traditionally, many comic strip artists from
Walt Kelly to Mort Walker have employed assistants, but since
their contributions--invaluable as they may be--are largely
technical in nature, assistants are not considered creators.
The creator of the comic strip is the person who writes the
strip and draws the art. Usually, those roles are combined by
the same person, but some strips, like The Wizard of Id, have
two creators. The assistant who provides technical support,
whether as inker or editor or researcher, is not regarded as
a creator, because he or she is not actually involved in the
task of imagining the content or look of the strip. |
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What year did the strip start publishing?
In how many papers does it now appear?
--
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G. B. Trudeau's strip Bull Tales first appeared
in the Yale Daily News on September 30, 1968. Renamed after
its principal character, Doonesbury debuted on October 26, 1970,
in 28 newspapers. It now appears in more than 1,400 papers worldwide.
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When was the strip's hiatus?
--
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Trudeau went on sabbatical from January 1983
until September 1984. |
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What's the lead time for Doonesbury?
--
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A week's worth of daily strips is shipped every
Friday evening. The first of those strips appears a week from
the following Monday, which means that the lead time is 10 to
15 days. For Sundays, the lead time is about five weeks, so
the subject matter tends to be less news-sensitive (unless it
pertains to an event that can be safely predicted, e.g. a political
convention). |
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Do the strips get repeated? Our local
paper is running a series on discrimination against fraternity
boys who fail math which looks awfully familiar.
--Raisa D., Toronto, ON
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Thanks for noticing: Strips are indeed repeated.
About two years ago, Universal Press Syndicate, alarmed by an
outbreak of cartoonist burn-out, wisely decided that their creators
(and their families) might benefit from vacations. Any cartoonist
who has been with UPS for five years or more is now entitled
to four weeks of paid vacation. Newspapers are free to use the
reruns or substitute some other strip. |
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Why are major political figures depicted
as icons (feathers, bombs, and the like), while some other persons
prominent in the public eye are depicted (e.g. Donald Trump)
or semi-depicted (e.g. Hunter S. Thompson) with portraits of
decent accuracy?
--Joseph S., Boston, MA
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Sheer caprice. Actually, there's a third category
you didn't mention--the off-stage voice. Consistency is not
the strip's strong suit (see earlier answer on this subject).
As to your specific e.g.s, Trump is not depicted as an icon
because he's not important enough to rate one--plus, his bloated
face is fun to draw. Duke is drawn in full because he's a regular
character--he was only inspired by Hunter S. Thompson, just
as Rev. Scot was modeled after William S. Coffin, and B.D. was
a parody of Yale quarterback Brian Dowling. |
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Is the strip still produced in Mexico?
How has NAFTA, and the subsequent peso crisis, affected the
strip's production? If NAFTA were extended to other countries
in Latin America, could production be shifted there?
--Bill D., Fairfield, CT
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Production facilities for the strip were moved
to Ho Chi Minh City the week after Clinton normalized relations
with Vietnam. Our state-of-the-art facility is constantly monitored
by independent human rights inspectors, and we are proud to
report that our starting salary is nearly $.24 an hour--a generous
20% over the minimum wage. Although we wish our former employees
in Mexico and Guatemala well, our first obligation is to you,
the loyal reader, and we are happy to be passing the savings
on to you. |
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In its earliest years, the strip was
dissed by many cartoonists for being graphically static. The
cruel joke was that GBT drew one panel, photocopied it three
times, then added dialogue. Nowadays the strip abounds in the
use of silhouettes, shifting 'camera angles,' and other cool
'toon techniques. Any truth to the rumor that during his '80s
sabbatical, GBT spent a lot of time woodshedding, developing
his chops?
--Stephen H., Charlottesville, VA
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None. In its early incarnation, Doonesbury
was given a deliberately static style--the idea being that this
would keep the focus on ideas, not artwork (an emphasis pioneered
by a strong influence, Jules Feiffer). Each panel was, in fact,
drawn separately, and no photocopies were used, except on one
Sunday strip in the mid '70s. The downside of this approach,
of course, was tedium at the drawing board. There was no re-tooling
of style during the sabbatical, but a few years after his return,
GBT finally got fed up and transitioned into a more conventional
multiple-perspective format. |
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I would like to know if GBT makes sure
there is always a distinct change in the artwork within each
strip. I don't know when I first noticed this trend, but I have
been able to find it every time I come across the strip. Is
this a secret habit GBT has--to always have one small change
in the drawing of the strip?
--Kyle A., Columbus, OH
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The tiny changes in the artwork were initially
introduced as a way to relieve the monotony of four repeating
panels. After GBT switched to a more traditional multi-perspective
format in the late '80s, the device was abandoned. Any inconsistencies
in the artwork in recent years are the result of pure sloppiness.
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Are there any strips you wish you could
have done over?
--Tony F., Albuquerque, NM
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Almost all of them. In a deadline-driven business,
most syndicated cartoonists haven't the luxury of asking themselves,
"Is the work any good?" Instead, like people everywhere, we
ask ourselves, "Is it good enough?" Success is measured in percentages.
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Is there anyone that GBT respects/loves/
fears so much that he will not poke fun at them in the strip,
or is everybody fair game?
--Sam M., Louisville, KY
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I never, ever make fun of my wife, Jane Pauley.
A corollary of that is that I generally stay away from broadcasters
perceived as her direct competitors-- Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters,
et al. -- on the grounds that it would make it harder for her
to maintain a professional collegiality she greatly values.
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Why deal with a British problem (the
royal family's distance from commoners) when there are sufficient
American social ills to provide fodder for ten lifetimes of
Mr. Trudeau?
--John B., Union, NJ
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Doonesbury has never been exclusively devoted
to addressing "problems." Since its inception, much of the Doonesbury
agenda has been given over, unapologetically, to stone silliness.
The sequence on the royals is as good an example as any. |
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When did GBT first use Zipatone to add
grays to the artwork? Is he now using a digital equivalent?
--Peter C., Woodberry Forest, VA
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The first Zipatone screen showed up in 1972.
For the following year and a half, the Zipatone was usually
a diagonal line pattern intended to mimic the original hand-drawn
shading technique. In early 1974, the screen that is still in
use was introduced. Since then there has been only one other
screen added -- the gradated pattern, used first in late 1988.
The screens are not applied digitally. |
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Will GBT ever draw the strip on a computer?
--
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No. The feel of graphite on 100% rag paper
is too sensuous to forswear for the sake of modernity. |
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Are there any plans to publish a complete
collection of Doonesbury strips?
--
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Thanks for teeing us up. As a matter of fact,
this October, Andrews & McMeel will publish the definitive collection,
called "The Bundled Doonesbury". It's an (almost) complete anthology
of the last three years of strips, plus the CD-ROM"Flashbacks",
that contains all 9,000+ strips from the first 25 years. |
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