Yale Daily News

Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:52 a.m.

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For Trudeau, road to comic fame began on York Street

Staff Reporter
Published Friday, April 11, 2008

It was early September, 1968. A tall, lanky junior wandered into 202 York St., home of the Yale Daily News, holding a handful of hand-drawn comics — a series about the football team called “Bull Tales.” Nervously, the young man greeted Executive Editor Reed Hundt ’69 LAW ’74. After rifling through the first three or four comic strips, Hundt shrugged. He was impressed with the artist’s humor, but less so with his drawing ability.

Still, Hundt agreed to run the strip.

“Sure. We print pretty much anything,” the young man recalled the editor saying.

Little did Hundt...

#1 By Mike 11:33a.m. on April 11, 2008

Funny -- that means that Bush didn't live in the Cottage. I always pegged Bush for the Cottage.

#2 By Reuben B. 2:50p.m. on April 11, 2008

This is an incredibly inspirational article and it made my day!

#3 By Angus T. 4:41p.m. on April 14, 2008

If QB Brian Dowling was BD, who were Mike and Zonker?

#4 By Gabriel M. 8:40a.m. on April 16, 2008

Good article (although a bit heavy on the adjectives). Also, I think the penultimate paragraph suffered some faulty editing.

Who among the current crowd will be as powerful or persuasive as those mentioned here?

#5 By dina l. 10:09a.m. on April 19, 2008

Mr. Trudeau has given as much (joy, humor, insight, intelligence, political clarity, war sensitivity, altruism, sociology, psychology, law and order) to our country as Bush has stolen (although Bush is pretty much a joke all by himself).

#6 By Amy W. 12:37a.m. on April 21, 2008

Well-written article. It wouldn't hurt to mention that Reed Hundt was the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission during the Clinton Admin, as a matter of context.

More to the point, Mr. Trudeau's gracious and respectful portrayal of the ordeals of Iraq War vets in the aftermath of their service is just one more instance where he has served the public and the truth well through "Doonesbury." Bravo, once again, G.B. - you, Sir, are one of the (many) reasons I came to Yale.

#7 By eli 2:08p.m. on April 24, 2008

I'm pretty sure Trudeau's name is on the wall at Wolf's HEad.

#8 By John Hawkins 5:36p.m. on June 21, 2008

I believe the hospital is called Walter Reed instead of Reid. Oh well, an Ivy League education can teach you only so much.

#9 By BigGuy 5:39p.m. on July 3, 2008

The name "Doonesbury" is a combination of the word doone (1960s prep school slang for "someone unafraid to appear foolish") and the surname of Charles Pillsbury, Trudeau's roommate at Yale University. "Doone" usually refers to someone socially clueless; it's sort of like the Yiddish "nebbish".

#10 By B. Brinton 3:22a.m. on August 10, 2008

How interesting to read this article on Trudeau, the week that Jed Brinton, a Yale Law student left to become a reporter embedded with the troops in Iraq. (He's now assigned to be with the military police in Northern Iraq)
Trudeau lives on the land and the mill that one of Jed's great grandfathers, Joseph Knight Sr. owned.

#11 By P. Stephenson 8:26a.m. on December 30, 2008

I have an "old" (c.1973) Doonesbury paperback comic book that starts at the beginning. My comment is that there must be others, like myself, who've saved D'bury stuff. I Would much rather see it go in a Trudeau museum; a Doonesbury Museum might put some salve on my arthritic cringing when we get the W Bush museum.

#12 By Jon Frierson 1:17p.m. on February 9, 2009

I was class of '68 and remember reading Trudeau's comics in the OCD while I was still an undergraduate. How does that square with his appearance first in September, 1968? I recall clearly that I graduated with my class. Someone has it wrong.

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