Doonesbury retrospective looks back at 40 years

[n2doc]

Michael Cavna, Washington Post

Monday, November 29, 2010


(11-29) 04:00 PST Washington - --

The room is rapt as Garry Trudeau, grinning, prepares to share the first secret of his success. The guests crane with curiosity, eager to discover how a plucky Yale graduate once smuggled sex and politics and rock-and-roll past the gates of the nation's stodgiest newspaper muckety-mucks.

A dewy Doonesbury was still trying to gain a foothold on the funny pages, Trudeau tells the room, but the strip had hit a high garrison wall: An elder generation of disapproving journalistic gatekeepers wasn't buying it. Demoralized, the young Trudeau confided his frustrations to his fledgling syndicate's founders, who over drinks comforted their dispirited talent with a simple two-word reassurance about graying publishers and aging, out-of-touch editors:

"They die."

As the room laughs, the cartoonist continues: "Sure enough, they began to die" - and the strip began its stunning rise. His boyish eyes smiling, Trudeau glances over to syndicate co-founder John McMeel and his longtime editor, Lee Salem, both sporting neat white hair. Pausing an expert comedic beat, Trudeau nods to the intervening four decades and looming senior citizenship by sighing a secondary joke in lowered breath:

"That line seemed funnier then."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/28/DD7T1GHV9S.DTL

[JNelson6563]

1. Long time fan here!

:toast:

[CTyankee]

2. I love Trudeau. He is a real treasure to us in New Haven.

He has a house on the Thimble Islands off Branford, CT. It's nice to have him here with us...

[yodermon]

3. "they die" sometimes seems to be the only hope for the future n/t