Day One Dictator: More Doonesbury in the Time of Trumpism

Doonesbury on Trump #5

by G.B. Trudeau

As Trump returns to the ballot in 2024, this collection of Doonesbury Sunday comics about the former (and possibly future) president will hit just ahead of one of the most significant election cycles in decades. 

“I want to be a dictator for one day.” – Trump

Volume V of the Doonesbury Trump Quintet tracks the ever-metastasizing Big Lie, with Mark offering a month-by-month calendar to track the Former Guy’s burgeoning court dates. Unfortunately for the Trump Innocence Project, it turns out almost all the witnesses are former aides or allies. How did Dems manage to weaponize Trump's friends? While readers puzzle over that, they can also play a life-of-crime board game — Donald Trump's Spree. The only way to win, of course, is to cheat, but no problem — it’s been normalized.

Fortunately, this volume also features the Doonesbury regulars, with Alex and Toggle raising three free-range kids and Mike happily wallowing in grandpahood. Mr. Covid retires, proud to know his wilier, more adaptive descendants will keep taking the fight to the unvaxxed. Joanie thinks Rick’s latest story is the best thing he's ever too bad it was actually authored by ChatGPT. Roland and Rascal, wading through Ukrainian snowdrifts, blunder into a Meta crack-up. Not even fantasy is making sense, but in Day One Dictator, G.B. Trudeau gives it his best shot yet.

Garry Trudeau is in his 36th year of trying to make Donald Trump go away. Nothing’s worked.

Genres: Humor, Politics, Cartoon, Comics

128 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2024

About the author

Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip. In 1970, Trudeau'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 A Doonesbury Special, in collaboration with John Hubley and Faith Hubley. A Doonesbury Special eventually won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Special Prize in 1978. Other awards include the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) 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 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 wrote the novel Primary Colors, which was later revealed to have been written by Joe Klein. Trudeau wrote the political sitcom Alpha House, starring John Goodman and Bill Murray. The pilot was produced by Amazon Studios and aired in early 2013. Due to positive response Amazon has picked up Alpha House to develop into a full series.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fine outing of Doonesbury, with plenty of Trump-bashing. Humorous? Enraging? Depressing? Yep, yep, yep.

It feels weird to see the face of my college roommate, Jeffrey Clark, actually appear in a Doonesbury comic strip as Garry Trudeau calls out Trump's indicted co-conspirators. Saying "Congratulations" seems inappropriate to the occasion. Maybe Hallmark has a card that can cover it?


FOR REFERENCE:

Collects comic strips originally published between June 26, 2022 and July 21, 2024.

Contents: Preface -- Part 1. Critical Master Race Theory -- Part 2. The Sightseers of January 6th -- Part 3. The Age of X -- Part 4. Sedition Hunting

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Day One Dictator, Garry Trudeau continues to skillfully evolve the world of Doonesbury. One of the things that has kept me a fan is his commitment to aging his characters naturally. Seeing Mike and Zonker, the originals whom I first followed in the '70s and '80s, now with grey hair and grandkids(just like me!), gives a sense of continuity and realism that few comics offer. The satirical slant on TV ads, like Balance of Nature, had me chuckling—and maybe saved me some cash, too, since I’d been intrigued by those ads myself.

While there's unmistakable animus toward Trump throughout, Trudeau’s sharp, consistent critique aligns with his longstanding political stance. Some strips admittedly go over my head or feature characters I don’t quite remember, but the humor shines in others—especially the depiction of COVID-19 as a character on a radio show, which captures a unique angle on the pandemic. Trudeau’s blend of social commentary and comedy makes this collection fun to read, even if not every strip hits home.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

The back flap reads "G.B. Trudeau is in his thirty-sixth year of trying to make Donald Trump go away. Nothing's worked." (2024) This is Trudeau's fifth collection of Donald Trump comics, and the thirteenth Trump parody I've read (out of a list of 34 I've found so far). The strips included in this collection date from June 2022 to July 2024, so there's already newer material for the next book. Mocking the man at least annoys him, if the facts presented and creative style don't change any minds. Reading such books is a small protest on my part. I hope others can join me.

[Norman Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trudeau is one of the best political cartoonists of all time, and although I think he may have lost a step or two after all these years, this collection is a great recap of the last few years. With strips from as recent as about 3-4 months ago, Trudeau knows how to dig into the lies of the MAGA cult. He doesn't shy away from calling out the former president's slide into dementia. Too bad those truths will have no impact on the minds of the MAGA cultists (who won't read this book to begin with). For the rest of us, it's funny (while simultaneously being sad and frightening) because it's true.

[Thomas Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just such a tweet. Just such a treat to read Doonesbury. I've been reading Doonesbury for so long, and I've read so many of the old books, and usually you have to take yourself back to it, but this one day old dictator is so fresh he hasn't even become dictator yet that's how fresh it is. It's a bit sad to see so many of the characters that I had loved now with gray hair, but so much respect to the cartoonist Gary Trudeau and writer for his incredible work spanning the lifetimes of these characters, to see characters that I've seen grow up in the strip, suddenly have children becoming middle aged, married to other characters that I've seen in the strip. So much longevity, so much complexity, and all the while, he's perfectly serving these characters through life, having them change and grow through their jobs, through Mike, through the guy at the radio show, so many just characters. He's perfectly saddering Saturn, satirizing our horrible political environment, and with such logic and clarity that only a great satirist has been truly a Mark Twain. Gary Trudeau, a Mark Twain. What an honor it is to read Doonesbury. I hope that there'll be another collection, and I hope that the Trump doesn't put him in jail. I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but I look forward to as many more Doonesbury cartoons about Trump politics and the wonderful characters of the Doonesbury sbury world. I thoroughly enjoyed. Day one dictator.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

[Xan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hahaha! I missed these

I used to go back and read every Sunday’s new Doonesbury cartoon on the Washington Post for free but I got used to reading reruns in my hometown daily paper and since we get that practically a day late now(after noon) they can pile up and it’s a pretty sad day if I have enough time to do the Sunday NYT Xword and Bee(they cannot really deliver the Times that well, here anyway) so I am just grateful Gary Trudeau has delivered yet another hit!

It’s simply an amazing amount of creativity:
“We all stand on the Beatles’ shoulders”, indeed! This comic really helped keep me sane in my teen years. And it still does! LOL!

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for Trudeau fans and Trump non-fans. Number five in Trudeau's Trump series, Day One Dictator was published about a month and a half before the November 2024 election --it contains the most relevant (and spot-on-zinger) Sunday strips from the last couple of years. How does Trudeau keep this up?

It's now April 2025 and I hope I don't end up on some list because I gave this book five stars. We've entered those times.

[HadiDee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good old Doonesbury. I like that the characters age in real time. And some of the strips go over my head but still nice to read

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the topic weren't so damn scary in the current version of #FOTUS reality show, this book would be a riot. As it is, it is terrifyingly prescient.