Even Revolutionaries Like Chocolate Chip Cookies

Doonesbury Half Annuals #1

by G.B. Trudeau

First half of the comics from Still a Few Bugs in the System. The second half are collected in Just a French Major from the Bronx.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Strips

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

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

[Mitchell Friedman]

This contained the first half of Still a Few Bugs in the System. So how many copies of Doonesbury books do I need? The beginnings of Doonesbury, just barely getting political, just barely introducing the cast of characters. Mike is definitely kind of a creep in this one. It gets better.

[Valerie]

I THINK this is the edition with a preface by William F Buckley, but I can't be sure, because that's not mentioned in the citation.

Trudeau made the transition from the Yale campus newspaper to syndication, not smoothly, but quickly. The change of focus from local to global issues is bound to be a bit awkward, and these strips help show the skeletons and sketches of the process--'cartoons' in both the old and the current sense.

[Michael P.]

This book contains the very first Doonesbury strips. It is primitive work and much of the commentary is out of date, but it is still entertaining and it is fascinating to see Trudeau in this stage of his development.

[Karen-Leigh]

First book in the Trudeau series. Interesting to see the rough drawings and introduction of the characters that grew over forty plus years.