LETTER IN SUPPORT OF ZIPPY FROM GARRY TRUDEAU

3/24/04

To:
pbronstein@sfchronicle.com, nzacchino@sfchronicle.com

Dear Mr. Bronstein and Ms. Zacchino:
The bad news about Zippy has flashed its way through the cartoonist grapevine all the way down to me in
Grandparentland (Florida). Who likes to have his family vacation disturbed by word of such a vexing
development in San Francisco, birthplace of modern comix, and more to the point, home base to the
inimitable Pinhead? Say it's not so! You, Mr. Bronstein, if folklore is to be trusted, are in fact Zippy's
godfather, are you not? And yet you turn him out the door after 20 years of inspired non-sequitors and
maybe the best linework in the business?
Okay, so I appreciate, from years of bitter experience, that editors do not like to be hectored by
out-of-state vendors on the subject of what belongs in their paper. And let's face it, I don't actually see
your paper in New York, but I'm confident that if I did, I'd be canceling my subscription to get your
attention. Zippy is a true original, and like many originals may not enjoy the broadest readership in
your lineup. But for the sake of the devoted, soon-to-be-embittered few, I implore you to leave this
brilliant little oasis of insanity alone. If Zippy -- really the only syndicated underground comic in the
country -- can't find a home in San Francisco, then we are all lost.
I respectfully urge you to reconsider.
Most sincerely,
Garry Trudeau