Raised in Saranac Lake, Trudeau attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He enrolled in Yale University in 1966. As an art major, Trudeau initially focused on painting, but soon discovered a greater interest in the graphic arts. He spent much of his time cartooning and writing for Yale's humor magazine "The Yale Record", eventually serving as the magazine's editor-in-chief. At the same time, Trudeau began contributing to the "Yale Daily News", which eventually led to the creation of "Bull Tales", a comic strip parodying the exploits of Yale quarterback Brian Dowling. This strip was the progenitor of "Doonesbury".