Live from the archives: The Dartmouth’s cartoonists who went on to careers in media

This article is featured in the 2026 Commencement special issue.

Mindy Kaling ’01, Phil Lord ’97, Christopher Miller ’97 and Jake Tapper ’91. These names may ring a bell as notable Dartmouth alumni with successful careers in media. But what unites them beyond the screen and their undergraduate degrees is an even more exciting and prestigious tenure as cartoonists for The Dartmouth. 

The Dartmouth’s comic strip has historically been a place for students to make lighthearted jokes or poke fun at their professors, peers and social experiences at the College. 

Tapper today is the lead Washington anchor for CNN, host of “The Lead with Jake Tapper” and “State of the Union” and co-author of “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.” He was voted onto the Dartmouth Board of Trustees in 2022.

Tapper began writing comics for The Dartmouth in the first few weeks of his freshman year and, by his sophomore summer, published five days a week. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Tapper said he began writing comics for The Dartmouth to pursue a career as a cartoonist.

“I wanted to do a comic strip [for The Dartmouth] because that’s what I wanted to do for a living,” he said. “I tried to become a comic strip cartoonist after Dartmouth, but it didn't really take.” 

Most of his comics focused on social life and campus politics, including friendships, classes, campus politics, the Greek system, the football team and the college president, according to Tapper.

Tapper said writing cartoons was “fun” and a “joy,” and that each one was an “experiment.” In each comic, he created his own world with recurring characters meant to reflect events on campus.

“I would try to do them in five-day stories,” Tapper said. “… I had my main character, Garry, who met a really cool girl, Eris, and him pursuing her was a storyline.” 

Tapper said he was “hugely influenced” by cartoonist Garry Trudeau. “I tried to emulate what he did as a cartoonist, which was to have characters you cared about, and have them in storylines that were relatable,” Tapper explained.

He added that it was “weird” being criticized on campus for his cartoons, but that this criticism was “the nature of doing anything publicly.”

“People would write in letters to the editor taking issue with things I was saying in the comic strips, associate deans and people like that,” Tapper said. “I’m just 20, man. What are you doing?”

He said that even though his work today as a journalist is a “little different” from his responsibilities as a cartoonist for The Dartmouth, writing comics as a student helped him with “getting used to criticism and taking on authority and people in positions of power,” with the two disciplines relying on the “same principle” of making change through writing.

Tapper recalled that he once drew a character that looked like his history professor James Wright — who would later go on to become College president —in a comic where different students were daydreaming about their futures in class, which Wright read in The Dartmouth.

“[Wright] said something in the middle of class, and he called on me and made some remark about daydreaming,” Tapper said. “He was joking around, but I didn’t know that he recognized that it was a drawing of him, and I didn’t know if other people in the class knew what he was even talking about.”

Tapper also remembered hearing that comics he drew about the shortcomings of the football team his freshman year were brought up in their practices.

“I would hear, ‘Oh, your comic strip really annoyed the football team,” Tapper said. “‘They’re mentioning your name in practice.’”

Moments like these reminded him that his “little” comic strips were read by people outside of his own social circle on campus.

After her time at Dartmouth, Kaling went on to write and star in the sitcom “The Office” and create her own television shows, such as “Never Have I Ever,” “The Mindy Project” and “Not Suitable for Work.” When Kaling was a cartoonist for The Dartmouth, she had a comic strip called “Badly Drawn Girl,” in which Kaling commented about life as a female student at Dartmouth. 

In “A Guide to Choosing the Best Acapella Group,” for example, Kaling wrote about and illustrated the different archetypes of groups on campus: “the all female group,” “the co-ed group,” “the really bad group” and the “religious group.”

In another, titled “The Pantheon of Badly Drawn Girl’s world,” Kaling drew a group of characters in a girl’s life, including “Jenny, the best friend and aspiring actress,” “Pauly, the outdoor die-hard and eternal optimist” and “George, the business manager of his all-male acapella group.” 

Film directors Miller and Lord — who wrote separate comic strips —  have gone on to co-direct blockbusters such as “Project Hail Mary,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Lego Movie.” In 2019, they won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for their film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” The two of them also founded their own production company, Lord Miller.  Miller and Lord also delivered a joint address at Commencement in 2023, where they received honorary Doctor of Arts degrees.

Miller’s recurring comic strip was called “Sleazy the Wonder Squirrel Show,” which featured a “chain-smoking talk show host,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. 

Lord’s was called “Loud Mouth.” One comic strip featured “Christmas gifts currently under investigation for copyright infringement,” which made a joke of people creating “tickle-me Elmo” knockoffs which were less adorable to tickle. Tickle-me Elmo toys were the focus of a major consumer craze during the holiday shopping season in 1996. 

The Dartmouth served as a testing ground for these successful alums and served as one of the earliest writers’ rooms for them.

 Kaling, Lord and Miller did not respond to requests for comment on this article.