The comic strip Doonesbury has tackled some important social and political issues over the years. Garry Trudeau became the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer Prize, and was a finalist for the prize three subsequent times, including in 2004 and 2005, when his strip addressed the Iraq War. His storylines have centered around the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy, unfound weapons of mass destruction, and U.S. Presidents.
42 years ago, the first Doonesbury comic strip appeared in newspapers, and in 2010 to celebrate, Trudeau released 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective. It collects more than 1,800 strips from its long history. Today, a rebroadcast of Steve Kraske's October 2010 conversation with Garry Trudeau, and his longtime collaborator, Don Carlton of Fairway, who inks the comic strip.
Garry Trudeau was born in New York City in 1948 and was raised in Saranac Lake, N.Y. He attended Yale University, where he received his B.A. and an M.F.A. in graphic design. His work has been collected in nearly 60 hardcover, trade paperback and mass-market editions, which have cumulatively sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. In 1975, Trudeau became the first comic strip artist ever to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. He lives in New York City with his wife, Jane Pauley, and their three children. Don Carlton is an inker for Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury." Carlton was born and grew to adulthood in Texas. He earned a BFA from Texas Christian University in art. Carlton's earliest professional art was as tech illustrator in nuclear engineering and general newspaper art for The Fort Worth Press. He's married to Joan, has three grown children, Brendan, Joel, and Rachel.
