On Thursday morning this week (10th Jan) Radio 4 (11:30am-noon) will be broadcasting Doonesburyland.

Joe Queenan conducts a rare interview with Gary Trudeau, creator of the Doonesbury cartoon strip and in many ways the most high profile chronicler of the American left.

Queenan also speaks to the Guardian’s former features editor Ian Katz, who dropped the strip from the paper only to have to it reinstated after a wave of mass outrage from readers. Quite right to.

If you’ve never read Doonesbury it can be hard to know where to start (other than at the beginning) with a soap opera that has been running daily (apart from a long sabbatical c.1980) since 1970. Hopefully this programme will provide a ‘jumping on’ point for new readers.

Doonesbury appears daily in The Guardian newspaper in the UK, and the Sunday strip runs in The Independent. Doonesbury is also available on mobile in some countries for mobile via ROK Comics.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: British Comics - Newspaper Strips, Comic Creator Interviews