Celebrating 39 Years With Don Carlton

A couple of people have e-mailed me to wonder after why longtime Doonesbury finishing artist Don Carlton hasn't been a bigger part of the celebration of that strip's 40th anniversary. It's Carlton's 40th year on the strip, having started in 1971 I believe for the most part -- I'm not super-familiar with the story -- to relieve pressure of the daily deadline variety suffered by the extremely young cartoonist. I couldn't possibly tell you why one interview or another fails to inquire after Trudeau's partner-in-art -- I assume for some there's a severe space limitation and for others there's a decided lack of interest in how the strip is created beyond the Trudeau's writing of it -- but there are a few pieces out there that are Carlton-inclusive.

Carlton was interviewed as part of a Doonesbury episode of Up To Date With Steve Traske, a program that includes a biography of Carlton in its listing (I'd never seen one). Carlton's contributions are a part of the new 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective book, and Douglas Wolk walks through Carlton's role and the one-time mini-controversy surrounding it here. Brian Walker talks about Carlton in the context of his new art book on Trudeau here. Tom Tomorrow's piece on Trudeau in Yale's alumni magazine also mentions Carlton, but seems more noteworthy for mentioning that Trudeau was only in his mid-30s when he took that initial "break" from newspaper cartooning, at time when he felt like he had already enjoyed an entire career.
 
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