Doonesburyland

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.