40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, 2000 to 2010

by G.B. Trudeau

Readers and critics have been wowed by G. B. Trudeau's epic masterpiece 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, which follows Trudeau's ever-expanding cast through four decades of cultural turbulence and change. This seminal work is now available digitally in a four-volume e-book set for the first time. This fourth volume of 40 covers the years 2000 to 2010 for the celebrated cartoon strip."[Trudeau is] Dickensian in his range of characters," writes Garry Wills in The New York Review of Books. "Trudeau has just kept improving, year after year, in part because he stays so close to changing events. . . .."

Genres: Fiction

696 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 2012

About the author

Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip. In 1970, Trudeau's creation of Doonesbury was syndicated by the newly formed Universal Press Syndicate. Today Doonesbury is syndicated to almost 1,400 newspapers worldwide and is accessible online in association with Slate Magazine at doonesbury.com. In 1975, he became the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer, traditionally awarded to editorial-page cartoonists. He was also a Pulitzer finalist in 1990. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1977 in the category of Animated Short Film, for A Doonesbury Special, in collaboration with John Hubley and Faith Hubley. A Doonesbury Special eventually won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Special Prize in 1978. Other awards include the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1994, and the Reuben Award in 1995. He was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. Wiley Miller, fellow comic-strip artist responsible for Non Sequitur, called Trudeau "far and away the most influential editorial cartoonist in the last 25 years." In addition to his work on Doonesbury, Trudeau has teamed with Elizabeth Swados and written plays, such as Rap Master Ronnie and Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy. In 1988, Trudeau joined forces with director Robert Altman for the HBO miniseries Tanner '88 and the Sundance Channel miniseries sequel Tanner on Tanner in 2004. In 1996, Newsweek and The Washington Post speculated that Trudeau wrote the novel Primary Colors, which was later revealed to have been written by Joe Klein. Trudeau wrote the political sitcom Alpha House, starring John Goodman and Bill Murray. The pilot was produced by Amazon Studios and aired in early 2013. Due to positive response Amazon has picked up Alpha House to develop into a full series.

Reviews

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2024 bk 118 I missed most of these when they were originally published as these years were busy with caregiving and work. It was a pleasure to pick up on the changes that had occurred in the lives of the Doonesbury crew.

[David Cowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for characters, but not political stuff

Great stuff. Now I get the characters better. I miss the political strips, though. They were always the ones that got taped to the fridge. That wasn't what this project was about though. Great read.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good decade.

Sequential artwork. Sunday color, rest is black and white. All the election deniers were democratic. Anti bush sentiments on occasion. Some wounded warrior material.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

More character driven than history driven which is to say all the political stories that were topical weren't included. I was disappointed; having lived through those times, I was hoping to recapture the zeitgeist. Still, there were prescient strips about Trump and the conservative right.