Core77

From a lengthy and detailed profile of Garry Trudeau, the artist behind Doonesbury.

Trudeau got a master's degree in graphic design. It was his first career choice until "Doonesbury" -- a success right from his college newspaper days -- made everything else moot. Design remains, to this day, the thing Trudeau longs to be doing. In all the time we'd spent together, the only artwork of his that he'd shown me with any particular pride were "Doonesbury"-themed coasters, cups, T-shirts and figurines that he had designed for free. They wound up raising $1 million for a Starbucks-sponsored reading charity. It was a subtle piece of work, marrying the Starbucks corporate logos and design with the Doonesbury characters.

"I had more flow as a designer," Trudeau explains. "I could just drop down into the zone and stay there for hours. With cartooning, I'm constantly coming up for air, procrastinating, looking for reasons not to be doing it. I spend all day granting myself special dispensation, with 'creative process' as my cover story. Carpenters and deli countermen can't do that, so I think they may feel better about themselves at the end of the day."