Clayton Jones (born June 1, 1966) is an American editorial cartoonist based in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has been the staff editorial cartoonist for The Free Lance-Star since 1998. His work is syndicated to over 400 publications by Creators Syndicate Inc.
Jones was born in Fort Hood, Texas in 1966. His first cartooning job was for The Panolian in Batesville, Mississippi where he worked from 1989 to 1995. He left the Panolian to work for the Daily Leader in Brookhaven, Mississippi, which he left in September of the same year. Starting the early 90's until 1997, he self-syndicated five cartoons a week to over 40 newspapers in Mississippi on state subjects, also while contributing an exclusive cartoon to the Mississippi Business Journal once a week.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin hired Jones to fill in for a year while their regular cartoonist, Corky Trinidad, took a year-long sabbatical. After leaving Honolulu Jones was hired by The Free Lance-Star. In addition to drawing five cartoons a week for the paper, Jones also writes a daily column and draws a weekly caption contest.
Jones' work is nationally syndicated to over 400 newspapers by Creators Syndicate. His work has been reprinted in USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek and Time Magazine. His work is archived at the Mattie Sink Memorial Library at Mississippi State University. In 1997, Pelican Publishing published a book of his work titled "Knee-Deep In Mississippi", a collection of cartoons mostly on cartoons of that state.
Jones won first place for Best Editorial Cartoon in the Mississippi Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest, For the first three years of the contests existence. He has also won awards in Hawaii and Virginia, most recently taking first and second place in 2011 in the Virginia Press Association's annual contest.