Tuesday, July 10, 2007

...a little less funny...

Former Charlotte Observer editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette was killed in a single-car accident in Mississippi this morning. I haven't kept up much with him since he left the Observer many years ago and have never been a fan of his "Kudzu" strip, but the cartoons he did in my high school and college years, especially with Jim Bakker and Jesse Helms as subjects, were like the Daily Show is now for me - a little piece of humorous sanity and a sign that someone else out there "got it". You can see a slideshow of some of his best stuff from Charlotte at http://www.charlotte.com - it's nice to have a reminder of what a frickin' joke the Bakkers and the PTL Club were in Charlotte long before the scandal that brought them down.

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1 Comments:

At 11:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I worked at the Observer as an editorial assistant in high school, when Marlette was still considered pretty much a phenom and not yet an established master, but damn, he was good ... and on deadline.

He also was one of the nicest people in the business.

The best thing he ever did, I think, was within an hour and a half or so of the Challenger disaster, a bald eagle looking up into the stars with a single tear coming from one eye. That's one for the ages.

The best thing he did that never saw the light of day in the newspaper was of Jesus walking up Golgotha with an electric chair rather than a cross on his back. He submitted it every Easter, or so goes the legend, and every Easter the Observer rejected it.

 

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