Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker remembers Doug Marlette five years after his untimely death in an auto accident in Mississippi in 2007.
I know I speak for dozens of close friends and family members ? and even a good number of enemies ? when I say that Marlette was that rare creature who could size up a person, place, event or trend with a glance that was simultaneously mirthful and homicidal. He was an intellectual assassin with a preternatural knack for zeroing in on hypocrites and phonies, and woe unto those under his gaze. Your most deeply guarded secret was transparent to him; your most precious conceit a speck of lint on his sleeve.
Doug was one of those cartoonists I had hopes to meet in real life. His book In Your Face: A Cartoonist at Work
I miss Marlette’s work, particularly Kudzu and company. Really fun stuff. Thanks for bringing him back to mind tonight.
I was also influenced by In Your Face. He was a wonderful cartoonist. His premature death was devastating.
Marlette was a great cartoonist, and indeed, “In Your Face” is really good.