Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Doug Marlette

I was doing some research on history of the political cartoon, when I tripped over some works by Doug Marlette …

Marlette had a very funny comic strip called “Kudzu” which i used to enjoy regularly. I wondered what had happened to it since i hadn’t seen it for a while.

I was saddened to learn he had passed away in a car accident in Mississippi five years ago at the young are of 57.

Doug Marlette had a wonderful career working at many leading newspapers as well as magazines such as TIME and NEWSWEEK.

It is great to see a true southern gentleman make a mark in the main stream media.

He trained at Florida State University in the early 70s. He did cartoons in the FSU paper “The Flambeau” which I was – of course – very familiar with. He also did the cover and illustrations for the FSU Yearbook that year.

Marlette died in the auto accident as a passenger while traveling to help Oxford High School students with their performance of his musical version of “KUDZU” …

Surely he had many more brilliant works that would have been contributed to this world … He had published two novels that promised greater future works.

You probably will remember who he was because he was the guy who did the cartoon of Mohammed driving a rental van with missiles sticking out the back with the caption – “What would Mohammed drive?”

That could have been why in 2002 he went from being employed at NEW YORK NEWSDAY to the TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT (back to the town with FSU) that year … the same year that “controversial” cartoon appeared.

Check out his works – you will be pleased and highly entertained.

Category: Tony Rollo Blog