Doug Marlette: An Equal Opportunity Offender and a Damn Fine Dude

Doug Marlette is gone. And he took the parrot, the politics, and the preacher with him... What do we do now?

I grew up -- well, older anyway -- with Doug Marlette's cartoons. He started cartooning professionally right after graduating from college. That same year I was just starting my post-secondary education and intent on eliminating the apparent demons of my Southern (not to mention Baptist) background. There was an unjust and unjustifiable war going on, and a totally dishonest idiot in the White House. Social values were being trampled right and left, some never to rise again. The earth was in trouble from pollution, overuse, and the rape of wilderness in the name of progressive greed.

It was 1972.

Sometime during my freshman year, a man named Will Campbell walked onto the campus of Mercer University and called the spade of organized religion a spade. Then he wandered into the arena of Nixonian politics and called a liar a liar. For years I refused to vote because of that time with Will Campbell and his writings. What has that got to do with Doug Marlette? Well, I'll tell you.

Doug Marlette also met Will Campbell and the outcome of his infatuation with the preacher/philosopher was a character in his cartoon strip "Kudzu" by the name of Rev. Will B. Dunn. I have been worshipping at the Reverend's altar ever since. I don't know if a person's soulmate can actually be a cartoon character, but the Rev. Will, as channelled by Marlette, seemed to be reading my mind and my heart more often than not.

When I heard the news today that Doug Marlette was gone, my stomach turned to lead. I had to sit down. I didn't cry. I also didn't breathe -- for way too long. Pat Conroy cried. He said he's been crying all day because he doesn't know how he will go on without his friend. I know what he means. Losing a good friend can feel like losing all hope. Losing the world Marlette created feels like I've temporarily lost my voice -- that's Voice, as in the expression of self.

His cartoons spared no one and no thing sacred. He was, as the title of this blog states, an equal opportunity offender. But he offended and created with passion, and without backing down. I once read that if there were no First Amendment, Doug Marlette would have had to find another line of work. Thank the powers that be for free speech. Even if sometimes that expression was wordless, it still spoke volumes...

Doug Marlette is gone, and I will miss the mirror his art provided for my soul. I will miss the satire, the sacrilege, and the sacred humor that made me laugh out loud and cry down deep. For 35 years of my life, I had Doug Marlette shouting out to the world what I wished I could say. After that long, you would think I could come up with some better last words, but I think I'll just let him speak for me one more time...

Heh heh heh, see what I mean?

For more about Doug Marlette, click here.

ADDENDUM:

Below is the final Doug Marlette cartoon penned by his nephew. Like I said, sometimes words fail us, but the message carries on...