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Kathleen Parker remembers Doug Marlette

Posted by
July 17, 2012

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 influential to me while I was in high school and college trying to learn the craft.

Community Comments

#1 Donald Rex Jr.
July/17/2012
@ 11:09 pm

I miss Marlette’s work, particularly Kudzu and company. Really fun stuff. Thanks for bringing him back to mind tonight.
#2 Stephen Beals
July/18/2012
@ 8:50 am

I was also influenced by In Your Face. He was a wonderful cartoonist. His premature death was devastating.
#3 Pedro Molina
July/20/2012
@ 12:27 pm

Marlette was a great cartoonist, and indeed, “In Your Face” is really good.

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