In Memory of Doug Marlette

Doug Marlette, cartoonist and humorist, died today in a car accident in Mississippi. He was 57 years old. I think that most people know Marlette as an author and playwright and Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist for the Tulsa World, the Observer, the Tallahassee Democrat, New York Newsday and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His cartoons often had a religious or theological orientation:

I will remember him best as creator of the comic strip, Kudzu, especially the preacher in it, Rev. Will B. Dunn:

I have laughed at the Rev. Dunn and the other Kudzu characters since I first encountered them while in seminary more than twenty years ago. I have used them as examples in sermons I’ve preached and classes I’ve taught. And I have learned from Marlette’s comic strip.

One Kudzu comic from which I truly learned featured the Rev. Will B. Dunn standing in his pulpit and praying to God for a “sign.” Suddenly there is a puff of smoke and beside Rev. Dunn is a traffic sign that reads “No Parking.” And Dunn responds, “That isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

I shall miss Doug Marlette, his editorial cartoons, the writings, and the comic strip, Kudzu. The world has lost an important philosopher and observer of the human condition.

Thank you, Doug. May you rest in peace.