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 Pultizer
Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette shared some of his work and
discussed his North Carolina family roots during a presentation
Feb. 18 in Whitley Auditorium. Dr. Anthony Hatcher of the School
of Communications brought Marlette to campus through a Project Pericles
grant.
Marlette,
an editorial cartoonist who also draws the syndicated daily comic
strip "Kudzu," has captured the mood of the nation after some of
the world's most important events. He shared some of his famous
newspaper cartoons during his Elon visit, including work he created
in the wake of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster and in
the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Marlette's
cartoons often poke fun at the world's political and religious leaders.
Laughter was abundant as Marlette showed samples of his work which
made light of Presidents Bush and Clinton, as well as television
evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.
"Humor is
rooted in pain," Marlette said. "If you think about it, somebody
slipping on a banana peel is painful. If you're watching it, it's
funny, but if you're the one who's slipping, then it's painful."
Marlette has
worked as a cartoonist for newspapers in Charlotte, Atlanta and
New York. He now works for the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida,
and his syndicated cartoons appear in newspapers across the country.
A North Carolina
native who grew up in nearby Durham, Marlette now lives in Hillsborough,
N.C. His grandmother was an activist in the 1934 textile mill uprisings
in Burlington, which signaled the end of the organized labor movement
in the South.
In an ironic
twist, Marlette discovered that the house he now owns in Hillsborough
was built by owner of the nearby textile mill, which employed several
members of his family. That revelation led Marlette to write his
first novel, "The Bridge," which was published in 2001.
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