Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette likes to compare himself to a migrant farm worker following the next big crop.
"You have to follow the chuckle harvest," Marlette said. "Tulsa seems ripe for that."
Marlette, 56, will join the Tulsa World staff Feb. 12 to draw daily cartoons focused on local and state events, as well as national news items.
His editorial cartoons and comic strip "Kudzu" are syndicated in hundreds of newspapers worldwide. He has been drawing professionally full-time since 1972, and he wrote an award-winning novel recently purchased by Paramount Pictures for film adaptation.
From whimsical and goofy to biting and in-your-face, the tone of his cartoons run the gamut, he said.
Marlette accepted the Tulsa World's job offer because he believes the family owned publication has not fallen victim to "corporate journalism" like chain newspapers, which he blames for watering down content to avoid upsetting advertisers.
"This is a time when newspapers are getting rid of cartoonists, and for them (Tulsa World) to recognize and commit to having one is a great sign of integrity and values," he said.
Marlette has not spent much time in Tulsa, but he says he's anxious to dig into a fresh subject with new characters.
"What I like about Tulsa is the clay is still soft. I like a blank sheet of paper," he said. "I will be discovering Tulsa, and if I do it well, the readers will see Tulsa fresh."
Oklahoma popped up on Marlette's radar screen last fall when University of Oklahoma President
David Boren asked him to teach as a visiting lecturer. At the time, he was working at the Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat.
Marlette accepted Boren's offer and was appointed a Gaylord Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the school's College of Journalism and Mass Communications for 2006.
Around the same time, he noticed the job opening at the Tulsa World and was later hired. He describes the sequence of events as a "happy accident."
Tulsa World Publisher Robert E. Lorton III said the company is looking forward to welcoming Doug and his wife, Melinda, to Tulsa.
"We are very excited about the opportunity to work with an editorial cartoonist the caliber of Doug Marlette," Lorton said. "He has a national reputation, but we look forward to his spin on local and state politics, as well."
Ken Neal, Tulsa World editor of the editorial pages, said the editorial board is pleased to have Marlette on the staff.
"The World editorial policy emphasizes state and local events, so a criterion for our cartoonist is to reflect that policy," Neal said. "Doug Marlette has always immersed himself in the communities in which he has worked, and that interest shows in his cartoons."
Neal continued:
"We are confident he will be a 'local' cartoonist and that readers can expect satire on all aspects of Tulsa and Oklahoma life. (Watch out City Hall and state legislators!) We doubt that national and international foolishness in public life will escape him, however."
Keeping it real
Marlette said he discovered his artistic talent when he was about 4. Other children used to give him marbles and candy in exchange for his drawings of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.
"I saw this could be lucrative," he said in an interview at the OU campus on Friday.
Born into a military family in Greensboro, N.C., he grew up in North Carolina, Mississippi and Florida.
He worked his way through college by drawing cartoons and selling them to newspapers, he said. After graduating from Florida State University with a degree in philosophy, he began drawing political cartoons for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer in 1972.
His philosophy background shines through when he talks about the purpose of cartoons.
"Cartoons are windows into the human condition," he said. "It's about life."
Marlette says he tries to capture the funny, serious and poignant moments.
"You want surprise," he said. "The best work causes people to discuss in the community."
His drawing routine starts about 5 a.m., when he begins what he calls the absorption process. He reads newspapers, watches television and reads online articles.
He usually draws from about 9 a.m. to noon, first with pencil; then with ink. He turns out five political cartoons and seven Kudzu cartoons a week.
He describes editorial cartoonists as an endangered species because he's watched their numbers dwindle from roughly 200 about 20 years ago to about 80 today.
Cartoonists, he said, are usually the first to go when newspapers are swallowed up by chains and lose their autonomy.
"Because of the rise of corporate journalism, it has beaten the life out of editorial cartoonists," he said.
After leaving The Charlotte Observer, Marlette joined the Atlanta Constitution in 1987. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for a series of cartoons published in those two newspapers.
He joined New York Newsday in 1989 and the Tallahassee Democrat in 2002.
His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
He has written an ethics column for Esquire and contributed to The New Republic, The Nation, Men's Journal, The Paris Review and Columbia Journalism Review.
His first novel, "The Bridge," was published by HarperCollins in 2001 and was voted Best Book of the Year for Fiction by the Southeast Booksellers Association in 2002. Paramount Pictures purchased the rights for a film adaptation for Tom Cruise.
Examples of Marlette's work can be viewed on his Web site, dougmarlette.com.
Marlette succeeds David Simpson at the Tulsa World. Simpson was dismissed last year after allegations of plagiarism arose.
Tom Droege 581-8361
tom.droege@tulsaworld.com
