Doug Marlette

I never got into Kudzu. It was derivative.
This very formula
A Loser approzches expert

B Expert exploits loser with very point of losers request

C Everyone laughs by feeling superior to loser.

Nahh, its formulaic and trite. Why ths very thing was the basis of "Our Boarding House" when my Uncle Stosh was a Kid (he had a collection of "Our Boarding House" cartoons that I now treasure )

I've been looking online for Major Hoople for a long time, with no results.

Marlette became nationally known and famous for Kudzu. But prior to that, he was a quite respected political cartoonist. Farmer, I disagree that Kudzu was all derivative. The first panel that edgar posted, yes, but Marlette had some truly biting bits from time to time. My favorite Kudzu character was the Rev. Will B. Dunne. I remember one strip where, full of doubt, he's praying to God to "show me a sign." After some intense praying, there's a flash of lightning and, in the last panel, the Rev. is standing there with a "No Parking Anytime" sign next to him and he's thinking, "I don't know what that means, but I think I feel better."

They can't all be gems. I like about a tenth of the strips or less, enough to display them. But, he does get some goodies. Very few strips can be statistically better than that, I think.

Doug Marlette was the Tulsa newspaper's editorial cartoonist. He was very good. This came as quite a shock to those of us in Tulsa. We'll miss him.

Here's a slideshow:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/slideshows/marlette/index.html