And for Marlette these areas, while being different mediums, are based on the same basic ideas.
"Kudzu" creator turned novelist Marlette and his friend and fellow author Pat Conroy brought their words -- both spoken and written -- to Carroll Hall on Sunday.
Conroy, author of the best-selling novel "Beach Music," joined the cartoonist for a discussion and book signing of Marlette's debut novel, "The Bridge."
Providing a brief introduction to Marlette's lecture, Conroy said he was proud of Marlette's recent successes. "He's been my best friend for 20 years, and I'm really excited that he's teaching at the people's university," he said.
"The Bridge" deals with the turbulence of social action, and Marlette, with 30 years experience as a social commentator, is very at home in controversy. The novel centers on Southern labor issues in the early half of the 20th century and is based on his own family's experiences.
As he wrote the book, Marlette also ironically drew from years of editorial cartooning to write a dramatic and intense story. "Humor is closely related to pain," he said. "Cartoonists are always going for the wordless image, for the wordlessness. A good political cartoon is like a slam dunk. A novel is like the whole basketball season."
His novel was a five-year process of shifting his form of expression from the visual to the literary. But Marlette said he experienced a natural progression into writing with "The Bridge."
Imparting 30 years of wisdom regarding the role of cartooning and writing about popular culture and current events, Marlette enhanced his lecture with images from his own portfolio, including "Kudzu" and editorial strips.
To illustrate his foray into writing, he first showed his family's influence on his cartoons. He then moved into their epic influence on his writing, his novel being their story.
