Jack Mallette, Auburn alumnus, recounted his time at Auburn. Mallette was the art editor of the Glomerata and was and a part of the “school of cartooning,” at The Auburn Plainsman.
Mallette was a part of the Glomerata, Plainsman and The Circle during 1976-79. He worked on The Plainsman staff as a cartoonist and art editor.
“If you worked on one, you basically worked on all three back then, it was sort of incestuous for organizations, but fun nonetheless,” Mallette said.
He spoke on his cartoon character, Ace Roxoff, a parody of an Auburn student, which didn’t go over well with Plainsman editorial staff when published.
“The genesis of it was someone flooded the fountain in the Haley center, and someone was doing their laundry in it. And in the next frame, you see Ace Roxoff asleep under a lawn chair, with a sign that says, ‘Wash 50 cents, please wake attendant,” Mallette said. “It ran about five or six issues, until it got complaints of the name ‘Roxoff.’ He’s Russian, but they didn’t see it that way.”
During his years in student media, he designed many covers for the Glomerata and the Circle. He also was a photographer on the Glomerata staff; however he mainly did a few characters for the Plainsman and the Glomerata.
Plainsman staff would still find ways to have fun and make memories with their friends. Malette recalls his favorite memory with the Plainsman staff from the late 70s, after not being invited into an honorary club at the University.
“It was Thanksgiving weekend. Someone mentioned something about the honorary at Auburn, the Spades. They were a “cool kid group,” that none of us were ever going to be able to join,” Mallette said. “So I took a spoon, and some of those stick-on letters – it was the 70’s you know – and I went around the Plainsman suite and knighted everyone with it.”
Mallette remembered his time in student media with fondness. He also mentioned knowing that he would like to work in the media. So, for a few years when he was out of college, he worked as an art director for Willard & Co.
Once Willard & Co. shut down in Mississippi, Mallette found his way back to his roots of writing. He wrote for a magazine called Portico Jackson about historical subjects and made them compelling to readers.
Once both companies shut down in the Jackson Mississippi area, he returned to his love for media that he discovered on The Plainsman. He had an ad in 1977 in The Plainsman stating that he collected old comic books and bottle caps.
Now, he works for himself, collecting vintage art, comics and autographed memorabilia.
Contributed by Jack Mallette
“I decided I wanted to work for someone just as smart and as stupid as me – and that narrowed the field down to one,” Mallette said. “Now I’ve owned and operated Mallette’s vintage collectables. I have over 200,000 rare comic books, over 2,000,000 baseball cards and over 100,000 rare books, movie posters and autographs.”
He explained that his love for working with The Plainsman on his art helped him create his business. The things he collects are also art based, such as the comic books.
When asked what his favorite collectable item he’s gotten was, he mentioned a comic book with his name and the name of the person he purchased it from.
“It’s called the Mallette-Brown copy of Action Funnies number one. It’s the prototype edition of Action Comics number one, which was the first appearance of Superman in June 1938,” Mallette said.
He thanks The Plainsman for getting him where he is today. He’s proud of what past and present Plainsman staff members have accomplished over the years, and encouraged them to keep up their work and to stay persistent.
“It was heartening to see that people had noticed. You work on something like the Plainsman, and you do your work, you meet your deadlines, and you jump through hoops and hurdles with your friends,” Mallette said. “You do this week in and week out, you don’t really see or hear about the impact you have on your fellow students. Only now and then does someone come up to me or you and say they like the work that you do on the Plainsman.”
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Brychelle Brooks is a sophomore majoring in public and professional writing. She has been with The Plainsman since August 2023.
