With it being nearly 100 degrees yesterday (46.2 degrees at my desk, however), I was missing cartoonist Dwane Powell's take on the weather, so I reached back to 2007 and pulled one out of the archives.

Dwane Powell wasn't here to take on the snow or the threats of snow, so here's a cartoon from 10 years ago, when 20 inches of snow were dumped on the Triangle.

Was missing Dwane Powell today when it was time to put a cartoon on the Sunday editorial page, so I decided to see what he was drawing 10 years ago in December. Good heavens! An entire decade has passed since the Y2K hysteria. I'm pretty sure N&O staffers who were working New Year's Eve in 1999 headed up to the roof of The N&O building that night to get a good view of the world coming to an end.

The first collection of cartoons in book form from Dwane Powell, the recently retired editorial cartoonist of The News & Observer, was titled, "Is That All You Do?" It's a question Dwane was asked all the time. Though I was working elsewhere when the book came out, Dwane to this day credits me with buying the first copy. (I'd been working here right out of college when he joined the paper in 1975, and had departed for another job shortly thereafter.)

Fact is, like gunfighting on TV, doing cartoons was harder than it looked. That's not to say it's breaking rocks in a hot sun, but it's no easy feat, either. Dwane was my buddy and remains so, and we'll be missing him here for some time to come. 

I was, arguably, his favorite subject (more about that in a minute), right after Gov. Jim Hunt. Hunt did a mighty nice thing on Dwane's last day, walking over to the editorial offices to say goodbye. He was carrying one of Dwane's old Hunt cartoons, which he'd had framed. Dwane was the one who drew Hunt always with a comb in his hair, and the former governor took criticism good-naturedly. Dwane was around for Hunt's 16 years as governor, and it's interesting to see how his drawings of the guv changed over time. (The truth is, except for the silvering of his hair, Hunt didn't change much at all.) 

As for my role, I was the model for cartoons critical of a particular profession (lawyers, politicians, whatever...) and Dwane often used me when I was out of town. Once, while on vacation, he did a cartoon that made fun of cloning, and the "mad scientist" was a dead-ringer for me. The scientist was opening his lab door, and there behind it were a dozen or so clones...of the scientist, all images of yours truly. 

And I might note that as with Jim Hunt and other targets...er...subjects...Dwane's renderings were not exactly designed to make one look like a Greek god, if you know what I mean.

Ah, well, it's the closest I'll come to being remembered on canvas, I suppose.

N&O editorial cartoonist Dwane Powell retired Wednesday after 35 years (of slopping ink on himself and his desk and his floor), an immeasurable loss to this newspaper. Even when I didn't agree with him (if I had a nickel for every time I have heard Dwane Powell scream that George W. Bush should be in prison – that would be every time George W. Bush has been mentioned in an editorial board meeting, in fact), I found the way Dwane was able to get to the heart of the matter so well with pictures rather than words invaluable and often brilliant. He is the master of detail, and I enjoyed playing "Where's Waldo?" with his cartoons, searching for the small but priceless comic touches he added to nearly every drawing.

What I will miss more, though, is listening to him and his editor, Steve Ford, giggle like little girls when they finally got a cartoon over the bar. Sometimes, Dwane would be giggling all the way from his office even before he got to Steve. This would necessitate breath-holding on my part, hoping for Dwane's sake that Steve was going to think it was as funny as he already did.

There's going to be a lot less laughter around ye ol' opinion shop now, that's for sure.

Dwane sat down for an interview before he left Wednesday. You can find the results of that interview here, put together with a roundup of cartoons by our multimedia editor Scott Sharpe.

Here's the winning caption for the last McClatchy contest cartoon, drawn by The N&O's Dwane Powell.

The cartoon for this month's McClatchy caption-writing contest is by The N&O's Dwane Powell. Go here to enter.

Here's a glimpse inside N&O cartoonist Dwane Powell's sketchbook, where he writes cartoon ideas and where he doodles during editorial board meetings. It's the Where's Waldo edition. See whether you recognize any N&O columnists.

The cartoon for the McClatchy caption-writing contest this month is from The N&O's own Dwane Powell. Go here to enter. Let's have a local winner!

Got a caption for this cartoon? Go here to enter McClatchy's monthly caption-writing contest.

Here's the winner of last month's contest chosen by the artist, the N&O's Dwane Powell: