35 years ago today, the Challenger exploded.

I watched it blow up, from the roof of the newspaper where I was working in West Palm Beach, 150 miles due south of Cape Canaveral.

A group of space nerds, of which I was one, watched launches on the roof, as did a lot of folks in FLorida, from the beach or their back yard. The paper printed the launch schedules. Most were satellites, still cool to watch, that tower of smoke rising into the sky.

A shuttle launch, however, was a big deal. There were a dozen of us on the roof. Some brought binoculars, even telescopes.

The Shuttle rose to oo's and aah's. Higher, higher.... then that awful explosion. There was no sound, of course, from our distance.

Stunned silence on the roof. We just stared open mouthed, until what had just happened sunk in.

Suddenly one of the news guys yelled "SHIT!!!" and that broke the spell. There was a scramble for the door. We thundered in a pack down the stairs into the newsroom. "THE SHUTTLE BLEW UP!!" At the same time, editors who had been watching tv burst out of their offices.

The newsroom burst into action. Editors yelling, reporters racing around, a frenzy of activity. It was the story of the year.

I was a political cartoonist, my first incarnation in comics, and my first professional gig.

There were two papers in the building, both owned by the same company. I worked for the afternoon Evening Times. The shuttle exploded at 11:39 am. That day's Times was already printed and in delivery trucks en route to homes and newsboxes.

I think they may have rushed out an Extra, with a banner headline CHALLENGER EXPLODES and nothing else save a one-paragraph story slapped together in 10 minutes.

Of course, tv news was all over it. The three networks, early CNN. Nonstop coverage for the rest of the day.That was all there was in 1985. No internet.

Newspapers had ceded breaking news to tv. It was the eventual doom of newspapers, happening right in front of me.

Of course, TV news had nothing, except footage of the explosion (over and over and over) Same thing as now, they dredged up "experts" to offer opinions and guesses, most of them wrong.

It was really the birth of 24-hour News. Started right there in 1986.

So I wouldn't have a cartoon in print until the FOLLOWING afternoon. And what to say? Cartoons like this are damn near impossible. Usually they're sappy and predictable. Think back to 9-11 and the dozens of identical cartoons with the Statue of Liberty weeping into her hands.

In the end, I just drew an apple floating in space, with the earth below. Get it? An apple for teacher, Christa McAuliffe, a civilian on board the Challenger.

Because of a teacher being on board, millions of schoolchildren watched the launch in class. Poor kids.

Yeah, lame cartoon. I'll try to find a copy in my files. Like I said, these things are damn near impossible.

Apparently the editor wasn't impressed either, because the next day I was SACKED! Fired for "general tastelessness" he told me. My unimpressive apple was the last straw!

And that was it for my political cartoon career!

Here's that final last cartoon. Look at all that pen work! Still using a flexible-nib dip pen back then. Whiteout to make the stars. Nicely drawn, but a nothingburger of a cartoon.

Can't remember why THIS one was the last straw. That editor was a piece of work.

So there was this national tragedy AND the end of my career.... ion the space of 24 hours. Fun week.