Michael Edward Luckovich ( ; born January 28, 1960) is a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...

who has worked for ''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

'' since 1989. He is the 2005 winner of the Reuben, the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

's top award for cartoonist of the year, and is the recipient of two

Pulitzer Prizes The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made hi ...

Early life

Luckovich was born in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, attended

Bishop Kelly High School Bishop Kelly High School is a private Roman Catholic secondary school in Boise, Idaho, operated by the Diocese of Boise. One of two Catholic high school in the state of Idaho, its school colors are black and gold and the mascot is a knight. His ...

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

, before transferring to Sheldon High School in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

, and graduated in 1982 from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

with a degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. While a student at UW, he was "one of two non-Jewish members of ZBT frat" on the campus. For two years after graduation, he sold cartoons on a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

basis to the

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

while working as an insurance salesman.

Career

Luckovich began his career with ''

The Greenville News ''The Greenville News'' is a daily morning newspaper published in Greenville, South Carolina. After ''The State'' in Columbia and Charleston's ''The Post and Courier'', it is the third largest paper in South Carolina. History ''The Greenville N ...

'' (

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

) in 1984 and moved to the ''

New Orleans Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

'' later that year. In 1989 he began his career with the ''

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

'', which continues to today. In 2000, Luckovich started his comic strip "SuperZeros" about a pair of dim-witted superheroes. It was distributed by Tribune Media Service and lasted a year. In a September 2001 interview, Luckovich commented on his style of cartooning and how it changed after the

9/11 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

: :Normally with my cartoons I try to use humor to get across my point. After Sept. 11th, you just couldn't use humor. The tragedy was so enormous, you couldn't be funny. It's almost like you have to come up with cartoons using a different part of your brain. I was just trying to come up with images that expressed the emotions that I was feeling and tried to focus in on different aspects of the tragedy that I thought were important. In the same interview Luckovich cited

Jeff MacNelly Jeffrey Kenneth "Jeff" MacNelly (September 17, 1947 – June 8, 2000) was an American editorial cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Shoe''. After ''Shoe'' had been established in papers, MacNelly created the single-panel strip '' Plu ...

as his "biggest editorial cartoonist role model" and

Mort Drucker Morris "Mort" Drucker (March 22, 1929 – April 9, 2020) was an American caricaturist and comics artist best known as a contributor for over five decades in '' Mad'', where he specialized in satires on the leading feature films and televisio ...

as his "first hero".

Awards

While at the ''

'', Mike Luckovich won several awards. He won the

1995 Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes for 1995 were announced on April 18, 1995. Journalism awards *Public Service: **''Virgin Islands Daily News'', St. Thomas, for its disclosure of the links between the region's rampant crime rate and corruption in the local ...

and

2006 Pulitzer Prize The 2006 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on April 17, 2006. The board announced in December 2005, that they will consider more online material in all 14 journalism categories. For the first time since 1997, the Pulitzer board declined to award a P ...

for Editorial Cartooning. He received the

Editorial Cartoon Award for 2001, with additional nominations for 1998 and 2002. He won the 2008

National Journalism Awards The Scripps Howard Awards, formerly the National Journalism Awards are $10,000 awards in American journalism given by the Scripps Howard Foundation. As of 2022, the categories are: * Excellence in Coverage of Breaking News * Excellence in Broad ...

, for Editorial Cartooning. In 2018, he received the Advancing American Democracy Award by the

Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, previously known as the Benjamin Harrison Home, is the former home of the twenty-third president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. It is in the Old Northside Historic District of Indianapolis, Indian ...

Controversy

Luckovich attracted a great deal of backlash when the newspaper cartoonist drew a cartoon depicting Michael Jackson's death one day after his death. The comic strip illustrated the leaders

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

and

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

flipping a coin to see where the late King of Pop would be after his demise. Many people, including Jackson's family, friends, and fans deemed the cartoon offensive. On December 3, 2019, Luckovich posted a cartoon on Twitter depicting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg defending racists, lying politicians, Nazis, and Russians. Some interpreted this as comparing Russians to Nazis and the KKK, while others noted Luckovich was simply referring to widespread criticism of Facebook for not having done enough to stop Russian Internet troll farms from using Facebook to interfere in US politics, including the 2016 presidential elections.

Books

* ''Lotsa Luckovich'' (Pocket, 1996) * ''Four More Wars!'' (ECW Press, 2006) * ''A Very Stable Genius!'' (ECW Press, 2018)

References

External links

Mike Luckovich blog
at the

website *
2006 biography
from the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

website
Drawing Attention
a September 1995 article from ''Columns Magazine'', hosted on the

website
Bio in New Georgia Encyclopedia

2001 interview
from JournalismJobs.com, a website "operated in partnership with ''

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...

''"
NCS Awards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luckovich, Mike American editorial cartoonists Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni The Atlanta Journal-Constitution people 1960 births Living people Artists from Seattle Reuben Award winners Sheldon High School (Eugene, Oregon) alumni