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AJC’s Luckovich wins Pulitzer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich earned journalism’s top honor Monday, winning a Pulitzer Prize.
It was the second Pulitzer for the popular but polarizing cartoonist, whose social and political commentaries regularly provoke sharp reactions from readers.
“This is just so great,” Luckovich said during a newsroom celebration after the award was announced. “I love what I do.”
The winning entry included cartoons from 2005 whose topics ranged from Hurricane Katrina’s devastation to the media circus around runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks.
RELATED
• See winning cartoons | Luckovich profile | Have your say in Luckovich blog
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• Previous AJC pulitzers
In October, he used the names of all 2,000 American soldiers who died in Iraq to spell the single word: WHY? It took him twelve to thirteen hours to complete the drawing. “He thought it was important that he pay tribute to those soldiers by writing all 2,000 names,” said editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker, who was also a Pulitzer finalist.
“It was emotional writing them out,” Luckovich said. He began doing so over the weekend as the death toll approached 2,000. The cartoon ran the day after it hit the mark at the unusual size of 8.5 by 11 inches.
He said that his humor has taken a darker turn in recent years as he has grown angrier about the war. His cartoons reflect that, he said.
After it was published, readers lit up his blog at ajc.com. He received one letter from an 11th-grader at Arlington Christian School who said she spent 12 hours drawing her own cartoon. Using the same names, she spelled out “FREEDOM.”
“It bothered me that no one did a response showing how others feel,” she wrote.
The paper had finalists in three Pulitzer categories this year. In addition to Luckovich, Tucker was a finalist for commentary, and the staff was a finalist in the breaking news category for its coverage of the Fulton County courthouse shootings last March.
Luckovich has been the Journal-Constitution’s editorial cartoonist since 1989. His first Pulitzer, won in 1995, was for cartoons that included one portraying South Carolina’s Susan Smith, who accused an imaginary black man of killing her children, as “Goldilocks.”
He said at the time that adding the Pulitzer to his list of awards meant “The monkey’s off my back.”
Pete Corson, who designs the paper’s editorial page, often serves as a sounding board for Luckovich while he works on the next day’s cartoon. He said the cartoonist usually draws a handful of sketches that are little more than stick figures and concepts, then settles on one or more to develop.
“On a normal day, he could go through eight to ten, easy,” he said.
Sometimes, Luckovich will start with a simple idea: Two people watching television and a punchline, Corson said. By the time it makes the paper, the television is gone, and the punchline has morphed into a more powerful image.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and it’s two predecessors, the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, have won a combined ten Pulitzers since 1931
