Mike Luckovich


Michael Edward Luckovich is an editorial cartoonist who has worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1989. He is the 2005 winner of the Reuben, the National Cartoonists Society's top award for cartoonist of the year, and is the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes.

Early life

Luckovich was born in Seattle, Washington, attended Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho before transferring to Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon and graduated in 1982 from the University of Washington with a degree in political science. 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 basis to the Everett, Washington newspaper while working as an insurance salesman.

Career

Luckovich began his career with The Greenville News in 1984, and moved to the New Orleans Times-Picayune later that year. In 1989 he began his career with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 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:

Awards

While at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mike Luckovich won several awards. He won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He received the National Cartoonists Society Editorial Cartoon Award for 2001, with additional nominations for 1998 and 2002. He won the 2008 National Journalism Awards, for Editorial Cartooning. In 2018, he received the Advancing American Democracy Award by the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site.

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 and 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