Mike Luckovich

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.{{cite web|last1=Caller Jaffe|first1=Marcia|title=Don't take "A Very Stable Genius!" Too Seriously|url=https://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/dont-take-a-very-stable-genius-too-seriously|website=Atlanta Jewish Times|date=26 October 2018 |publisher=Michael A. Morris|accessdate=November 1, 2018}} For two years after graduation, he sold cartoons on a freelance basis to the Everett, Washington, newspaper while working as an insurance salesman.

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

: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 as his "biggest editorial cartoonist role model" and Mort Drucker as his "first hero".

While at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mike Luckovich won several awards. He won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.{{cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/mike-luckovich|title=The 1995 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Editorial Cartooning|work=The Pulitzer Prizes|accessdate=August 31, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2006|title=2006 Pulitzer Prizes|work=The Pulitzer Prizes|accessdate=August 31, 2019}} 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.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

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 what would be the late King of Pop's final destination would be after his death. Many people, including Jackson's family, friends, and fans deemed the cartoon offensive.{{cite web|url=http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/26/michael-jackson-cartoon-what-do-you-think|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629195401/http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/26/michael-jackson-cartoon-what-do-you-think/|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 29, 2009|title=AJC's Mike Luckovich, On His Michael Jackson Cartoon|work=cnn.com|date=June 26, 2009}}

• Lotsa Luckovich (Pocket, 1996) {{ISBN|978-0-671-54519-2}}
• Four More Wars! (ECW Press, 2006) {{ISBN|978-1-55022-737-6}}
• A Very Stable Genius! (ECW Press, 2018) {{ISBN|978-1-77041-478-5}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.artsatl.org/qa-mike-luckovick-talks-a-very-stable-genius/|title=Q&A: Mike Luckovich talks about cartooning in the time of "A Very Stable Genius"|date=November 1, 2018|website=ARTS ATL}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.ajc.com/news/luckovich-blog/ Mike Luckovich blog] at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website
• {{C-SPAN|40233}}
• [https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/mike-luckovich-0 2006 biography] from the Pulitzer Prize website
• [http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/sept95/luckovich.html Drawing Attention], a September 1995 article from Columns Magazine, hosted on the University of Washington website
• [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2448 Bio in New Georgia Encyclopedia]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060102095907/http://www.journalismjobs.com/interview_luckovich.cfm 2001 interview] from JournalismJobs.com, a website "operated in partnership with Columbia Journalism Review"
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051228043005/http://www.reuben.org/ncs/awards.asp NCS Awards]

{{PulitzerPrize EditorialCartooning 1976–2000}}

{{PulitzerPrize EditorialCartooning 2001–2025}}

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Category:American editorial cartoonists

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners

Category:University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:The Atlanta Journal-Constitution people

Category:1960 births

Category:Living people

Category:Artists from Seattle

Category:Reuben Award winners

Category:Sheldon High School (Eugene, Oregon) alumni

Category:Bishop Kelly High School alumni