2009 Contest Winners
Grand Prize: Lee Judge | Kansas City Star
Honorable Mention: Mike Luckovich | Atlanta Journal Constitution
Honorable Mention: Michael Ramirez | Investor's Business Daily
(Chicago, IL) -- Before The Daily Show, the Colbert Report and JibJab, there was the editorial cartoon. These witty and often-times biting social commentaries were found in the nation’s newspapers and magazines long before the current crop of television and online brands of political satire came to screens across America. Throughout the years, these satirical cartoons have lampooned everything and everyone from Barack to Blago. Political cartoons have been published in newspapers and magazines in the U.S. since 1754 when Benjamin Franklin created his “Join, or Die” cartoon for the Pennsylvania Gazette.
In 1980, with the passing of legendary editorial cartoonist John Fischetti, Columbia College Chicago developed the Fischetti Competition to recognize excellence in the field. For more than a quarter-century, The Fischetti has celebrated the profession of editorial cartooning and the men and women whose wit and artistry hold both politicians and the public to account, asking us to think, to discuss and often to amend our behavior.
Lee Judge of the Kansas City Star is the 2009 first place winner for his “Price of Gas,” a stark and poignant anti-war statement depicting a soldier’s helmet perched on a rifle. Honorable mentions went to Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal Constitution for “Day One” in which President Obama sits at his desk taping together the U.S. Constitution and Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily for his biting critique of the banking scandal and the victimization of the American taxpayer.
The 2009 Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition Awards and Reception honoring Judge, Luckovich and Ramirez will be held on Thursday, April 16 in the college’s Hokin Annex Gallery, 623 S. Wabash Ave. A live auction of this year’s winners will be held during the event. A silent auction of recent images drawn and signed by past Fischetti winners, many of them also recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, are also available that evening, a separate collection from the on-line gallery. To R.S.V.P. for the event call 312-369-6600. New this year is an online auction of political cartoons.
Lee Judge has been with the Kansas City Star since 1981. A native Californian, he began his career as a political cartoonist in 1976 with the Sacramento Union and then joined the San Diego Union before moving to Missouri. His work has appeared in newspapers and magazines nationally and has been featured on the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, Good Morning America and C-SPAN.
Judge, who has the distinction of winning the very first Fischetti (1981-82) with a cartoon that plays on the E.F. Hutton “everyone listens” ad to critique the late President Ronald Regan, is very happy about this second win. “The timing is wonderful,” he says. “My job has recently become part-time and to win a prestigious, national award like this gives encouragement not only to me, but to the people who fought to keep my cartoons in the paper.
“Editorial cartooning is struggling to survive, not because it lacks popularity, but because it’s often not deemed absolutely crucial. I strongly disagree. If we’re in a battle for readers, why get rid of the one person on a staff best equipped to compete with television and internet? The support Columbia College Chicago has shown for the cartooning community has always been appreciated and I’d like to thank them on behalf of all the cartoonists they’ve done so much to help and encourage. I also appreciate the type of cartoon they chose to honor: one with a serious message. I hope this award makes it easier for me and my colleagues to get work with strong content published in the future.
“Columbia has done an outstanding job of honoring John Fischetti’s memory and I’m very honored to be a part of the community of wonderfully eclectic artists who have been recognized with this award.”
Two of Judge’s earlier cartoons are available at the new Fischetti online auction of political cartoons.
Honorable mention awardee Mike Luckovich has been with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1989 and during his tenure there has been honored with two Pulitzer Prizes (1995, 2006). Prior to this he cartooned for the New Orleans Times – Picayune and the Greenville News. Luckovich, who adds this Fischetti nod to a long list of national awards, is the most frequently reprinted cartoonist in Newsweek magazine and is syndicated in 150 newspapers. In 2006 his book of cartoons “Four More Wars was published by. Luckovich appreciates the Fischetti honor and hopes that people “look at my cartoons to help them put things in perspective in a humorous way.”
Michael Ramirez was the 2008 first place Fischetti winner for his “Obama Easter Island” cartoon; within weeks he landed his second Pulitzer Prize. Senior editor and editorial cartoonist for Investor’s Business Daily since 2006, Ramirez credits editorial cartooning for its ability to stimulate public discourse and contribute to the democratic process. Before joining IBD, he was with Copley News Service and his work was seen worldwide in more than 450 newspapers and magazines. From 1997-2005, Ramirez was editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. He is a frequent guest on news broadcast such as CNN International and the BBC.
The Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition is named after John Fischetti, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist whose work has graced the pages of, among others, the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Daily News and the New York Herald Tribune. The Competition and Fischetti Endowment at Columbia College Chicago was conceived shortly after his passing in 1980 as a memorial to the man whose enthusiasm for his profession and generosity of spirit won him countless friends. Proceeds from all auction sales go to support the Fischetti scholarship. More information on the professional competition and the Fischetti scholars is available online.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to nearly 12,500 students in over 120 undergraduate and graduate programs, including film & video, art & design, arts management, television, radio, early childhood education, music, dance, interactive multimedia – all within a rigorous liberal arts context. Founded in 1890 as a communications school, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a “hands-on minds-on” approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D., Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Columbia is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is accredited as a teacher training institution by the Illinois State Board of Education.
