Luckovich Wins Top Reuben Prize -- Rare for Editorial Cartoonist

By: Dave Astor Mike Luckovich, who won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning last month, has now also won the National Cartoonists Society's 60th annual Reuben Award as top cartoonist of the year.

Luckovich, of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Creators Syndicate, received the Reuben on Saturday night in Chicago. His 2005 output was highlighted by a cartoon in which he inked the word "WHY?" with the names of all 2,000 American soldiers who had died in Iraq as of last October (the total now exceeds 2,400).

Editorial cartoonists have won the Reuben only occasionally since it was first presented in 1946; most of the recipients have been comic cartoonists.

The other four Reuben finalists this year were comic cartoonists Bill Amend ("FoxTrot"/Universal Press Syndicate), Dave Coverly ("Speed Bump"/Creators),
Brian Crane ("Pickles"/Washington Post Writers Group), and Dan Piraro ("Bizarro"/King Features Syndicate).

NCS awards were also presented Saturday night in 12 division categories, some of them newspaper-related. According to Reuben.org, winners included Jim Borgman of The Cincinnati Enquirer and King for editorial cartooning, "9
Chickweed Lane" creator Brooke McEldowney of United Media for comic strips, "Ballard Street" cartoonist Jerry Van Amerongen of Creators for comic panels, and Bob Rich for newspaper illustration.

The magazine gag division was won by Glenn McCoy and the greeting card division by Gary McCoy. The brothers collaborate on "The Flying McCoys" comic for Universal, while Glenn also does "The Duplex" comic for Universal
as well as editorial cartoons for the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat and Universal.

Ralph Steadman won for book illustration while also receiving the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award, named after the creator of "Terry and the Pirates" and "Steve Canyon."

And the Silver T-Square for service to cartooning was won by Dick Locher, who does editorial cartoons and the "Dick Tracy" comic for Tribune Media Services.