By Alan Gardner
Lee Judge,
editorial cartoonist for the Kansas City Star, is this year's winner of
the John Fischetti award for excellence in editorial cartooning. The winning
cartoon shows a soldier's helmet perched on a rifle with the caption
“Price of Gas.” This is the second such win by Lee. He won the very first
Fischetti award back in 1982.
“The timing is wonderful,” Lee 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?”
Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez were named as honorable mentions.
