Jake Thompson, a junior in advertising at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, is this year's winner of the AAEC/John Locher Memorial Award.
According to Thompson, even though he has always enjoyed comics, in particular the work of Bill Watterson, he did not actively begin cartooning until he studied abroad in Scotland where he illustrated for Edinburgh University's newspaper, The Student.
He will receive an all-expense paid trip to this year's AAEC convention in Seattle where he will meet professional editorial cartoonists and attend meetings and workshops.
The AAEC/John Locher Memorial Award was founded in 1986 by members of AAEC, who felt the need to establish an award that would not only honor the memory of John Locher, the late son of Dick and Mary Locher, but would also help discover young cartoonists and stimulate interest in editorial cartooning among college-age students In North America.
