Best cartoons on international affairs
AWARD YEAR: 2005
AWARD NAME: The Thomas Nast Award 2005 (shared)
RECIPIENT: Clay Bennett (shared with Mike Luckovich)
AFFILIATION: The Christian Science Monitor
HONORED WORK: Best Cartoons
The controversy over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed reminded judges of the emotional power of the drawn idea. In such a charged atmosphere, judges divided the award between the best practitioners of the soft and of the hard sell: Bennett of The Christian Science Monitor and Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The chief editorial writer of The Christian Science Monitor put it best about Bennett: “His subjects are lampooned, not harpooned, in a deadpan style somewhere between Buster Keaton and Franz Kafka.” Typical was his drawing of the United States as a construction worker busily nailing himself into a closed room while nation-building.
If Bennett makes the reader think, Luckovich is more likely to elicit a wince. In a year when many cartoonists went for the Bush jugular, he did it memorably. His most biting work was that of Uncle Sam as a blindfolded torturer beside a skeleton and a stack of skulls. He wields a whip over the world, saying, “Last Chance. Say you still respect me.”
This award was shared with Clay Bennett. Click here to see that award page.
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