Finalist: The Plain Dealer, by Jeff Darcy
Nominated Work
January 25, 2013
Dear Judges:
The Plain Dealer's Jeff Darcy goes after events of the day with a mix of pathos, humor and the kind of healthy skepticism that is a must for a sharp cartoonist.
In 2012, mass shootings were a huge story nationally that also touched The Plain Dealer's own circulation area. A shooting at Chardon High School, just 30 miles east of Cleveland, left three students dead and a fourth accused of pulling the trigger. Not long afterward came the shootings in a Colorado movie theater. In a series of powerful cartoons, two of which appeared only a couple of days apart, Jeff offered Cleveland-area readers, and online fans nationwide, a strong dose of outrage at the events, at America's love affair with guns and at Congress' inaction.
After the Newtown tragedy, his cartoon of a distraught Santa and children generated more than 1,000 comments, likes, thumbs-ups and star ratings on Cleveland.com and on the national syndication website Cagle Post, where it also appeared.
Jeff also found new and inventive ways to engage readers and keep them interested - and chuckling - during the seemingly interminable presidential campaign that took hold of Ohio early on and didn't let it go until Election Day. Many of these cartoons grabbed the national imagination, too. A week before the Nov. 6 election, producers of "Meet the Press" chose to broadcast to millions of viewers the "Take me to your leaders" Ohio cartoon included in this portfolio.
Race relations, strife in the Middle East and the fate of the humble Twinkle also provided targets for Jeff's pointed pen last year.
Seventeen editorial cartoonists and their interpreters - visiting Cleveland on a State Department tour -- requested autographed copies of the Benghazi/Arab Frost cartoon included in this package to take back to their publications in Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Morocco. The Cleveland Council on World Affairs asked to display the original during its speaker's series in Cleveland's historic Union Club.
Jeff Darcy's wisdom and whimsy have made him a cornerstone of The Plain Dealer and of the daily routine for hundreds of thousands of readers in Northeast Ohio - and far beyond.
I proudly nominate Jeff Darcy for the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.
Debra Adams Simmons
Editor, The Plain Dealer
Nominated Work
Biography
Jeff Darcy joined The Plain Dealer in 1993 as a cartoonist and illustrator for the Opinion pages.