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	Judges' Comments
	"In a difficult category in which to pick a winner, the difference in Peters’ work is that his meaning is instantly clear when you see the cartoon, and then you keep thinking about it. His range of topics and emotions impressed us."

The genius of Mike Peters’ cartoons is that he’s not satisfied if his sketches are just funny. That’s only the beginning of his measure of a great cartoon.

Besides making readers laugh, this former Pulitzer prizewinner insists on driving home a point, an insight. He also demands that his images and caricatures be memorable, that they stick in readers’ minds long after they’ve put their newspaper in the recycling bin.

It’s a tall order but, day after day, Mike impresses, infuriates, overwhelms, entertains and moves newspaper readers all across the country.

Whether he’s lampooning George Bush or Dick Cheney, damning Osama bin Laden or mourning the death of heroic firefighters, there’s no misunderstanding -- or forgetting -- Mike’s cartoons. They are powerful and compelling in ways words never could be.

A St. Louis native, Peters graduated from Washington University, worked in the Art Department of the Chicago Daily News, and joined the Dayton Daily News in 1969.

One of the attributes setting Cox Newspapers apart in the news business is its wealth of Pulitzer prizewinning editorial cartoonists.

They are:

1980, Don Wright, Miami News;
1981, Peters, Dayton Daily News;
1982, Ben Sargent, Austin, Tex., American-Statesman; and
1995, Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Constitution.