April 23, 2010

Alum wins Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning

Matt Wuerker BA ’79 won the 2010 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning work for POLITICO.

Matt Wuerker BA ’79 won the 2010 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.

“Wuerker is funny — the essential prerequisite for a cartoonist. But his cartoons work for other reasons,” said POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris. “He assumes and appreciates the intelligence of his audience and never forgets, even when his subjects do, the spirit of public interest that should animate the work of important people in Washington.”

Over the past 25 years, Wuerker, a political cartoonist and illustrator for the Politico, has published cartoons in newspapers across the country. He was one of three finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.

On his natural attraction to political cartoons, Wuerker said, “It’s a small niche, this place where political opinion and art get to mix in the editorial pages of the nation’s newspapers. Where else do you get to be a combination of Dr. Seuss and Noam Chomsky?”

The Herblock Prize is awarded annually by The Herb Block Foundation for “distinguished examples of editorial cartooning that exemplify the courageous standard set by Herblock.”