Jack Higgins

 
 

Born and raised on Chicago's South Side, my attraction to local politics wasn't by any action of my own, but by the political pull my mother had. That is, the very same doctor's hands that yanked me into this world also delivered Mayor Richard M. Daley.                 


Fast forward to the present. I can hardly believe it, but I’ve been drawing editorial and political cartoons for over 30 years now, so it looks like it’s time for a retrospective. I started out drawing cartoons professionally on the Daily Northwestern (Northwestern University) in 1978, then I went to the Chicago Sun-Times in 1981, and shortly after that they brought me on board full time (1984). In 1989, I won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning


I've been lucky to have filed cartoons for the Sun-Times from all over the world, including the Soviet Union, Hungary, Ireland, and Cuba. Who knew? Become a cartoonist, and see the world. I’ve covered five political conventions and Super Bowl XX (the Chicago Bears were there, of course). And, I've been on Good Morning America, Today Show, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, CNN, Headline News, Fox Thing in the Morning, Chicago’s NBC, CBS & Fox affiliates, and Canada’s CBC Morning.


The portraits that I did of John F. Kennedy during my college years are now part of the permanent collection of the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. My work has been reprinted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Newsweek, Slate, The Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine, and Mad Magazine. Also, I’ve appeared numerous times in the annual publication, The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year


I’m a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts), and have a degree in Economics (really), but my passion is cartooning. I started to hone my craft while I was in college. No, not by doodling in Economics class - I took an elective in drawing - and once I started there was no turning back.


My wife, Missy, and I are happily married. And at current count, we have five kids. We live outside of Chicago, in one of the ‘burbs, but I am and I will always be a Chicagoan.

Chicago is My Kind of ‘Toon

Awards

2009, 2007, 1995, 1993

Herman Kogan Award, Chicago Bar Association


2004

Sanctae Crucis Award, College of the Holy Cross


2003, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1994, 1992, 1987, 1984

Peter Lisagor Award, Society of Professional Journalists


2000, 1997

The Best of the Press, Illinois Press Association


1998, 1988

Sigma Delta Chi Award for Editorial Cartooning


1998

John Fischetti Award


1996

Illinois Journalist of the Year


1994

Robert F. Kennedy Award Finalist


1989

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning


1988

First Prize, International Salon of Cartoons (Montreal)

Alumni Medal, St. Ignatius College Prep


1987

Award for Outstanding Commentary, Chicago Association of Black Journalists


1986

Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Editorial Cartooning

Contact me at jhiggins@suntimes.com.

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