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Newsday's Walt Handelsman wins Pulitzer

BY KATIE THOMAS | katie.thomas@newsday.com

April 17, 2007

Facing gloomy predictions for the future of his craft, newspaper cartoonist Walt Handelsman decided to stretch himself and try something new.

In late 2005, Handelsman set down his pen and reached for a mouse, shutting himself in a home office for days on end as he learned to convert his biting newspaper cartoons into animated shorts. He even gave up golf for a year to teach himself the basics of computer animation.

His series of political spoofs brought Handelsman's caricatures of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Hillary Rodham Clinton and others to life - and were an instant hit on Newsday.com. Those animated cartoons helped him win his second Pulitzer, announced yesterday at Columbia University.

"I spent a whole year doing these animations, teaching myself, trying to change my brain," Handelsman said yesterday. He estimates the spots, most less than a minute long, take roughly 50 hours to complete.

Handelsman's foray into animated cartoons - 24 of which have been featured on Newsday.com - is just the latest twist in a 27-year career built on clever penstrokes and deft wit. When Handelsman, 50, started at Newsday in 2001, editorial page editor James Klurfeld remembers the cartoonist promising, "Just give me time to connect with people. "

Klurfeld had long been a fan of Handelsman, and described him as one of the few editorial cartoonists who "makes me laugh out loud. "

"Over the last six years, he's become part of the fabric of life not just at Newsday, but on Long Island," Klurfeld told Newsday staff yesterday, shortly after the prizes were announced.

A Baltimore native, Handelsman got his start in editorial cartooning by freelancing pieces to newspapers while working at an advertising firm in Baltimore. In 1982, he got a full-time job as a cartoonist for a chain of Baltimore and Washington suburban weeklies, then moved to the Scranton Times in Pennsylvania in 1985. Four years later, he joined the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a job he held until 2001, when he was hired by Newsday.

In 1997, he won his first Pulitzer for a collection of 20 cartoons, many of which skewered the 1996 presidential candidates. He also has won two National Headliner Awards, the Society for Professional Journalists Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Scripps Howard National Journalism award. He is the author of eight collections of editorial cartoons and illustrated a children's book, "Mallory's Moving and Her Monkey is Missing," published in 1995.

Handelsman provides all of the voices for his animations, ranging from a high-pitched Hillary Clinton to a gruff Dick Cheney. He drafted his wife, Jodie, and his two sons - Billy, 12, and James, 15 - as editors and participants. Billy barks like a dog in one cartoon, James helps with the technical equipment, and Jodie reviews endless versions of the animations, often in the middle of the night.

"He just threw it all on the computer and it just clicked," Jodie Handelsman said.

Handelsman's animations soared to the top of Newsday.com's "most e-mailed" list and caught the attention of a dwindling fellowship of newspaper cartoonists. Many publications have eliminated editorial cartoonists, contending they are a luxury in a struggling industry.

Mike Luckovich, editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, admires Handelsman's ability to adapt. He likes his voices, too. "His are far and above what any other cartoonist is doing animationwise," Luckovich said. "They're just wacky and fun, and he's got really good timing."