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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With Mike Luckovich
Aired January 26, 2003 - 09:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's time now to draw some criticism with editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: That was a pun.
MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST, ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Very good. I like that one. I'm going to remember that.
COLLINS: I wrote that myself.
LUCKOVICH: I'm going to remember that.
MOLINEAUX: He's a Pulitzer prize winner. He draws for the "Atlanta Journal Constitution" and he's here to show us some of his work and talk about another award-winning cartoonist, Bill Mauldin, who died this past week.
Let's talk about the issue of the day, which for an awful lot of people was the cold weather.
LUCKOVICH: I actually did -- as I'm sitting there, I just get hyper so I actually did two cartoons.
COLLINS: Oh, wow.
LUCKOVICH: This first one, you've got a wife talking to her kids and she's saying, "This must be a great Super Bowl. Your father's frozen in his chair." Literally.
MOLINEAUX: I think my living room's like that.
LUCKOVICH: You know, dress warmly for the Super Bowl this year.
And then, also, picking up on that winter theme and Iraq, I've got a weapons inspector is saying to another one, "Let's check his mittens." See they look suspicious, don't they?
MOLINEAUX: Those are pretty good mittens. And you did, in fact, end up combining Iraq and the cold weather.
LUCKOVICH: You know, I like to combine issues like that. So that just hit me, and I thought I'll do them both.
COLLINS: Now, can you do this in such a short amount of time just because you've been doing it for so long, or I mean, or do you stay really in the news? I mean, does that help too?
LUCKOVICH: You know, when I come in in the morning here, they tell me what the top issues are that the viewers have been voting on on CNN's Web site. And so it's mainly just panic. I don't want to end up -- I don't want to end up coming and showing Snoopy or something and saying, "I couldn't come up with anything else."
MOLINEAUX: Well, in the process, do you sort of go through an entire issue in your head and think of every little crack someone can come up with and then blow each up into a cartoon that's suddenly is very funny, when you take something very small and turn it into an entire panel?
LUCKOVICH: I don't know what the heck I do. I just get so nervous and I just start -- things just start going through my head.
COLLINS: We're wanting some analysis here.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, I have none. I just -- it's just this weird thing that I do.
MOLINEAUX: Let's take a look at some of what you've done over the past week. Of course, we have got the State of the Union coming up.
LUCKOVICH: Right, right. Yes, the cartoon I did on that, let's see, OK, we're showing that now. You know, I can hardly read the darn thing, but let's see. Oh, there we are. "I wondered who Democrats would get to deliver their State of the Union rebuttal." And you see it, it's a big, bloated whale carcass, labeled "U.S. economy." So that should speak volumes right there.
MOLINEAUX: OK. So that's going to be it, regardless, probably, right?
LUCKOVICH: Right. And that, of course, be on Tuesday. So I like to get an early start on that.
MOLINEAUX: That will be fresh for a few days.
LUCKOVICH: Right, right. And now, this past week, this is my toughest issue, abortion. I just -- it's just such a gut-wrenching thing. And so I did this cartoon. You see all these protesters, "down with Roe v. Wade," "target abortionists," "human at conception," and someone in the White House is saying, "Mr. President, your future Supreme Court nominees have arrived."
COLLINS: Yikes!
LUCKOVICH: Well, you know, it's not an easy issue to do a cartoon on.
MOLINEAUX: It's like hearing the word litmus test coming up in the next few months.
LUCKOVICH: Oh, I think so. Yes. MOLINEAUX: The cartoon world has lost a couple of big names.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, two greats. Al Hirschfeld, who drew for "The New York Times." He did a lot of the Broadway characters. What an artist. There's his stuff right there. You know, in just a few lines, he could capture somebody's likeness, and he was so good. And he passed away at 99. So he was able to draw his entire life, and he was good all the way up until he passed away.
MOLINEAUX: That's a lot of Ninas.
LUCKOVICH: A lot of Ninas, right.
MOLINEAUX: Sneak Nina's name into every single one of those.
LUCKOVICH: That's his daughter's name that he put in every cartoon.
MOLINEAUX: If you saw the Disney's new version of "Fantasia," they actually did their whole rendition of "Rhapsody in Blue" in the style of Al Hirschfeld set in New York. It was really spectacular, and the style came to life.
LUCKOVICH: I love his style. He was so great. And I heard him speak about three years ago in New York, and he reminded me of a medieval sorcerer, because he was -- he had these huge, bushy eyebrows and this silver, long beard. And it was just so neat to listen to him speak.
COLLINS: Well, and Bill Mauldin, too, another great loss. Was he an inspiration to you?
LUCKOVICH: Oh, gosh, yes. He was such a great cartoonist, and, of course, he did "Willie and Joe" during World War II.
MOLINEAUX: A populist.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, he was, and just a great idea man and a great cartoonist. Yes, this is one of his cartoons that he won the Pulitzer Prize for. And I got to meet him a couple of years ago at a convention. And he actually -- he actually signed a little drawing for my son, so that was really neat. So I'm going to miss both of those guys. They were really legends.
COLLINS: They certainly where.
MOLINEAUX: Mike Luckovich, thank you very much.
LUCKOVICH: Thank you for having me.
COLLINS: And thanks for your wonderful drawings, as always.
LUCKOVICH: Oh, you're welcome, Heidi.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 26, 2003 - 09:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's time now to draw some criticism with editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: That was a pun.
MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST, ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Very good. I like that one. I'm going to remember that.
COLLINS: I wrote that myself.
LUCKOVICH: I'm going to remember that.
MOLINEAUX: He's a Pulitzer prize winner. He draws for the "Atlanta Journal Constitution" and he's here to show us some of his work and talk about another award-winning cartoonist, Bill Mauldin, who died this past week.
Let's talk about the issue of the day, which for an awful lot of people was the cold weather.
LUCKOVICH: I actually did -- as I'm sitting there, I just get hyper so I actually did two cartoons.
COLLINS: Oh, wow.
LUCKOVICH: This first one, you've got a wife talking to her kids and she's saying, "This must be a great Super Bowl. Your father's frozen in his chair." Literally.
MOLINEAUX: I think my living room's like that.
LUCKOVICH: You know, dress warmly for the Super Bowl this year.
And then, also, picking up on that winter theme and Iraq, I've got a weapons inspector is saying to another one, "Let's check his mittens." See they look suspicious, don't they?
MOLINEAUX: Those are pretty good mittens. And you did, in fact, end up combining Iraq and the cold weather.
LUCKOVICH: You know, I like to combine issues like that. So that just hit me, and I thought I'll do them both.
COLLINS: Now, can you do this in such a short amount of time just because you've been doing it for so long, or I mean, or do you stay really in the news? I mean, does that help too?
LUCKOVICH: You know, when I come in in the morning here, they tell me what the top issues are that the viewers have been voting on on CNN's Web site. And so it's mainly just panic. I don't want to end up -- I don't want to end up coming and showing Snoopy or something and saying, "I couldn't come up with anything else."
MOLINEAUX: Well, in the process, do you sort of go through an entire issue in your head and think of every little crack someone can come up with and then blow each up into a cartoon that's suddenly is very funny, when you take something very small and turn it into an entire panel?
LUCKOVICH: I don't know what the heck I do. I just get so nervous and I just start -- things just start going through my head.
COLLINS: We're wanting some analysis here.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, I have none. I just -- it's just this weird thing that I do.
MOLINEAUX: Let's take a look at some of what you've done over the past week. Of course, we have got the State of the Union coming up.
LUCKOVICH: Right, right. Yes, the cartoon I did on that, let's see, OK, we're showing that now. You know, I can hardly read the darn thing, but let's see. Oh, there we are. "I wondered who Democrats would get to deliver their State of the Union rebuttal." And you see it, it's a big, bloated whale carcass, labeled "U.S. economy." So that should speak volumes right there.
MOLINEAUX: OK. So that's going to be it, regardless, probably, right?
LUCKOVICH: Right. And that, of course, be on Tuesday. So I like to get an early start on that.
MOLINEAUX: That will be fresh for a few days.
LUCKOVICH: Right, right. And now, this past week, this is my toughest issue, abortion. I just -- it's just such a gut-wrenching thing. And so I did this cartoon. You see all these protesters, "down with Roe v. Wade," "target abortionists," "human at conception," and someone in the White House is saying, "Mr. President, your future Supreme Court nominees have arrived."
COLLINS: Yikes!
LUCKOVICH: Well, you know, it's not an easy issue to do a cartoon on.
MOLINEAUX: It's like hearing the word litmus test coming up in the next few months.
LUCKOVICH: Oh, I think so. Yes. MOLINEAUX: The cartoon world has lost a couple of big names.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, two greats. Al Hirschfeld, who drew for "The New York Times." He did a lot of the Broadway characters. What an artist. There's his stuff right there. You know, in just a few lines, he could capture somebody's likeness, and he was so good. And he passed away at 99. So he was able to draw his entire life, and he was good all the way up until he passed away.
MOLINEAUX: That's a lot of Ninas.
LUCKOVICH: A lot of Ninas, right.
MOLINEAUX: Sneak Nina's name into every single one of those.
LUCKOVICH: That's his daughter's name that he put in every cartoon.
MOLINEAUX: If you saw the Disney's new version of "Fantasia," they actually did their whole rendition of "Rhapsody in Blue" in the style of Al Hirschfeld set in New York. It was really spectacular, and the style came to life.
LUCKOVICH: I love his style. He was so great. And I heard him speak about three years ago in New York, and he reminded me of a medieval sorcerer, because he was -- he had these huge, bushy eyebrows and this silver, long beard. And it was just so neat to listen to him speak.
COLLINS: Well, and Bill Mauldin, too, another great loss. Was he an inspiration to you?
LUCKOVICH: Oh, gosh, yes. He was such a great cartoonist, and, of course, he did "Willie and Joe" during World War II.
MOLINEAUX: A populist.
LUCKOVICH: Yes, he was, and just a great idea man and a great cartoonist. Yes, this is one of his cartoons that he won the Pulitzer Prize for. And I got to meet him a couple of years ago at a convention. And he actually -- he actually signed a little drawing for my son, so that was really neat. So I'm going to miss both of those guys. They were really legends.
COLLINS: They certainly where.
MOLINEAUX: Mike Luckovich, thank you very much.
LUCKOVICH: Thank you for having me.
COLLINS: And thanks for your wonderful drawings, as always.
LUCKOVICH: Oh, you're welcome, Heidi.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
