MacNelly, Jeffrey Kenneth

▪ 2001

“Jeff” 

      American cartoonist (b. Sept. 17, 1947, New York, N.Y.—d. June 8, 2000, Baltimore, Md.), won three Pulitzer Prizes for his editorial cartoons and created the popular daily comic strip Shoe. After graduating (1965) from Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., MacNelly attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he contributed cartoons to the student newspaper. He also drew cartoons for a local newspaper, the Chapel Hill Weekly; the editor, Jim Shumaker, would become the inspiration for the character of P. Martin Shoemaker in Shoe. Leaving college without taking a degree, MacNelly joined the Richmond (Va.) News Leader in 1970, and only 16 months later, in 1972, he won the first of his Pulitzer Prizes. In 1977 he began drawing Shoe, which portrayed a group of humorous, often sarcastic, birds who ran a newspaper; the comic strip was highly successful, eventually appearing in about 1,000 newspapers. MacNelly won his second Pulitzer in 1978, while still at the News Leader. He joined the Chicago Tribune in 1982, earning his third Pulitzer three years later. Beginning in 1987, he drew illustrations for the syndicated column of humorist Dave Barry, and, from 1993 to 1997, he drew the one-panel comic strip Pluggers. MacNelly was also twice the recipient of the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for cartoonist of the year, in 1978 and 1979.

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