Walt Handelsman has won the 2007 Cartooning Puliztzer “For his stark, sophisticated cartoons and his impressive use of zany animation.” It was his second win in the category (He also won in 1997.) Ray Bradbury and John Coltrane were awarded special Pulitzers. Mormac McCarthy won the fiction prize for The Road.

Editor and Publisher had more on his win:

A late-2005 crash course in Web animation helped Walt Handelsman win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning today.

“I submitted 10 still cartoons and 10 animations,” said the Newsday of Melville, N.Y., staffer, adding that “the judges mentioned the animation” when they praised his 2006 portfolio of work.

Handelsman taught himself animation starting in November 2005 and then had the first of his many animations posted on Newsday.com in February 2006. “I worked so hard on those things,” said the cartoonist, when reached this afternoon by E&P.