Lake County Journal cartoonist Tom Beck recently swept the Best Use of Humor category at the 2025 Northern Illinois Newspaper Association Awards.

Beck has placed in this category in years past, but this is the first time he has swept the category.

Taking first place was his cartoon titled “Biden’s Pardons.” The judges commented that “I laughed reflexively. That’s how you know it’s good.”

In second place was his cartoon titled “Summer IL-lympics 2024.”

“It’s a challenge to make a multi-joke cartoon work, but he stuck the landing,” the judges commented. “They built on each other with a good mix of mundane to political to historic (sorry Sox) ... and something about the setup accentuated a novel and visually hilarious version of the old trop of taxes (the guy looking up is drawn perfectly)”

In third place was Beck’s cartoon titled “Bob Uecker Eulogy.”

“OK, I’m not crying, you’re crying,” the judges commented. “Excellent callback to one of his refrains. Striking drawing too.”

Beck’s editor, Joan Oliver, said she was not surprised at Beck’s outstanding showing.

“Tom is very, very good at what he does,” Oliver said. “We’re honored to have him in our newspaper, particularly at a time when many newspapers are no longer publishing political cartoons. Clearly, he adds something special to our Opinion page.”