A big congrats to Jake Thrasher for winning the 2018 Mark of Excellence from Society of Professional Journalism! The SPJ award honors the best in student journalism. Thrasher was a finalist for last year’s Courage in Cartooning Award from the CRNI after receiving death threats for an anti-KKK cartoon in his university newspaper.

And in a “welcome to the real world” coda, the cartoonist noted — in the same email announcement about the SPJ award — his position at the local Mississippi newspaper, the Oxford Eagle, was eliminated after the publisher left and the budget cut. So — welcome to the business, Jake!