Last year, David Pennell overcame his fear of submitting a cartoon to the student newspaper. This year, his editorial cartoons won him a national award.

Pennell placed first in editorial cartoons printed last year in The Daily Eastern News.

The Associated Collegiate Press, which is the oldest and largest national membership organization for college student journalists, gave the award.

“I was pretty shocked,” Pennell said about winning. “I didn’t really expect to get first in it. It was exciting.”

A month ago Pennell, a junior political science major, said he didn’t know the ACP existed.

“I didn’t know the contest was going on until somebody told me I was a finalist in it,” he said.

Pennell beat out Philip McFee, the cartoonist for the Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Mike Ramsey, the cartoonist for the State News at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

“The other two finalists were good, they were really well done,” Pennell said.

Pennell’s win, however, did not surprise DEN Adviser Joe Gisondi.

“He’s amazing,” Gisondi said. “I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t become an editorial cartoonist (professionally) if that’s something he desires.”

The award-winning cartoon shows a sketch of President George W. Bush and the President of Iran smoking cigars together. The resulting second-hand smoke forms an atom-bomb cloud. Underneath the two figures are the words, “Blowin’ Smoke.”

It’s images like the above that make Pennell so good, Gisondi said.

“He understands complex issues and is able to simplify them without using any words,” he said.

Pennell has come a long way since the day last September when he first walked into the newsroom in Buzzard Hall.

“I’ve always wanted to have something in print, as most cartoonists will tell you that’s really the whole point,” Pennell said about what finally made him decide to submit a cartoon. “I figured the worst thing that would happen would be that they didn’t like it, they wouldn’t print it and I could just try again.”