In 1972, he won his first of three Pulitzers at age 24 while working at the Richmond News Leader. He later won two more in 1978 and 1985.

He created his first comic strip in 1969 when he took a $120 a week job at a weekly paper in Chapel Hill, NC. In 1977 he created the popular comic strip "Shoe". He joined the Chicago Tribune in 1982.

Jeff MacNelly, the Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist and creator of the comic strip "Shoe" passed away June 8, 2000 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He had been battling lymphoma since last year. He is survived by his wife, Susan and two sons, Daniel and Matthew. A third son died in 1996 in a rock climbing accident. He was 24 at the time. Jeff MacNelly was 52 years old.