Wizards From Oz
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We’ve been showcasing some Australian cartoonists lately. Last week Friday, which is something like next week Tuesday in Down Under time, we celebrated the three Walkley Award finalists for Cartoon of the Year. Then this past weekend we reported on David Rowe and the other winners and honorees from the ACA’s Stanley Awards. Today we’re going to empty our queue of Aussie cartoonists.
Financial Review is Bragging on David Rowe’s Gold Stanley
The Australian Financial Review’s editorial cartoonist David Rowe has won the Australian Cartoonists Association’s Gold Stanley for best cartoonist of the year for a record-extending 11th time.
The Australian Financial Review profiles their own David Rowe.
Rowe was also awarded the Bronze Stanley award for best caricaturist at the association’s 41st Annual Stan Cross Awards, held in Hobart on Saturday night. It was the 15th time Rowe had taken out the award.
It is Rowe’s third consecutive Gold Stanley, an award he first won in 2002.
Rowe also took out the outstanding cartoon award at the Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism in August, for his cartoon titled The Coronation of Elon.
Tony Lopes also a Stanley Winner
The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader has a congratulatory article about Tony Lopes winning.
Sylvania Heights cartoonist Tony Lopes pictured in his studio. He has won his 15th Stanley Award, at the Australian Cartoonists Association.
Unfortunately it is behind a paywall for me, fortuitously Comics Kingdom’s isn’t.
At Comics Kingdom Alex Garcia cheers Tony’s Stanley win for comic strip that KFS distributes over here.
Big congratulations are in order for Insanity Streak creator Tony Lopes, who just took home his 15th Stanley Award at the 2025 Australian Cartoonists Association ceremony — a record-setting milestone that cements his place among the greats of cartooning.
Often described as the “Oscars of Australian Cartooning,” the Stanley Awards have been recognizing excellence in the field since 1985. This year’s event was held at the historic Hadley’s Oriental Hotel in Hobart, where Tony was honored once again for Insanity Streak, his long-running daily comic strip that continues to deliver laughs to millions of readers worldwide.
In his acceptance speech, Tony reflected on how much has changed since he began:
“When I started almost 30 years ago, newspapers were thriving, the internet was dial-up, and my parents were hoping I’d get a real job — well, two out of three have changed.”
And, in typical Tony fashion, he couldn’t resist a good laugh at his own expense:
“Fifteen Stanleys. I’ve now won more awards than I have working pens. To be fair, though, I keep dropping the Stanleys on the pens.”
Legendary Mercury Cartoonist Vince O’Farrell
At the same time that The Mercury hailed its cartoonist Kev Bailey being inducted into the Australian Cartooning Hall of Fame (see our Stanley Awards report) Natalie Croxon for the same paper was paying tribute to former Mercury cartoonist Vince O’Farrell (or here):
Vince began working at the Mercury in 1986 after contributing cartoons to the Innisfail Advocate and the Cairns Post, and stayed at the masthead until 2013.
An award-winning artist more than 20 times over, Vince built a reputation that transcended NSW and even Australia: his cartoon of a weeping Statue of Liberty in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US garnered acclaim from around the world.
He is in the Kennedy Foundation’s Hall of Honour [link added]for contributions to journalism, and the organisation named its annual award for outstanding cartoon after him.
Vince had bipolar disorder, which eventually stopped him from working, but [his sister] Karen said that when he was well, he was able to define an issue in just one image in a way that was “incredible”.
He died in 2015.
“He had a talent for transforming complex political and social topics into hilarious and clever cartoons that hit home; he did this without fear or favour, and no politician was spared,” she said.
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