Judith Greenaway

DAVID ROWE: CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR

David Rowe: Cartoonist of the Year with the  Gold Stanley Award.
Photos: Grant Brown

Australian Financial Review cartoonist David Rowe has been named Cartoonist Of The Year at the 33rd Stanley Awards held on Saturday night at Old Parliament House in Canberra.

Voted by his peers – members of the Australian Cartoonists Association – Rowe headed a top field of cartoonists for the Gold Stanley Award that included Christopher Downes, Mark Knight, Glen Le Lievre, Judy Nadin and Cathy Wilcox.

Rowe’s fifth Gold Stanley Award was presented to him by Ann Telnaes and renowned animator Nancy Beiman.  Nancy and Ann were special guests from the US; Nancy is a multi-award-winning animator and Ann is a political cartoonist with The Washington Post, has won a Pulitzer  Prize and is the current Cartoonist of the Year in the US.

Nancy Beiman and Ann Telnaes
Photo : Grant Brown

Rowe’s win capped off a great evening for him and his family as he was also earlier awarded the Bronze Stanley Award for Editorial/Political Cartoonist.

Judy Nadin (awarded Best Caricaturist) Judy has won this category two years in a row. She won Cartoon of the Year at the 2017 Rotary Cartoon Awards.
Photo: Nat Karmichael

Other bronze Stanley Award winners included Peter Viska (Animator Cartoonist), Judy Nadin (for her second consecutive Caricaturist award), Jules Faber (Children’s Book Illustrator), Torkan creator Roger Fletcher (Comic Book Artist), Gary Clark (Comic Strip Cartoonist for a remarkable 14th time), Anton Emdin (Illustrator) and Peter Player (Single Gag Cartoonist).

Jules Faber (awarded Best Children’s Book Illustrator) is the current President of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association.  Gary Clark (awarded Best Comic Strip Cartoonist) has been drawing “Swamp” for 37 years; this was his 14th Stanley Award for the strip, which appears nationally.

Roger Fletcher awarded Best Comic Book Artist) Roger has been drawing the medieval action strip, “Torkan” in the Sunday Telegraph since 1976.
Photo: Nat Karmichael

The Jim Russell Award for outstanding service to Australian cartooning was presented to Gary Chaloner for his tireless work and promotion of local comic book artists.

The Stanley Awards are named in honour of Stan Cross, considered to be the “Godfather” of Australian Cartooning. The statuette is modelled on the characters in his famous cartoon, “For Gorsake Stop Laughing, This is Serious!”

In a fitting tribute, the late Bill Leak, political cartoonist from The Australian, and the late Murray Ball, creator of Footrot Flats, were inducted into the Australian Cartooning Hall Of Fame. Bill’s son, Johannes, accepted the award on behalf of the Leak family.

The awards were instigated in 1985 by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association, which has, since 1924, been representing the interests of Australian cartoonists, making it the world’s oldest organisation for cartoonists, illustrators and animators.

The Stanley Awards were held in conjunction with the Museum Of Australian Democracy’s Behind The Lines annual political cartoons exhibition.

For more information about the Australian Cartoonists Association and the Stanley Awards visit:

http://cartoonists.org.au/