The Past 6 Weeks, Part 2: Judging the Rotary Cartoon Awards.

2016 Rotary Cartoon of the Year and Winner of the Open Category by Chris "Roy" Taylor.

Here's a little secret I have been keeping from a lot of people for a while now!

On Wednesday 29th June this year, deep within the bowels of Brisbane City Hall a group of cartoon lovers met to decide the fate of a nation. Well, not exactly. It was decreed that The Rotary Cartoon Awards, held annually at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery, Coffs Harbour, for the past 28 years was to be judged in Brisbane in 2016.  And it was a very great honour indeed for me to have been selected as one of the Judges. When you know that you are keeping the esteemed company of some of the Judges of the past, like the late Norman (Mr Squiggle) Hetherington and Jim Russell; Bob Carr, Natasha Stott-Despoja and Peter Beattie; Barry Croker and Jon English, and many, many others, it's better than receiving a knighthood! 

Joining me in this exalted task was Rotary Cartoon Awards' co-founder Tom Hamiton-Foster, Brisbane ABC radio announcer Steve Austin, and Sunday Mail cartoonist Brett Lethbridge (when his Editor was unable to attend). And overseeing the whole process, to ensure a fair vote was recorded and that no punch-ups or arguments took place, was Fran Stephenson, the Chair from the Bunker Cartoon Gallery.    

Winner of the Best Cartoon with a Political Theme by John "Polly" Farmer. One of my personal favourites of the afternoon.

To be really honest, it was a lot of fun. Much give and take was needed to obtain a unanimous consensus to judge the winners, but in the end I think we were all both fair and satisfied with our decisions. The Awards Night in Coffs Harbour was held last Saturday night (16th July), so the decisions we made in late June are now official and made public...

Here are the complete list of Winners:
Best Cartoon with a Political Theme
WINNER: John "Polly" Farmer (see above)
MERIT: Christopher Downes

Best Cartoon with an Open Theme
WINNER: Chris "Roy" Taylor
MERIT: Tony Lopes

Best Cartoon with a Sports Theme
WINNER: Chris "Roy" Taylor
MERIT: Lindsay Foyle

Best Comic Strip
WINNER: Shane Hosking
MERIT: Alan Rose

Best Caricature of a Well-Known Person
WINNER: Xavier Ghazi
MERIT: David Rowe

Special 2016 Topic: Social Media
WINNER: Gary Clark
MERIT: Tony Lopes

Rotary Cartoon of the Year: Chris "Roy" Taylor's Open Category Cartoon

Here's one we didn't have to argue too much about: Winner of Best Caricature of a Well-Known Person by Xavier Ghazi.