Tony Lopes, winner at the 2020 Stanley Awards!

Lopes' outstanding comic strip Insanity Streak has taken a top prize at Australia’s ‘Oscars’ of cartooning, winning the Best Comic Strip category of the Australian Cartoonists Association’s 2020 Stanley Awards. It is the 12th Stanley award Insanity Streak has received since it became a daily comic strip in 2000.

Lopes said it was a “rare privilege” to receive a coveted Stanley Award, the winners of which are voted on by industry peers. “Not every day you are blessed with a Stanley award. Grateful to be able to make people laugh by doing what I love.” he said.

Widely enjoyed by editors, colleagues and – most importantly – readers, ‘Insanity Streak’ reaches an audience of more than 5 million people each day. It appears in over 60 newspapers in Australia, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Malaysia and Thailand, to name a few. The Great British Card Company have launched a brand-new range of cards called LOPSIDED featuring Lopes’ artwork.

Tony Lopes developed a passion for cartooning as a child. While most other children his age were outside playing, Lopes preferred sitting in his compound studying the art from Warner Bros. cartoons and drawing silly little pictures.

Lopes sold his first cartoon at the age of 16 to a small niche publication called Sky & Space. The Editor at the time Jonathon Nally recalls their first meeting. “ He was a nervous, pimply, kind of dorky teenager but we used his cartoons anyway.” After studying fine arts, Lopes began the arduous task of making cartooning a career. While it proved difficult at the start, Lopes became a Photographer; it was during this time that the idea for Insanity Streak was brewing in his head.