Pope won the best cartoon award for Rollout de Vax, a take on the federal government's challenges with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

The cartoon is also featured in the Behind the Lines exhibition.

"During the 2021 Tour de France, an unthinking bystander caused a major accident with a cardboard sign, creating a viral moment that cartoonists put to good use. In this instance, David Pope uses it to point out the federal government's role in sourcing vaccines for the states to administer," the exhibition says.

Pope has also been repeatedly nominated for Walkley awards, and also won in 2015 for an iconic cartoon drawn in response to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France.

That cartoon was viewed by millions through social media and in the words of the Walkley foundation "became one of the most recognised responses to the shootings".

Pope has also won 12 Stanley Awards for cartooning, including the Gold Stanley for cartoonist of the year three times.

Pope, who grew up in the ACT, joined The Canberra Times as a staff artist in 2008 when he replaced Geoff Pryor.

In an article published in 2019, Pope likens himself to a jester (or a clown or a professional fool) licensed to poke fun. He speaks hard truth to power, even as he makes you smile.

As he put it: "You are part of the paper but the role is also to be a bit of an outsider, to wander off and not just be a slave to the news of the day - to wander off into left field or right field."

Pope regularly appears in The Canberra Times and many other ACM publications on Tuesdays to Sundays. Canberra Times digital subscribers can get an exclusive early look at Pope's daily cartoon through a regular newsletter.

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