Dick Locher

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Richard Earl Locher (born June 4, 1929), better known as Dick Locher, is a nationally syndicated cartoonist.

Locher was born in Dubuque, Iowa. After high school, he began studying art at the University of Iowa and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. While in Chicago, he became an assistant to Rick Yager, who was drawing Buck Rogers at the time. However, he left the job after few months to enlist in the Air Force, where he became a test pilot. While at the Air Force, he began freelancing for the Stars and Stripes.

In 1957, he began assisting Chester Gould on Dick Tracy, where he inked the figures and colored the Sunday strips. He also contributed to a story that was cited in Gould's 1959 Reuben award. He left the strip in 1961 to work on other areas, including starting an advertising company, where he worked on designing some of McDonald's characters.

Locher kept in touch with Chester Gould even after leaving the strip. In 1973, an editorial cartoonist position at Chicago Tribune opened up and Gould recommended Locher to take the position. Despite having no experience in editorial cartooning, the Tribune hired Locher and still draws in the field to this day.

Locher returned to work on Dick Tracy in 1983, when its previous cartoonist, Rick Fletcher, died. That same year, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.

Locher currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Mary.