The Estes Valley Voice is thrilled to have Dick Mulhern join our team as our editorial cartoonist. Dick studied art at the University of Northern Colorado and says he was able to “squeeze in a four-year degree into six.”
Dick is a trained portrait artist who has had a career as a teacher, grant writer, and a business owner. For many years he owned Park Express, a shipping service in Estes Park. He also worked at Covenant Heights Bible Camp as the program director.
Dick and his wife, Liz, (yes Dick and Liz like Burton and Taylor, they get that “all the time”) have been married 47 years and are the parents of three adult sons who attended Estes Park schools.
Over the years they have lived in Alaska, Arizona, and Colorado. The Mulherns have been in Estes Park since 2013, but this is their second time making the Estes Valley their home.
Dick has been active in politics and served on the District Advisory and Accountability Committee for the Estes Park School District. He was recently appointed to the Estes Park Planning Commission.
Editorial cartoons can serve as a mirror and a frame. Sometimes they are lighthearted and sometimes they are biting. Using satire which combines humor, irony, exaggeration, ridicule, and pathos, editorial cartoons help us to see ourselves — for better or for worse — and to laugh at ourselves and at the absurdities we encounter.
The editorial cartoon epitomizes the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Editorial cartoons have played an important role in American journalism dating back to the founding of our country. The first Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons was awarded to Rollin Kirby of the New York World in 1922. It was around that time that the expression “see you in the funny pages” became a snappy way people said “see you later.”
Dick’s cartoons will provide the Estes Valley Voice with another way to tell and share our story as a community. And I am sure we will be seeing ourselves and one another in the “funny pages.”
Welcome to the team! — Patti Brown, Editor
Love the satire! I live in Arizona and it could apply here as well????