Locher/Dick Tracy. Autographed drawing illustrating the hero in profile + an old strip signed by the 3 authors. TBE+. A4 format + 35 X 17 cm Richard Earl Locher (1929 -2017) is an American cartoonist. He began his career in Chicago as an assistant to Rick Yager, who was drawing Buck Rogers at the time. However, he left his job after a few months to enlist in the Air Force, where he became a test pilot. In 1957, he began assisting Chester Gould on Dick Tracy, but left the strip in 1961 to work in other areas, including setting up an advertising company, where he worked on character design for McDonald's. Locher kept in touch with Chester Gould even after leaving the strip. In 1973, a job as a newspaper cartoonist at the Chicago Tribune opened up, and Gould recommended Locher take it. Despite having no experience in press cartooning, the Tribune hired Locher. Locher retired on May 1, 2013. Locher, working with his son John, returned to work on Dick Tracy in 1983, when his previous cartoonist, Rick Fletcher, died. That same year, he won the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning. In 2009, Jim Brozman took over drawing Dick Tracy; however, Locher continued to write the scripts and contributed sketches.In 2011, Locher retired from Dick Tracy and handed over the reins to the new creative team of Mike Curtis and Joe Staton. Locher's final Dick Tracy strip was published on Sunday, March 13, 2011.