As you probably noticed, my clock is on it's usual Mountain Slow Time this summer, and I'm right on schedule -- a might slow -- in posting the Honorary Cowpoke Award. My only excuse is pretty lame ... I've been developing a web site for my mom, who is sweet, old, and helpless. (Don't tell her I said that. She's also tough!)

All that out of the way, let's get to the good part.

This month's winner is not only good lookin' ...

This Guy Is HOT !

And so without further adieu let me introduce:

June '97
Honorary Cowpoke

About Ed Cleary

Ed Cleary is a what you might call an "outhouse poet" ... one of them fellers whose little wits of wisdom are destined to be immortalized by graffiti experts everywhere.

A retired Colorado cattle rancher, Ed presently hails from Arizona and is in the process of building a vintage airplane. He's been a logger, construction worker, flight radio-operator, naval air-crewman, USAF jet fighter pilot, editor of the flying safety magazine The Interceptor, illustrator, cartoonist, and western artist. How the old boy found time to get himself a wife, Joby, and to raise four children, we can only wonder.

It was after 20 years as a fighter pilot that Ed moved his family and "retired" to the beautiful Colorado Rockies to run a herd of mother cows and calves. In between the haying, ranching, and kid raising Ed continued painting and cartooning. "Everyone can't live in God's Country," he said. "And if I'm able to recreate a sampling of any part of this magnificent western scenery and its history that'll brighten up a wall in someone's home or office, then I've accomplished something. This is my goal, and if by other human standards it somehow falls into the category of art, then I guess that's a bonus."

Ed Cleary began his art career as an illustrator, creating editorial cartoons and drawing a comic strip for a daily newspaper. There, Ed says, is where his fascination for the study of the American Plains Indian first took root. His love of the outdoors and the American West is reflected in his original paintings, which hang in numerous private collections around the western states. He has shown at galleries in both Colorado and Arizona.

When their last child left for college is when Ed and Joby moved to Arizona, where Ed drew political cartoons for a local metro newspaper and continued to paint. One day a printer friend suggested that Ed should do cartoon postcards for the local "snowbird" traffic. Like a flash, The Laughin' Place Original Cartoon Postcards was conceived -- that was 15 years and millions of postcards ago.

My intended "quick" look at The Laughin' Place, Ed's company web site maintained by his daughter Cindy Fitchlee, took me over two hours. I couldn't drag myself away from reading the postcards and viewing his hilarious cartoons. Talk about an artist! And what a sense of humor. But don't take my word for it. Sneak a peek for yourself. Plan to spend a bit of time ... and, to have a grand ole belly laugh while you're at it.

The first cartoon below gave me an entirely different perspective on the old theory: Cold Hands -- Warm Heart. Having never inquired of his wife Joby, I've no idea how this cowpoke cartoonist fares with the "gentle sex" ... but, if his cartoon is any measuring stick, this poor fella is in deep dudu.

Here's another that I just couldn't resist posting.

To see more of Ed's works, visit:

On occasion, we at CowPokin' Fun run across someone whose works we consider to be so special that we feel we just have to share them with our audience. Such was the case with the cartoons of Ed Cleary. If you're thinking we have broken any of our Guest Poet submission guidelines, please be advised that we have, in this instance, merely bent them a little. Mr. Cleary did not submit any works for our consideration, and is not a poet, but appears here as a "special guest" at our request. His western art and cartoons are such a delight that we wanted you to see them. Please, forgive us this little indiscretion, but
... the made us do it.

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