The Rocky's final cartoon

DENVER - During a meeting of the Rocky Mountain News staff when it was announced that the newspaper was going to shut down, cartoonist Ed Stein was thinking about his future and the final cartoon he would pen.

Stein has been drawing for the newspaper for 31 years. Most of his work has been political cartoons.

"It's been a great run and I've loved it and I'm going to miss it," Stein said.

The final cartoon features a man in his bathrobe, a cup of coffee in hand, standing at his front steps. The caption above him: "Where's my Rocky?"

"I had a couple of different ideas. One of them was an empty news box with just black inside, but I wanted a person there, I wanted that personal touch, a sense of somebody really missing something," Stein said.

Stein says he will not miss his cubicle, but will certainly miss the people who worked at the Rocky. He's produced more than 8,000 cartoons during his time with the newspaper.

For 11 years, he also drew Denver Square for the Rocky Mountain News, a cartoon about a family living in Denver. Through the family, Stein would cover events happening in the community and the impact they would have on the characters.

"After the Columbine shootings I did a series of cartoons in my comic strip. I think they really helped people focus their feelings and thoughts, it was cathartic for me as well," Stein said.

There have been so many moments and events that Stein has covered and portrayed through his cartoons, so many he couldn't pinpoint a favorite cartoon but one did stick with him.

"Oh there's so many, I don't know, you know I did one during the Ethiopian famine years ago that got, I did a cartoon as a fundraiser; $125,000 later we contributed a lot of money to charity and hopefully save some lives," said Stein.

The paper could not be saved and after the official word was sent through the newsroom Stein started drawing the final cartoon. It took him only about an hour to complete it.

He says it's both the easiest and hardest cartoon he's ever drawn.