Seth Boyes joined the Dickinson County News staff in March of 2017. In his first week at the DCN, he covered a train derailment near Graettinger. The tankers carrying ethanol burst into flames. Seth's photo of the event won first place for Best Breaking News photo at the 2018 Iowa Newspaper Association Convention and Trade Show. Since, Seth has won nearly a dozen awards for writing, photography and multimedia content. Seth graduated from Iowa State University in 2009 with a degree in Integrated Studio Arts. His original cartoons run regularly in the Spencer Daily Reporter and the DCN. Both he and his wife Janet hail from Clear Lake and have come to expect summers to be full of the hustle and bustle of tourists and visitors.

East Loch Estates monster

Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2017, at 10:33 AM

Any way you slice it, this East Loch Estates issue has become somewhat of a monster. There are two very polarized sides within the community and both are entrenched in their own camps. I have a feeling it will continue to be a point of contention, regardless of which way the county boards vote this time around. From a cartoon standpoint, "East Loch Estates Monster" was too good a pun to pass on. But, for the first time, I had a pun with no punch line. I literally got the entire panel done before I had the idea of putting the sign on Nessy's back, which made the speech bubbles easier to fill without taking sides. The omission of inked lines for the underwater portions adds a sense of depth. It's probably only the second time I've used that technique. Ironically, the other time was also for a drawing of the Loch Ness monster.