A streetlamp in Lucca, Italy. Watercolor, 1980.

Marker in sketchbook, from photo, 1996.

Here’s an 11 x 17″ pen and ink illustration I did of Arnim Zola (©Marvel Comics) for John Lancaster. Channeling Jack Kirby is one of my favorite things! I’m still taking commissions, and having a blast doing them, but once the monthly deadlines begin again, I will have to stop. So if you are interested in taking advantage of this window of opportunity for a Rick Veitch original, shoot me an email.

…if a doodle ain’t got that swing. Ball point in sketchbook, 1978.

Growing up in Vermont in the 60′s, I didn’t get the benefit of any sort of real art education. I learned to draw by copying my favorite artists; usually in pencil because I didn’t know the various methods and materials my heroes used. Frank Frazetta was blowing my young mind with every CREEPY, EERIE and TARZAN cover he produced and I made my own copies of many of them, all of which have been lost.

But I picked up the practice again when I landed at Kubert School in the 70′s. Here’s my version of Frazetta’s famous cover to the Ace paperback of (I think) KORAK, SON OF TARZAN. Pencil in sketchbook, 1977.

Thanks to all who read my stuff! Print and enjoy!

Rick

Christmas forty-one years ago, young Ricky Veitch was curled up in his bedroom with a clipboard, typing paper and pencil trying to catch that “gags per square inch” style that Kurtzman, Elder and Wood had brought to such perfection in the old MAD Comics.

Here’s one I’d completely forgotten about until I dug it out of the back of the files. It’s a panel of DENNIS THE MENACE, although not the Hank Ketchum version we all know and love in America. It’s the mean Brit DENNIS who’s been tormenting his supporting cast in BEANO since who knows when.

When very young, I was lucky enough to get a pile of 60′s British comics from a friend who immigrated to the States and always dug the whole ambiance of their weeklies. At some point in the 1990′s I was approached by a group that (I think) was creating some sort of monstrous stunt concerning the longest comic continuity ever assembled, or something along those lines. When they asked me to do DENNIS, I jumped at the chance. One of these days I’d love to get a shot at STEEL CLAW!

I’m having a blast doing commissions for a few weeks, waiting for the next round of deadlines to take shape. Here’s one for a fellow who wanted SWAMP THING (©DC Comics) and THE SPIRIT (©Will Eisner ) in the same shot.

My dance card is filling up! If you are interested in taking advantage of what will probably be a limited window of opportunity to get a commission piece, contact me now.

Back in the early days of the Direct Sales Market, marketing a new series didn’t get any more cutting edge than this: a full page in the weekly COMIC BUYERS GUIDE. Archie Goodwin wrote the copy on this ad for the first issue of my EPIC mini-series THE ONE.

If you’re a younger reader digging the roots of the so-called REVISIONIST SUPERHERO genre, or if you are old enough to have enjoyed the series back in the day, you can order up your own signed collection of this timeless King Hell Classic right here.