About Rick

Rick Veitch was born in Bellows Falls, Vermont and felt the calling of comics at an early age. While still in high school, he and his brother, Tom Veitch, created the comic strip, CRAZYMOUSE which ran regularly in THE VERMONT CYNIC. They went on to collaborate on the underground comic TWO-FISTED ZOMBIES, published by Last Gasp in San Francisco, in 1973. 

Rick enrolled in the Joe Kubert School in 1976,  studying under veteran cartoonists Joe Kubert, Ric Estrada and Dick Giordano and was part of the school’s first graduating class in 1978. While still at school he began his professional career in mainstream comics, contributing over a dozen short stories to DC’s combat title, OUR ARMY AT WAR. 

Out of school, Rick’s work appeared in HEAVY METAL which led to his collaboration with Steve Bissette and Alan Asherman on the graphic novel adaptation of the Steven Spielberg film “1941”.  Rick was a regular contributor to Marvel’s EPIC MAGAZINE under editor Archie Goodwin, producing two graphic novels, ABRAXAS AND THE EARTHMAN and HEARTBURST, before creating one of the first revisionist superhero comics, THE ONE, for the EPIC COMICS line in 1984. 

Rick was highly active in the 1980’s, drawing issues of NEXUS, SCOUT and MIRACLEMAN. He was a regular penciler of SWAMP THING, collaborating with Alan Moore for a year and a half, before taking over as writer. Rick illustrated the first appearance of JOHN CONSTANTINE, a character who went on to film and television fame. Veitch’s SWAMP THING run ended in controversy in 1989 when DC Comics refused to publish a finished issue in which Swamp Thing traveled back in time and met Jesus. 

Forming his own publishing imprint, KING HELL PRESS, Rick released a collected edition of THE ONE in 1989, then went on to create and publish two original series, BRAT PACK and THE MAXIMORTAL. Both were nominated for Eisner Awards as Best New Series. He also wrote and drew a TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES graphic novel, THE RIVER, before again collaborating with Alan Moore and Stephen Bissette on THE MIRROR OF LOVE and the “1963” retro-comic series from IMAGE. 

The next year, Rick began what he considers his most personal and experimental work, RARE BIT FIENDS, a dream diary in comic book form published by KING HELL. The series was nominated for multiple Eisner Awards, was featured in LIFE Magazine and spawned three collections, RABID EYE, POCKET UNIVERSE and CRYPTO ZOO. 

Rick also collaborated with Neil Gaiman on TEKNOPHAGE for Big Entertainment. In 1998 Rick and Alan Moore created GREYSHIRT as a regular feature in TOMORROW STORIES before spinning him off into the graphic novel GREYSHIRT: INDIGO SUNSET. 

In 2005 Rick co-curated the first Dream Comics retrospective in Amadora, Portugal. He is the co-founder, with Steve Conley, of the Internet comics site, Comicon.com.

In 2006, Vertigo released CAN’T GET NO, Rick’s groundbreaking literary graphic novel that Publishers Weekly declared one of the “Best Books Of 2006”.  He followed that with a subversive and satirical look at the Iraq war titled ARMY@LOVE. 

Rick is co-founder, with Steve Conley, of Eureka Comics, specializing in creating comics for learning and literacy. Clients include PBS, WIRED MAGAZINE, VERMONT FOLKLIFE CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF QUEBEC, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT and the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. He recently completed THE OUTLIERS, a three book series for McGraw Hill Education, pioneering the use of modern graphic novel storytelling techniques to teach math to middle schoolers.

In 2016, Rick launched SUN COMICS, utilizing print-on-demand publishing to release new issues of MAXIMORTAL and RARE BIT FIENDS.  He also began a unique new series, PANEL VISION.  Titles so far include the Eisner-nominated SPOTTED STONE,  OTZI,  REDEMPTION, SUPER CATCHY and TOMBSTONE HAND.

In 2020 Rick was named Vermont’s fourth official Cartoonist Laureate.

He lives in West Townshend, Vermont with his wife Cindy.