David Rickert

I grew up in Columbus, Ohio surrounded by stacks of MAD Magazines, Calvin and Hobbes collections, and Walt Disney comics. I spent most of my free time learning about sable hair brushes, non-repro blue pencils, and Bristol board so I could pursue a career drawing a comic strip in the style of Sergio Aragonés or Bill Watterson.

However, that didn’t happen. I went to The Ohio State University instead. But I never gave up on the dream. Following in the footsteps of Jeff Smith (whose “Thorn” was a comic strip I admired), I drew a daily strip in The Lantern for most of my college years. After receiving a teaching degree and spending a few years in the classroom, the itch to create comics resurfaced. I headed back to the drawing board (literally) to create comics for use in the classroom. Educators from around the world have enthusiastically embraced my comics as an effective way to approach difficult language arts concepts, especially to reluctant readers and English language learners.

Art Process:

For years I worked in traditional media with pencil and ink on paper. Over the past year I switched to working digitally. My work process is pretty similar to other artists: I do some rough sketches and thumbnails and then progressively move up to more detailed drawings. For my clients, I like to get them involved with the drafting stage. I see my work as a collaboration between two people – the one who has the idea, and me, the one who can bring it to life. I’m a person who always appreciates another person’s help with the development of artwork, and I love to work with editors and writers in a collaboration to come up with something better than what I could have done on my own.

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