Richard Lowell Parker (born 1946) is an American artist, writer, and cartoonist whose humorous artwork has appeared in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine, '' U.S. News & World Report'', ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' magazine, and various

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. Parker is widely known as the artist of MTV's '' Beavis and Butt-Head'' comic book, published by Marvel from 1994 to 1996. He wrote and illustrated his own graphic novel, ''Deadboy'', in 2010.

Early life

Parker grew up in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

. He did not own many comic books as a child — instead, his artistic influences include

Little Golden Books Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942. ''The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have b ...

and the comic strips ''

Mutt and Jeff ''Mutt and Jeff'' was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newspape ...

'' and '' Little Orphan Annie''. He also lists

Will Elder William Elder (born Wolf William Eisenberg; September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008) was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped ...

Wally Wood Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as '' Weird Science'', '' Weird Fantasy'', and ''MAD Magazine'' fr ...

, Carl Barks,

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...

Roy Crane Royston Campbell Crane (November 22, 1901 – July 7, 1977), who signed his work Roy Crane, was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip characters Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer. He pioneered the adventure comic strip, establi ...

, and Jack Davis as influences. Parker earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, and his Master of Fine Arts at the Pratt Institute.

Military service

In February 1966 Parker was drafted into the United States Army, completing

basic training Military recruit training, commonly known as basic training or boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique dema ...

at Fort Stewart, GA and becoming a tank driver. Parker applied for Officer Candidate School and completed Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Jackson, SC, subsequently completing

Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a commission as officers in the armed forces of a country. How OCS is run differs between countries and services. Ty ...

at Fort Sill. After becoming an officer, Parker was involved in the testing of Pershing Missiles in the deserts of New Mexico and Utah. He was also an acting Battery Commander at Fort Sill and briefly was the Officer-in-Charge of military funerals for Northern Texas, Oklahoma and Western Arkansas.

Career

Comics

Parker got his start in the comics industry as a

letterer A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comi ...

for

, starting in the late 1970s. Spider-Man editor

Jim Salicrup Jim Salicrup (; born May 29, 1957) is an American comic book editor, known for his tenures at Marvel Comics and Topps Comics. At Marvel, where he worked for twenty years, he edited books such as '' The Uncanny X-Men'', ''Fantastic Four'', '' Aven ...

recalled, "Not only did I like having him letter all the titles just so I can pretend to be J. Jonah Jameson and scream 'Parker!' at him all the time, but he lived not far from me at the time, and quite often I would visit his home and hang out with him while he lettered pages, and then we'd drop 'em off at the FedEx office together. This easily saved days on the schedule, and got the books done much faster." Parker was one of the four original artists of ''The Pekar Project'' ( SMITH Magazine, 2009–2010), which brought the writing of the American autobiographical comics pioneer

Harvey Pekar Harvey Lawrence Pekar (; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical ''American Splendor'' comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a ...

to the web. He also drew the introductory pages of ''

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'' for Papercutz from 2007 to 2009. Parker has illustrated a series of graphic novel parodies (written by Stefan Petrucha) for ''Papercutz Slices'' (Papercutz) — titles include ''Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid'' (2009), ''Harry Potty and The Deathly Boring'' (2010), ''Breaking Down'' (2011) (a parody of the ''

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this i ...

'' series), ''Percy Jerkson and The Ovolactovegetarians'' (2011), and ''The Hunger Pains'' (2012).

Fine art

Parker's fine art consists of paintings, drawings, collage, assemblages, sculpture,

lithographs Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

, photographs, performance, and

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

. He was the founder of the Barking Dog Museum in New York City (1975–1987). His artwork has been shown at the Hundred Acres Gallery in New York, the

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Art Gallery, The

Georgia Museum of Art The Georgia Museum of Art is an art museum in Athens, Georgia, United States, associated with the University of Georgia (UGA). The museum is both an academic museum and, since 1982, the official art museum of the state of Georgia. The permanent co ...

, the Pratt Institute Art Gallery, Franklin Furnace Book Archives, the

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is a not-for-profit arts organization and former museum in New York City devoted to comic books, comic strips and other forms of cartoon art. MoCCA sponsored events ranging from book openings to educat ...

, and the

DUMBO ''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, ...

Arts Center. Parker's comic art and fine art is in private collections and several institutions.

Awards

* C.A.P.S. Grant, 1978 * Village Voice Photo Contest, 1985 *

Comics Buyer's Guide ''Comics Buyer's Guide'' (''CBG''; ), established in 1971, was the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry. It awarded its annual Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards from 1983 to circa 2010. The publ ...

Award, Favorite Letterer, 1989/90

Bibliography

* As Illustrator: ''Everything I Really Need To Know I Learned from Television'' (Applause Theatre Books, 1992) — written by Barry Dutter * As author: ''Deadboy'' (self-published, 2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Rick 1946 births Living people American cartoonists American male writers