RICK GEARY –The Man Who Draws Gumby!

By Terry Hooper

Terry Hooper: Okay Rick; I know you were born in 1946, Kansas City, Missouri - perhaps you can tell us a little more?

Rick Geary: Not a lot more to say. Father was a banker, mother a full-time homemaker. I have one younger sister. We had a fairly ordinary suburban childhood in Kansas City and then Wichita.

TH: Now I'm going to assume that you read comics as a kid so my next multiple-questions-in-one is: when did you start reading comics and can you recall which ones and the influence they had on you -did you buy them or your parents?

RG: Actually, I wasn't a big reader or collector of comics when I was young. At most, I had a modest pile of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge books (Carl Barks remains a huge influence, especially in my work on Gumby). Later on, at about age 13, I discovered MAD magazine, and the work of their artists inspired me to enter the field of humorous illustration, not necessarily comics.

TH: Oddly, not everyone can remember when they decided they wanted to draw comics, or simply draw for a living - can you?

RG: I never particularly wanted to draw comics, though I always felt I would produce art of some sort. I can't remember a time when I didn't just assume I would be an artist.

TH: I know you worked as Staff Artist for two newspapers in 1975 -can you tell us more about that - what it involved and how you got the work?

RG: From 1972-1975, I worked for two short-lived alternative weekly papers in Wichita, Kansas. The Prairie Journal was founded by a good friend of mine -- hence my employment. It was succeeded by the Wichita Independent. For both I did all-purpose art and graphic work: political cartoons, caricatures, illustrations for articles and ads, lettering and headlines, ad layout. It was a great education. When the Independent folded in 1975, I moved to San Diego, California.


TH: Am I right that you got into the comics industry in 1977 - contributing to the Funny Pages of National Lampoon? How did that come about and, not having seen the magazine, what did it involve?

RG: Actually my first work in comics was in a one-shot anthology book called Fear and Laughter. I didn't get into the Lampoon till 1979. That came about when my rep at the time went to New York and showed my work to the new editor of the Lampoon's "Funny Pages." This was a section of the magazine in which artists contributed comic strips and stories in the manner of a Sunday comic section. Very free-form, and they let me do pretty much what I wanted. I never had a continuing character. Each story was totally different from the others.

TH: You worked for National Lampoon for how long?

RG: I contributed to the National Lampoon (with some brief gaps) from the middle of 1979 to their last issue in early 1992.


TH: Now the serious stuff! You've produced work for Heavy Metal, Dark Horse Comics and even the DC Comics/Paradox Press Big Books - can you tell us more, especially about the latter which I have never heard of before!

RG: I contributed one-and-two-page stories to various Dark Horse anthology publications, and longer stories (up to 13 pages) to Heavy Metal. The Big Books were a series of non-fiction anthologies, each volume taking up a different subject (The Big Book of Hoaxes, The Big Book of Weirdos, The Big Book of Scandal) and containing the work of many artists.

I believe I was the only one to contribute to all 17 volumes.

TH: Your early work has been collected together, hasn't it - by Fantagraphics Books of Seattle [publishers of one of the World’s greatest comics –Love & Rockets!]?

RG: Fantagraphics actually published two collections of my work: At Home with Rick Geary (1985) and Housebound with Rick Geary (1992), both of which consisted mostly of pieces I did originally for the Lampoon.

TH: Let me roll off some of the publications your work has been seen within the pages of....Mad, Spy [is that the CIA inhouse magazine?],Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times.....what have I missed?

RG: I was a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, during the years (1988-92) that I lived there. Also, over the years, I've done illustration work intermittently for dozens of San Diego and west coast publications. Spy, by the way, was a New York based humor magazine that flourished in the 80s and 90s.

TH: You've written and drawn three children’s books for Dark Horse based on The Mask and two for Marvel centred on Spider-Man. Was this fun and how well did they sell?

RG: I had much fun working on the children's books for both Dark Horse and Marvel. I'm not sure how well any of them sold (I try not to be in touch with that end of the business), but I gather not very well or I would have done more.

TH: Disney Magazine had a regular strip of your before it folded - "Society of Horrors"? What was this about and how long did it run for?

RG: Disney Adventures Magazine is still very much in business. I do a little comic called "Society of Horrors," published irregularly, for their Comic Zone feature. It's about three young amateur monsters and their failed efforts to frighten people.

TH: Now, I was fascinated to see that you also produce rubber stamps and masses of postcards [some such as the one of Kerry, Bush and the Brontes I had seen but never knew who drew them!]. And then three [?] adaptions for Classics Illustrated's brief revival and a continuing series for NBM Publishing "A Treasury of Victorian Murder"!

First question: how long have you been producing the postcards
- profitable?

RG: I've been illustrating postcards for different clients since 1979, and I've been self-publishing my own line of cards for about 10 years. I distribute them to interested collectors thru the mail and sell them at various comic conventions and postcard shows. Profitable? Not really, but I do manage to break even over time.

TH: Second question --what were the Classics Illustrated books adaptions?

RG: The Classics Illustrated series that I worked on was a revival (1990-1991) of the 1940s-50s series of comic book adaptations of classic literature. I did three volumes before the enterprise folded: Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights and The Invisible Man.

TH: Thirdly, can you tell me more about the rubber stamps!!

RG: For about 20 years I've been doing illustrations for rubber stamps that are produced and distributed by a company in northern California called Readymade Rubber. I concentrate mostly on portraits of famous people, and the company sells them thru EBay and their own website.

TH: Not surprisingly, you received the Inkpot Award at the 1980 San Diego Comic Convention and, in 1994,the Book and Magazine Illustration Award from the National Cartoonists Society. Can you tell me a little more about these?

RG: The Inkpot is given to comics professionals every year by the San Diego Comic Convention. I received mine soon after starting with the National Lampoon. The National Cartoonists Society also hands out several awards per year at their annual banquet. The top prize is the "Reuben" award for cartoonist of the year. And then there are awards for different "divisions," such as newspaper strips, single-panel gags, comic books, animation, greeting cards, book and magazine illustration, etc.

TH: You'll be inking or drawing the Gumby comic?

RG: I'll be doing the pencils, inks and lettering for the Gumby comics.

TH: How did you land this job --is it ongoing or for a mini series?

RG: I believe I landed the job thru the recommendation of my old buddy Bob Burden, who's doing the writing for the series. How ongoing the project will be depends upon the success of the first book. A continuing series is certainly the desire and probability.

TH: As an artist, was it fun drawing Gumby [in the UK most people will know little if anything about the character] - did you watch the series on TV?

RG: I've been having a great time drawing Gumby and the associated characters, tho I must admit I had very little familiarity with him at first. I have only a vague recollection of the animated films from my childhood. Recently, though, I've caught up on DVDs of the series from the 50s thru the 80s and immersed myself in the Gumby Universe.

TH: Was there anything awkward or unusual in drawing the Gumby project?


RG: Nothing that I would call awkward or unusual. The challenge is to be simple and clean and clear. My usual approach when doing stories is to be indirect and detached, and that won't work here.

TH: Finally, what have you got planned after the Gumby comic?

RG: More Gumby comics, hopefully. Otherwise, I'm currently working on the next volume in my Treasury of Victorian Murder series for NBM Publishing.

Newest in stores is "The Murder of Abraham Lincoln," out later this year is "The Case of Madeleine Smith" (the Glasgow poisoner), and next is "The Saga of the Bloody Benders" (about a family of serial killers in 1870s Kansas).

TH: Rick Geary, thank you for taking the time to answer these
questions - hope it wasn't too tedious!

For more information on Rick Geary, visit: http://www.illustratorsonline.com/geary/rgfolio2.html

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