r.cole
Rick was born on a Navy Base in Norfolk, VA. As a boy he moved across the country (and back) following his dad's military transfers. Rick graduated High School in 1972. The war in Vietnam was winding down, but the draft still existed. His father, a WWII survivor (he was onboard the USS Tennessee during the attack at Pearl Harbor), told him to do whatever he had to do to avoid going to Vietnam. Luckily Rick wasn't drafted and was able to begin his college education at The Philadelphia College of Art. His first college cartoons dealt exclusively with Johnson, Nixon and the Vietnam war. After one year he quit school to earn some extra money (he worked at a shipyard on the Hughes Glomar Explorer- a secret project funded by Howard Hughes during that time). Rick was able to finish his college education at the Art Institute of Philadelphia in 1977, thanks, in part, to Howard Hughes. In the summer of 1977 he landed a job as cartoonist for a greeting card company and has been lucky enough to earn a living as a graphic designer, cartoonist, illustrator and art director ever since. Rick met his wife, who is also an artist, while working at that greeting card company. They've been married 23 years and have two great kids. Rick drew 3 editorial cartoons weekly for The Daily Local News in West Chester, PA. for over four years. He won a Maggie award in 1993 for best editorial cartoon concerning women's reproductive rights. He voluntarily (some would say stupidly) gave up that freelance job to devote more energy to his full time job as art director for a publishing firm. In November 2002, Rick was given the opportunity to draw a weekly cartoon for the Trentonian Newspaper in Trenton, NJ. He's also freelanced op-ed art for The Philadelphia Inquirer, cartoons for King Features Syndicate and greeting card art for most of the major (and not-so-major) greeting card manufacturers.
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