Rick Lundeen is a U.S.-born artist living in the western suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two children. Lundeen has been a storyboard artist for over 20 years, a comic creator/publisher for over 15 years and a comic fan for over 35 years, and — by his own admission — the only thing he actually knows how to do (well) is draw. Further he has stated that “I’ll probably die at the drawing board but drawing is the only thing I’m halfway decent at.”
Always in comics and art Lundeen began drawing as a teen but received his formal art training when he attended the American Academy of Art, Chicago, IL, from 1981 to 1984 when he graduated. Lundeen made several attempts at producing comics before outright publishing in the early ‘90’s. His first self-published comic was entitled “Mataak” which he produced for his initial company, KABLAMM! (KABLAMM was an acronym, that stood for Kirby, (Neal) Adams, Byrne, (Stan) Lee, (Art) Adams, Moore, Miller). All his art influences are comic based, citing most notably John Buscema, Jack Kirby, John Byrne, and George Pérez during his formative years.
Lundeen’s first professional work was a series of storyboards he produced in 1989 while working as a full time freelance for Ogilvy & Mather ad agency in Chicago. He has gone on to produce artwork for literally thousands of commercials including the Off bug repellent belt attachment device they’re playing nowadays. He also did some design work for promotional material for Batman and Robin prior to the film’s release.
In comics, most of his work has been with independent companies, including his own titles he’s published under his current imprint, Epoch. He has released “Epoch the anthology” and “Mascot” in 2000, “The Door” and “So, You Want to be a Super-Villain?” In 2001 (currently available on iTunes from Smashout comics), “We Three Kings” in 2002, “When Realities Collide” and “I Was a Superhero Survivor!” In 2003 (now available on iTunes from Smashout comics), “Monkey and the Moon Patrol” in 2004 (also available on iTunes from Smashout comics), “100 Covers” in 2008. According to Lundeen “100 Covers” is something never before done in comics: It’s the story of “The Battalion”, a superhero team who’s members’ lives and adventures are told ONLY through the first 100 covers of what would comprise the book’s run. Most of these titles are all available at comixpress.com in the Epoch section under “publishers”.
In 2008 Lundeen hooked up with the Comicbook Artists Guild (CAG) and contributed the art to “First in Flight: The Gustave whitehead story” for Iconic, a graphic album produced by the Guild. The story was written by Robert J. Sodaro and lead to Sodaro approaching Lundeen to pick up on the art chores for the re-launch of Wülf Girlz for Mark Mazz’s Atlas Unleashed production company. That comic is due to occur late in 2011. That relaunch will be accompanied by a prose novella by Sodaro (with illustrations by Lundeen), and a one-page illustrated Wülf Girlz story that is slated to appear in Atlas Unleashed’s initial newsletter. In 2008/09 Lundeen did all the artwork for an adult OGN called “Perfect Strangers” with a wonderful writer by the name of Carmenica Diaz which can be found at Carmenica’s Elegant Adult Fiction site (18 and older, only).
Lundeen also did the artwork on a short story with writer Chris Lynch called “The Escape Artist” which will be in this years’ August edition of “Murky Depths” magazine. He recently wrote and drew two other short stories, “3 minutes” and “What would you do for love?” for the upcoming issues of IFX and the Hamtramck idea men, as well as the art for one of the stories in Eric San Juan’s “Pitched” anthology called “Time Unraveled” (which was written by San Juan, co-writer of “A Year of Hitchcock: 52 Weeks with the Master of Suspense”). He penciled and inked a two page B&W story with writer Shawn Gabborin for the upcoming issue of Angry Gnome Comics’ “Short Stack” #5. Currently Lundeen is working writer Chris Lynch on a four issue miniseries for Markosia comics called “The Dark”. All four issues will be online and then collected into a printed OGN, the first of which should be out in late July/August. Some recent side projects including “Food of the Gods” and “Meet Me at Alpha Centauri!” can be seen or previewed in his galleries over on his ComicSpace page. Also, Lundeen has contributed a new ongoing column called “Comics: Now and then” for Rock and Roll Graphix, an adults only, quarterly online magazine. All of this comicbook work is done in conjunction with his regular storyboard work.
Date of Birth: July 14th 1962
Birthplace:
Website: http://www.epochkblamm.net
E-mail: epochkblamm@ameritech.net
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