We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anthony Richichi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anthony below.

Alright, Anthony thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

At this point I’ve been earning a full-time living and was able to leave my day job 4 years ago. Up until then I’d dump 40 hours a week into the day job to pay the bills, then another 40 or so making art (comic books, paintings, film and theater festival illustrations, art for my band, concert posters, etc) from the minute I got home from work, until I fell asleep. It was like that for about 8 or 9 years until I met my publisher, Saratoga Springs Publishing. I was hired to illustrate a children’s book, JACK. It went super well and I finished it months sooner than anticipated and I was quickly offered 3 more book contracts, which I signed and completed. I was then offered the Lead Illustrator position and I left my job, and the rest is history. I’ve since gone on to win over 2 dozen book awards with the Moonbeam Awards, BookFest Awards, and the Outstanding Creator Awards where I was also named 2023 Artist of the Year, and had one of my books featured in Times Square NYC. My self written/illustrated kid’s book COLORWORLD was also picked up by the famed Charles R Wood Theater in Glens Falls to be adapted into a live-action play, which will be showing January 24th-26th, 2025 in downtown Glens Falls.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I found the love for painting, which jumpstarted my obsessive passion to be a full-time artist, when I connected with my cousin Hannah Williams and her boyfriend at the time, Dustin Neil, who took me in and essentially “showed me the light”. I was in a real depressive state of mind at the time and they introduced me to the paintbrush, and this incredible groove-metal band, Lock 9, which I quickly joined. I began painting religiously for hours every single day cranking out painting after painting and landed my first solo exhibit a few months in. I was also drawing and writing comic books for an indie publisher, and with author Lee A. Gooden, I picked up over a dozen publishings with them. Through 2020 until I met my publisher and was able to leave my day job I was working in a vast variety of art mediums and styles. I was the artist and curator for an art exhibit that accompanied the Adirondack Theater Festival and the Adirondack Film Festival. I was illustrating for numerous trading card companies including licensed sets for Fallout, KISS, The Transformers, Marvel’s Spider-Man and WandaVision, A Christmas Story and more. Making a dozen concert posters and merch items a year with my band Lock 9 and the music/arts festival I ran, GEM Festival. I was producing props and paintings for a horror film director and have been featured in 5 movies with 377 Films (The Retreat, Dawn of the Beast, Island Escape, First Contact, and The North Witch). I was also painting non-stop, about a dozen paintings a month, and picking up solo and group-shows.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me it’s seeing people enjoy my work. That stems from when I was a little kid, I would get so excited when I’d come home from elementary school with a new drawing and my parents would be all excited about it. It was such a rush knowing I made something from thin air and people got a kick out of it. That rush has stayed with me to this day and it never gets old. Being an artist is very soul-bearing, and to get positive feedback when you go out on a limb and express yourself is an amazing feeling. These days I get the biggest thrill out of school visits with my children’s books. Kids are just so expressive and I love being able to get their creative little minds going.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Sending out portfolio after portfolio not being phased by rejection. The biggest triumph in that was when I was walking through a Comic Con and saw a table with some trading cards the artist illustrated. I took one look and knew I could draw up to that standard. It was like that “A-HA” moment of wow I can do this. I took mental note of the card company and when I got home after the show I drafted up an email to the card company with a portfolio and heard back from them that night. I was hired to illustrate licensed trading cards for the band KISS, the video game Fallout, as well as sets for Vampirella and Red Sonja. I built that “trading card portfolio” over the years illustrating for over 2 dozen sets until I finally landed the big one, drawing licensed work for Marvel Studios. Currently I just finished sets for the film A Christmas Story as well at the Transformers 40th Anniversary set and the Emmy Award Winning FX/Hulu show “What We Do in the Shadows”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.tonykillustrator.com
• Instagram: tonykillustrator
• Facebook: Anthony Richichi
• Youtube: Lock 9
• Soundcloud: Lock 9
• Other: SPOTIFY – Lock 9

  IMDb – Anthony Richichi

  AMAZON PRIME MOVIES (And all other VOD’s): The Retreat – Dawn of the Beast – Island Escape – First Contact – The North Witch