Rick Veitch, Vermont’s New Cartoonist Laureate
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Rick Veitch is Vermont’s fourth Cartoonist Laureate.
This month, Veitch was named Vermont’s fourth cartoonist laureate. His appointment, originally scheduled for an April 2 State House presentation with Gov. Phil Scott, was announced and celebrated through a live stream online, commencing Veitch’s 2020-23 term.
Veitch’s extensive and diverse credits include DC Comics’ Swamp Thing; graphic novels and short comic stories in Marvel Comics’ glossy “Epic Illustrated;” titles including “Abraxas and the Earthman,” “Bratpack,” “The Maximortal,” “Roarin’ Rick’s Rare Bit Fiends” published by his independent imprint King Hill Press; and new projects by Eureka Comics, specializing in educational and informational comics, which he recently co-founded.
Today, April 2, current Vermont cartoonist laureate Alison Bechdel officially passes the laurels to West Townshend resident Rick Veitch. He is the fourth, following Bechdel [2017-2020], Edward Koren [2014-2017] and James Kochalka [2011-2014].
Vermont is the only state to appoint a cartoonist laureate, an idea “concocted,” as Veitch put it, by the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction and officially sanctioned. The three-year term is honorary, aka unpaid.
About five years go, Veitch launched Eureka Comics. The company specializes in educational and informational comics.
Eureka works with clients to help them develop their message and turn it into a comic, Veitch said. Clients include McGraw-Hill, International Monetary Fund, PBS and Wired Magazine.
“It’s a lot more lucrative than the comic book business,” Veitch said. “So it makes life easier for me.”
He now has more free time to explore what he described as “the wild and creative stuff that is my main goal in life.” He publishes the work through Amazon’s print-on-demand system.
That allows him to focus solely on the art. He can create comics without worrying about marketing or distribution.
“That’s how I always imagined it would be,” he said. “It just took me 40 years to get here.”
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