Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick Stasi.
Hi Rick, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Being a child whose life began in front of a TV in the halcyon days of the “tube,” I was mesmerized by storytelling. A beginning, a middle, and an end, all neatly wrapped up in half an hour and seasoned every few minutes with…commercials.
The show that impacted me the most as a child was The Adventures of Superman.
George Reeves played TV’s first Superman. He exemplified everything a red-blooded American boy aspired to be! Kind yet powerful. Heroic but modest. And each show ended with good triumphing over evil. As each episode gave way to the next, we knew Superman would always be there to fight for “truth, justice and the American Way,” until one day…he wasn’t.
The morning after my seventh birthday, where I was still giddy from the celebration the day before, I was met with a big 72-point type headline in the morning issue of The Kansas City Times. It was June 16, 1959. George Reeves was gone–some say by his own hand. (I, and others, still don’t believe that.)
The devastation of this news sent me gobsmacked back to my bedroom. I had a small desk, some note pads from my father’s office and a number 2 pencil. I began to draw stick figures, one of which wore a cape. One of which was Superman.
A period of confusion and mourning began for an idealistic little kid* with a bath towel (cape) shoved in the back of his tee-shirt. Tales of the Man of Steel were not going to die. I would pick up the pencil and continue these morality plays, well, forever.
I would draw Superman. And any other tale of moral compasses that the world needed to see. A budding artist in residence, where residence is a place called imagination!
* If you’ve seen Ben Affleck’s account of George’s mysterious death in his 2006 film, Hollywoodland, you’ll understand why so many of us ’50’s youngsters, traumatized by Reeves’ demise, were called “Hollywoodland Kids.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Wanting to draw, to tell stories, dictates a need for formal teaching and community. I had neither.
Days after I graduated high school, I took the money I had saved as a paper boy, a janitor, and later as a truck driver and “moved” to New York. I wanted to work for DC Comics, publishers of Superman and all his caped companions. Marvel Comics was also in NY.
After many meetings and interviews and burning through my money, it was time to return to KC, find my place in a college setting and learn everything, so I could draw everything. Sequential panels that were born out of hieroglyphics became my bread and butter. Comics books and later storyboards, in advertising and films.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
From my bio and incidentals taken from my final book, Letters From The Exodus.
Rick Stasi is an artist/writer/creative producer with credits at DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Charlton Comics, NOW Comics (Twilight Zone), Eclipse, Disney,
Warner Bros. (Looney Tunes & Tiny Toons for Steven Spielberg) and Lucasfilm/Star Wars.
Rick has taught comics, sequential art and storyboarding courses for more than twenty years, as an instructor with the Shawnee Mission School District, The Westport School of Art and The Kansas City Art Institute. He currently gives individual instruction and career counseling. This is all his side gig, as he’s an accomplished corporate creative director, graphic designer, and marketer.
An author of two books, Rick performs his spoken word selections at live events and on Kansas City community radio.
He is also an accomplished voice talent known most notably for the narration of Wounded Warriors a b2b Veteran’s film focusing on mental health.
Online: RickStasi.com YouTube: Rick Stasi, Ninth Street Theatre
Literary endeavors include:
FIRST BOOK:
Funny You Should Ask, Musings and Verse for Better Or…
Poerty, essays, lyrics
AUDIO COLLECTION: Talking To Myself (To You!)
A 60-plus track, double album
FINAL BOOK: Letters From The Exodus
The Definitive Anthology of Poetry, Musings, Songs and Scripts
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I was born on my mother’s birthday, Sunday and Father’s Day. My father told me that was the “trifecta!” To this day I never fully understood what that meant.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rickstasi.com
