| R. C. Harvey | |
|---|---|
R. C. Harvey self-portrait |
|
| Born | 1937 (age 74–75) USA |
| Other names | Robert C. Harvey |
| Education | University of Colorado |
| Occupation | author, critic |
| Website | |
| http://www.rcharvey.com/ | |
Robert C. Harvey (b. 1937), popularly known as R. C. Harvey, is an author, critic and cartoonist. He has written a number of books on the history of the medium, with special focus on the history of the comic strip, and he has also worked as a freelance cartoonist.
Harvey describes himself as having created cartoons since the age of seven.[1] He was educated at the University of Colorado, where he submitted cartoons to the campus magazine, The Flatiron.[1] Upon graduation, Harvey attempted to earn a living as a freelance cartoonist in New York, but eventually he changed his career path and enlisted in the US Navy. After a three-year tour, Harvey was discharged and found employ as an English teacher.
Dissatisfied with his pay and disillusioned with the work, Harvey left teaching and returned to freelance cartooning, specializing in cartoons of "sexy girls". Unable to make a living solely through cartooning, Harvey took a position with an educational conference company.[1] In 1973, Harvey began writing on the medium, initially for The Menomonee Falls Gazette.[2][3]
By the early 1980s, Harvey's columns were appearing in The Comics Journal, where he has a regular column to this day, and Comics Buyer's Guide. The 1990s saw publication of Fantagraphics Books' Cartoons of the Roaring Twenties, collated and edited by Harvey. Harvey was also a contributor to Oxford University Press' American National Biography. In 1994, Harvey's The Art of the Funnies was published by the University Press of Mississippi with The Art of the Comic Book following in 1996. He served as an associate editor for the journal Inks: Cartoon and Comic Art Studies, taking responsibility for submissions related to the comic strip. In 1998, Harvey was guest curator for the Children of the Yellow Kid exhibition, for which he also provided the catalogue.[1][3]
Harvey's Milton Caniff: Conversations (2002) was published by the University Press of Mississippi, followed by a full biography of Caniff, Meanwhile... A Biography of Milton Caniff, Creator of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon (2007). Harvey also provided biographies for the long-running magazine Cartoonist PROfiles.[1][3]
Harvey is a member of the National Cartoonists Society, as well as an associate member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists and a member of the Comic Art Professionals Society.[2]