Ricardo Villagran

Ricardo Villagran was born in the small northern city of Correntes, Argentina in 1938. Drawing being his all consuming interest since the age of 4 it was considered only reasonable that after high school he attend Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aries. Ricardo began taking freelance art assignments for various advertising companies, printers and comic publishers while still attending college. He even continued to do art assignments during his compulsory service in the Argentine Army.

After his discharge from the military, Ricardo began working as a commercial artist and illustrator. His list of clients grew to include the majority of the larger advertising agencies and printing houses in Argentina. In 1969, Ricardo began doing comic art for Editorial Columba (Buenos Aries, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Caracas, Asuncion, Montevideo, Santiago) Codex Ediciones, Guisa (Spain), Eura (Rome), Fleetway (London).

Ricardo was elected the Vice President of the "Association de Dibujantes", in 1970 and co-founded the " Association de Illustradores”. In 1974 Ricardo opened his own art studio in Buenos Aries called Nippur Quatro, along with his two brothers Enrique and Carlos. In 1982, Ricardo traveled to the United States, to establish contacts in the comics publishing industry to obtain work for his studio. His contacts brought him work from American comic publishers such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Archie Comics, Comico Comics, First Comics, and Dark Horse Comics. In 1983 he met Chuck Dixon at a convention which brought Ricardo to eventually ink the “Evangeline (comics)” comic. Ricardo also acted as a liaison for other artists from his home country and introduced Chuck Dixon and Judith Hunt to Jorge Zaffino. Between 1984-1987 Ricardo and his studio worked with the illustrator and then comic artist Judith Hunt on various comic and commercial art projects; also joining her art studio, Off the Wall Studios, located in Media, PA for a short time. When Judith Hunt discontinued illustrating comics and representing artists to pursue her own career in children’s publishing and license character development, Ricardo continued to work in American comics with Mike Manley, a former cartoonist of Off the Wall Studios.

Ricardo’s work can be seen at many conventions in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego and Detroit. Several exhibitions of his work have included, Museo del Prado (Madrid), Municipal De Exhibiciones ( Buenos Aries), Museo de Armas, Secretaria de Turismo. Ricardo’s studio in Argentina is on the web at "http://www.estudiovillagran.netfirms.com/"Ricardo's collaborative work with Judith Hunt on the Evangeline comic is shown on "http://evangelinethecomic.com/".