{{Short description|American comics artist and illustrator}} {{for|the reality show participant|Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?}} {{Infobox comics creator | image = | imagesize = 150 | caption = | birth_name = Richard Waring Rockwell | birth_date = December 11, 1920 | birth_place = | death_date = April 18, 2006 (aged 85) | death_place = | nationality = American | area = Penciller; Inker | alias = | signature = | notable works = | awards = Inkpot Award (1981)<ref>[https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot Inkpot Award]</ref> }}
'''Richard Waring Rockwell''' (December 11, 1920 – April 18, 2006)<ref name=lam>[http://www.lambiek.net/artists/r/rockwell_dick.htm Dick Rockwell] at the Lambiek Comiclopedia</ref> was an American comic strip and comic book artist best known as Milt Caniff's uncredited art assistant for 35 years on the adventure strip ''Steve Canyon''. Rockwell was a nephew of the famed painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell.
==Biography== [[File:Action629.jpg|left|thumb|''Action Comics Weekly'' #629 (Dec. 6, 1988), featuring the Secret Six; cover art by Rockwell.<!--confirmed: both penciled and inked-->]]
===Early life and career=== Raised in Kane,<ref name=alife /> Pennsylvania, Dick Rockwell was the son of Jerry Rockwell — brother of painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell — and Carol Rockwell. He had a brother, John.<ref name=alife>Claridge, Laura P. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Uwhl1GoizZMC&dq=%22dick+rockwell%22+artist&pg=PT269 ''Norman Rockwell: A Life''] (Random House; 2nd edition, 2001), {{ISBN|0-375-50453-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-375-50453-2}}</ref> Rockwell began his career after World War II, during which he'd served as a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot who flew Allied troops to France on D-Day and to the Ardennes Forest for the Battle of the Bulge.<ref name=fairfield /> His first known comic-book credit is penciling and inking the one-page "Little Know [sic.] Facts About Well-Known Animals" in publisher Fiction House's ''Jungle Comics'' #113 (May 1949), and his first known story art is the seven-page "The Masquerading Bandits" in the Prize Comics crime series ''Headline Comics'' #36 (Aug. 1949).<ref name=gcd>[http://www.comics.org/credit/name/dick%20rockwell/sort/chrono/ Dick Rockwell] at the Grand Comics Database</ref>
He went on to draw for Lev Gleason Publications' ''Crime Does Not Pay'' and ''Black Diamond Western''.<ref name=gcd /> As Rockwell told the story, samples of this work, which he supplied with his membership application to the National Cartoonists Society in 1952, caught the attention of Milt Caniff, the organization's president at the time. Soon afterward, Caniff hired Rockwell to assist on Caniff's classic syndicated newspaper strip ''Steve Canyon'', penciling and inking secondary characters and backgrounds; Caniff wrote, drew the main characters, and did finishing touches. He served as the uncredited art assistant on ''Steve Canyon'' for 35 years, continuing for a brief time after Caniff's death in 1988.<ref name=evanier />
Rockwell's other comic-book work includes at least one story each in 1951 for ''Man Comics'', ''Girl Comics'', ''Crime Exposed'' and ''Susepense'', from Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor of Marvel Comics; and, in 1983 and 1988, a smattering of work for DC Comics, including on the military adventure title ''Blackhawk''.<ref name=gcd /> His final comic-book work was penciling and inking a six-page story and a two-page character profile, both featuring the "Blackhawk Express", in ''Blackhawk Annual'' #1 (1989).<ref name=gcd />
===Courtroom artist and other work=== Rockwell additionally worked as a courtroom artist doing trial sketches, starting with the 1957 U.S. Supreme Court case involving school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas. His courtroom work remained a minor sideline until 1983. Rockwell covered the robbery and murder trial of members of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army who had robbed a Brinks armored truck in Nyack, New York.<ref name=fairfield>{{Cite news|url=http://westchesterweekly.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:1741|work=Fairfield County Weekly|location=Bridgeport, Connecticut|date=February 13, 2003|title=Rogues' Gallery: Courtroom Artist Richard Waring Rockwell Sketches Rogues from Gotti to Ganim|first=Joe|last=Miksch|archivedate=January 25, 2004|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040125173549/http://westchesterweekly.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid%3A1741|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Like his famous uncle, Rockwell also did magazine illustrations. As well, he drew editorial cartoons and he taught at New York University, the Parsons School of Design,<ref name=evanier>{{cite web|authorlink=Mark Evanier|last=Evanier| first= Mark|url=http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2006_04_21.html#011371 |title=Dick Rockwell, R.I.P.|publisher=News from Me (column)|date=April 21, 2006|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628235100/http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2006_04_21.html#011371| archivedate= June 28, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Fashion Institute of Technology,<ref name=evanier /> all in Manhattan, New York City.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{cite web|url=http://www.sheldorftribute.com/2010/01/26/shel-dorf-interviews-milt-caniff-in-november-1982-video/ |title=Shel Dorf Interviews Milt Caniff in November 1982: Video| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716054701/http://www.sheldorftribute.com/2010/01/26/shel-dorf-interviews-milt-caniff-in-november-1982-video/ | archivedate = July 16, 2011|publisher = ShelDorfTribute.com|date= January 26, 2010}} Caniff discusses Rockwell in part 11 of 11. {{Inkpot Award 1980s}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockwell, Dick}} Category:American comics artists Category:20th-century American illustrators Category:American editorial cartoonists Category:1920 births Category:2006 deaths Category:Courtroom sketch artists Category:Fashion Institute of Technology faculty Category:Inkpot Award winners