American, b. 1977 With a background in fine art and cinematic storytelling, Richard Blake creates expansive, atmospheric worlds that blend science fiction with high-concept philosophy. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and Cornell University, Blake honed his narrative precision working as a storyboard artist for major film and commercial productions in New York City. Blake’s work is deeply rooted in the tradition of European masters like Moebius, Enki Bilal, and François Schuiten. His aesthetic is characterized by a "slightly melancholic and strange" atmosphere and reflects a meditative approach to world-building. His debut graphic novel, Hexagon Bridge (Image Comics, 2023), serves as a definitive showcase of his fascination with cartography, shifting architecture, sentient AI, and the surreal exploration of parallel dimensions. Drawing inspiration from the literary labyrinths of Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, Blake utilizes a versatile toolkit of watercolor, acrylic, graphite, and digital drawing. The result is a body of work where the environments are as much a part of the story as the characters—elusive, deliberate, and resonant with a unique sense of scale and wonder.