Richard Hescox was born in Pasadena, California in 1949 and spent his childhood there, just over the mountains from Edwards Air Force Base, where the X-15 rocket plane was making its initial assault on outer space.  He fondly remembers the frequent sonic booms from the military jets overhead, before they were prohibited from flying over the Los Angeles area neighborhoods.  These nearby distractions inspired Richard’s soaring imagination from an early age, along with the books of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. G. Wells and the comic books of the day.

Since graduating from The Art Center College of Design, Richard has had a long and varied career as a book cover artist, a production artist on Hollywood films and television projects, a background designer in animated cartoons, an advertising illustrator for Universal Pictures productions and as a conceptual designer and art director on a number of computer games. His many published works include hundreds of book covers for Daw, Del Rey, Signet, Baen, Bantam, Tor, and Ace; record album covers; advertising art and production designs for Swamp Thing, E.T., The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, Halloween, and The Time Bandits; magazine illustrations; and game cards.  He also art directed the game Rama, based on the Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee novels.  His paintings have been exhibited in numerous shows including those held at the Society of Illustrators in New York, the Delaware Art Museum and the Canton Museum of Art.

Richard has won many awards in the field of science fiction and fantasy art, including The Jack Gaughan Memorial Award and the Chesley Award for Best Color Work – Unpublished from the Association of Science Fiction Artists.

Richard now lives in Reno, Nevada with his wife, Alice, and son David.