Andy Fish

Andy Fish is an American artist, writer, graphic novelist and cartoonist.

Fish attended both the School of Visual Arts in New York City and Rhode Island School of Design where he continues to do portfolio reviews there for prospective students offering guidance and critique.

In 2009 he was contacted by Quarto Publishing to be the Author and Artist of a series of art instruction books for Quarto Publishing in London including How To Draw Graphic Novels, How To Draw Tattoo Style, How To Draw Superheroes and How To Draw Supernatural Creatures and "How to Draw Manga".

A longtime collaborator with Adam "Batman" West, Fish completed THE MISADVENTURES OF ADAM WEST #5 comic book for Blue Water Productions along with frequent artistic collaborator Brian Flint which was released May 2012. In an interview with the Telegram and Gazette Fish expressed his excitement to be working on the title of his boyhood heroe's comic book adventures. Blue Water's notorious reputation for underpaying freelancers may have been the reason the creative team only worked on one issue.

Recently signing with McFarland Press he produced the 120 page Werewolves of Wisconsin and Other American Folklore as a full color graphic novel which was released Halloween 2011. The book explores regional folklore and mysteries in the continental United States and is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. McFarland Books has announced his second graphic novel for them will be an adaption of Bram Stoker's DRACULA.

In fall 2008, he was appointed as an adjunct professor of art instruction at the Massachusetts College of Art and at the same time signed on as faculty for the new graphic novel illustration program for Emerson College in Boston. He has been a faculty member of the Worcester Art Museum for over ten years working with some 1200 students in a variety of disciplines, including the hosting duties of the Museum's participation in the worldwide 24 Hour Comics Challenge every year in October. Notable with Worcester Art he has also been selected as an artist mentor in their Art All State Program which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and Fish has completed an unprecedented eight years in a row in that role.

A previous graphic novel, FLY; A True Story Completely Made Up, was released to comic book stores worldwide as well as through Amazon and Target in fall 2008. The book met with critical success, including one Eisner judge who said Fish was "throwing some serious heat" in contention for that prestigious award but despite the positive comments there was no nomination forthcoming.

Fish created the independent comic book character Adam Bomb, and later introduced the character as one of the first online comic strips on the Internet. The strip was turned into a series of Flash Animation cartoons by the Showtime artist Rob Feldman.

Fish's work as a painter has been shown in many solo gallery shows around the US including the 2007 Suckers and Biters Exhibit at the Adhoc Gallery in Brooklyn, New York,Suckers and Biters as well as winning honorable mention at a March 2006 show celebrating the anniversary of the Smiley Face Icon created by Harvey Ball.

His work at ArtsWorcester was featured in the Pop Euphoria show along with his wife Veronica Hebard, whom he married in October 2010.

Fish is often criticized for his outspoken attitude towards art and politics and he has been incorrectly linked to members of the Tea Party, which he firmly denies, although he does admit to being a staunch defender of the second amendment. At an event hosted by Worcester State University to discuss Economic Opportunities and the State of the Art Industry in Central Massachusetts, Fish was quoted as saying "Worcester suffers from Gilligan’s Island syndrome, We’ve made a radio out of coconuts and we’re pretending it’s a Bose radio,” drawing gasps from some in the audience for “Art Works: A Public Forum on Creative Economies in Central Massachusetts,”. Fish was one of six panelists appearing with moderator Mark Lynch, host of Public Radio WICN’s “Inquiry.”

As a writer he is adapting Travis Simpkins' essay into a screenplay which he hopes to direct himself. In spring 2009, he was contracted by Bazley Films to adapt their treatment for Gangsters into both a finished screenplay and a graphic novel.

A duo show called Atomic Hearts and the Electrical Brain featured 150 all-new works created by both he and his wife and opened to great success on June 26, 2009./

2005, 2012 he was nominated "New England Newspaper Illustrator of the Year" for his covers for Worcester Magazine.