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Ralph Reese (born May 19, 1949) is an American artist who has illustrated for books, magazines, trading cards, and , including a year drawing the Flash Gordon strip for King Features. Prolific from the 1960s to the 1990s, he is best known for his collaboration with Byron Preiss on the continuing feature "One Year Affair", serialized in the satiric magazine National Lampoon from 1973 to 1975 and then collected into a 1976 book.
Reese early in his career worked in the studio of Wally Wood, assisting on both mainstream and alternative-press comics and on trading cards. He went on to do mainly fantasy fiction and horror fiction illustrations for science-fiction magazines and black-and-white horror-comics magazines. He drew many fantasy, horror and science-fiction stories for Marvel Comics, DC Comics and Valiant Comics.
With the Wood Studio as a launching pad, Reese became a prolific freelancer. In 1969, he did a cover and numerous interior illustrations for Galaxy Science Fiction. For Robert Sproul's Major Publications, he was a regular 1969-70 contributor to Web of Horror, edited by Terry Bisson. His first confirmed solo comics story credit is as penciler-inker of Bisson's four-page story "The Skin-Eaters' in Major Publications' Web of Horror #1 (Dec. 1969). He illustrated two Otto Binder stories in Web of Horror #2 (Feb. & April 1970).
Reese worked from 1972 to 1977 at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates studio at 9 East 48th Street in Manhattan. There he became acquainted with a group of freelance artists that included Jack Abel, Sergio Aragones, Dick Giordano, Russ Heath, Bob McLeod, Marshall Rogers, Joe Rubinstein and Lynn Varley. At Continuity, Reese and Hama sometimes worked as a team, and they created illustrations for a variety of clients, including the Children's Television Workshop.
Reese's comic book credits include pages for Acclaim, Byron Preiss, Eclipse Comics, Marvel Comics, Skywald Publications and Warren Publishing. While working in the mainstream, he also contributed to underground titles, including Conspiracy Capers, Underground Comix Joint Drool, Underground Collectibles and editor Jay Lynch's Kitchen Sink Press comic Bijou Funnies.
His work for DC Comics included stories for House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Witching Hour and The Unexpected.
In 1973, Reese illustrated Thomas Disch's "The Roaches" for the black-and-white horror-comics magazine Monsters Unleashed, published by Marvel's Curtis Magazines imprint, and the following year, he continued in a similar vein with art for Gerry Conway's story, "The Rats" in Haunt of Horror. With these two stories, featuring extreme close-up drawings of roaches and rats, Reese depicted horror lurking in real-life vermin, and both stories had several reprints.
After he collaborated with Byron Preiss on the feature "One Year Affair" in the National Lampoon, the two did installments of a follow-up, "Two Year Affair". For Atlas/Seaboard Comics he drew "Midnight Muse" in Devilina #1 (January 1975). In 1982, Reese teamed with Al Williamson, Dan Green and Carlos Garzon on a comics adaptation of the Film Blade Runner. In 1985, Reese horror stories were reprinted in the two issues of Reese's Pieces (Eclipse). Also during the 1980s, Reese illustrated more than a dozen titles in Bantam Books' Choose Your Own Adventure series. Choose Your Own Adventure: Books Illustrated by Ralph Reese
In 1989 and 1990, he drew both the daily strip and of King Features' Flash Gordon, scripted by Bruce Jones. From 1992 to 1997, he did much work for the comic book Magnus Robot Fighter and other Valiant Comics series, including Raj and X-O Manowar. "Valiant-Related Works by Ralph Reese", Valiantfans.com, n.d. Also in the 1990s, he contributed to several Paradox Press titles: The Big Book of Hoaxes, The Big Book of Freaks, The Big Book of Losers and The Big Book of Little Criminals.
In 2009, Reese returned to DC with "The Thirteenth Hour" in issue #13 (July 2009) of editor Angela Rufino's House of Mystery revival for Vertigo. In 2010, an interview with Reese was reprinted in Pure Imagination's Wild Wood.
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