INTERVIEW: Anthony Richichi's Long Strange Trip from Lock 9 to Colorworld Live
Photos by Staci Oswald
“It was just incredibly surreal, almost beyond words, to see these characters truly be acted out… and to see these little middle schoolers and elementary schoolers memorizing your lines and just getting into it, literally brought tears to my eyes almost every night.”
Anthony Richichi is one of those artists whose creative drives cannot be contained by any singular medium. His projects are wide ranging and incredibly diverse: providing bass, songwriting, and backup vocals for local prog metal group Lock 9, illustrating around six books per year for Saratoga Springs Publishing, and adapting his own published children’s book Colorworld into a stage play.
You could call him a jack-of-all-trades, but that absolutely doesn’t make him a master of none. In the comfort of his home studio just a stone’s throw away from downtown Glens Falls, he told me that it all started with a childhood obsession.
“Since I was like a toddler, I've been obsessed with making art. I was really into The Who because my dad was a big fan,” he explained. “The Kids Are Alright was an awesome little VHS documentary that I was [also] obsessed with throughout elementary school and middle school, and then I started making music in high school when I bought my first bass.” He told me that all that pent up inspiration he felt throughout his childhood began spilling out at that point, and he dove headfirst into creating music. Then a few years later in 2013, he had a unique source of inspiration for visual arts: fellow prolific 518 artist Hannah Williams. The pair are cousins, related through marriage.
“I linked up with Hannah and started painting,” he recalled. “She had been dating the lead singer in Lock 9, and she kept saying, ‘You gotta start painting with me.’” Richichi approached painting with the same energy, hitting the ground running and creating new work day and night.
“I was really getting into Dali and surrealism at the time,” he reminisced. “That was when I kind of really caught the art bug, thinking I wanted to do this for a living; and it was a good seven, eight years of working a full time day job and then putting in full time hours making art until I met my publisher.” That publisher was none other than Saratoga Springs Publishing, whom Richichi continues to illustrate for. He told me that he met the publishing firm in 2020 and was able to leave his day job and begin illustrating full time.
“It was a lot of years leading up, but it felt almost like overnight,” he said. He told me that he illustrates about six picture books per year with the company, and it serves as his full time gig. “That allows me to spend all my other hours painting, making music, and writing,” he explained. That eventually led to Richichi developing his very own children’s book on which he would serve as both illustrator and, for the first time, published author.
“I did a few books in my first year. The publisher really liked them,” he told me. “They were done on time, hit deadlines. The authors loved them, a couple of them won awards. I was like, "Man, I really want to try and write my own.” He explained that creative writing was another love he had since high school and college courses, and getting to learn the process of how books were made while working with the publishing company reignited that flame. The result was Colorworld.
The story centers on Henry, a kid who loves art and follows his passions, and one day discovers magical art supplies that bring all his drawings to life. It was published by Saratoga Springs Publishing in 2021, with subsequent follow ups like Colorworld: The Adirondack Adventure published in 2024, as well as coloring book editions of both stories. Three years after publishing, Richichi collaborated with the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls to turn Colorworld into a stage play.
“I wrote the script and it was an interesting, fun challenge,” he explained. “You can read a children's picture book in like, three minutes, but this has to be a 40-minute play. So, there was tons of dialogue that had to be added.” Ultimately, he told me that he essentially went page-for-page throughout the book, blocking out scenes and mapping out five to ten minutes of dialogue for each one to fill out the script. When the play opened, elementary schools from all over the North Country region had registered to bring their students on a field trip for a day at the theater.
“We had over 400 kids come, from eight different elementary schools,” he said proudly. “It was just incredibly surreal, almost beyond words, to see these characters truly be acted out. We had children play the kid characters and adults play the adults, and to see these little middle schoolers and elementary schoolers memorizing your lines and just getting into it, literally brought tears to my eyes almost every night.”
The mindblowing experiences don’t stop there for Richichi. He’s also getting the opportunity to live out the ultimate nerd dream, working on official merchandise for some of the most iconic franchises in entertainment like X-Files, Star Wars, and an upcoming run with Jurassic Park. “I started attending, first as a visitor, the Saratoga Comic Con,” he explained. While browsing the tables of some high-profile artists in attendance, he discovered that many had done work on sketch trading cards for iconic franchises.
“I felt that I could totally draw up to that quality. I thought if I could get in front of these guys, I could have a shot.” He took a note in his phone, compiled a portfolio of work, and dug around websites for hours to compile a list of potential contacts. “I took all the emails I could find, and then just cold-called everybody,” he explained. “I was like, ‘I'm an illustrator, familiar with some of your other artists. Here's my work.’ And literally, that night I heard back.” He found himself booked for sketch cards for Intellectual Properties such as Fallout and Vampirella. After about eight years of trading card work, he finally landed a deal to illustrate cards for Star Wars with Topps, one of the largest card companies in the world.
Even with everything Richichi already has on his plate, he’s still helping himself to more. His band Lock 9 are working on a new album, with new music that they’ve written in the past year now being recorded and prepared for release. He’s currently in the process of turning Colorworld Live into a musical, crafting musical numbers for the adaptation of the stage play. He’s writing the stage adaptation of his next play as well, and is working on a new series of paintings that will be featured on display by LARAC (the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council) next year.
As a cherry on top, the Glens Falls Entertainment and Music Festival (GEM Fest) co-founded by Richichi and Brian Michael, has recently confirmed it will be making a comeback this summer in honor of its 10th anniversary after a multi-year hiatus. With his fingerprints covering so many different projects across a myriad of mediums, it’s safe to say that Anthony Richichi will continue to make his presence felt across the 518.
For updates on Anthony Richichi’s work, follow him on social media @tonykillustrator or visit http://tonykillustrator.com/
