Who created Radical Rick?

Artist Damian Fulton created Radical Rick in November 1979 at his parents' house in Irvine, California. The first strip ran in the January 1980 issue of BMX Plus! magazine.

How long did Radical Rick run in BMX Plus! magazine?

The strip ran for 13 years, from January 1980 through 1993, with roughly 150 episodes.

Was Radical Rick in BMX Action magazine?

No. Radical Rick ran in BMX Plus! magazine, a separate title from Bob Osborn's BMX Action.

What does Damian Fulton do now?

Fulton works as a fine artist out of El Segundo, California, painting urban surf scenes shown at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. He also still produces new Radical Rick artwork and licenses the character for Haro bikes, Flite pad sets, and a complete-episodes book.

Has Damian Fulton worked in animation?

Yes. He served as VP of Creative Development at Marvel Productions and later worked as a senior designer at Disney. He directed the Elton John 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' VR film at Spinifex Group.

Legend Bike Co — BMX History Project · Riders & Builders

Damian Fulton

For a whole generation of riders, this is the guy who drew the cartoon face of the sport. Damian Fulton is an American artist and illustrator, and he is best known as the creator of Radical Rick — the comic strip that ran in BMX Plus! magazine from January 1980 through 1993. The rest of his career runs through Ocean Pacific surf posters, Ogilvy & Mather advertising, Marvel Productions animation, Disney design work, and award-winning virtual-reality direction. He still paints. He still draws Rick.

Early years and education

Fulton grew up in Southern California back when BMX was still being invented in vacant lots and orange groves by riders like Scot Breithaupt. He went to California State University, Fullerton, and started out earning a living as a cartoonist and illustrator. He painted a poster for the OP Pro Surf Contest, and that led to a run of paintings for Ocean Pacific — including the 1982 acrylic-on-board piece "Contrasts."

Two of his earliest published strips set up everything that came after. One was The Shred Brothers, a snowboard strip about triplets separated at birth. The other one is the one BMX riders never forgot.

Radical Rick — November 1979

Rick got drawn at Fulton's parents' house in Irvine, California, in November 1979. The first strips were black-and-white one-pagers, and they hit newsstands the next month in the January 1980 issue of BMX Plus! magazine. By the time Fulton closed the book on Rick in 1993, the strip had grown into a full-color two-page spread and had run for 13 years across roughly 150 episodes.

Small cast. Worked hard. Rick was the fearless lead. MX Mug was the cowardly but loyal sidekick. Spike Speedwrench was the mechanic. Skuzzer Switchblade was the bad guy. For a lot of us who came up in the early-to-mid 1980s, that back-of-magazine Radical Rick page was the first thing you flipped to — before the race coverage of Stu Thomsen, Greg Hill, Mike Miranda, Perry Kramer, Tommy Brackens and Pete Loncarevich, or the freestyle pages of Eddie Fiola, RL Osborn and Todd Anderson.

One thing worth getting straight, because people mix it up: Rick lived in BMX Plus!, not the Bob Osborn-published BMX Action. The two titles fought over the same readers through the same years, and that difference matters when you sort the history out.

Rick was a comic, sure. But he was never only a comic. His likeness ended up on race plates, pad sets, t-shirts, stickers, and the side panels of a thousand garage-built bikes. He gave BMX an in-jokey visual identity that belonged to the sport itself instead of to one brand. That meant something at a time when riders rolled up to start gates on bikes from Redline, Torker, Mongoose, CW, JMC, Hutch, GT, Diamond Back, Haro, Skyway, Schwinn and Webco, racing in the colors of the NBA, NBL and ABA — all answering, eventually, to what is now USA BMX.

Advertising — Ogilvy & Mather, 1984

In 1984 Fulton moved to Los Angeles to work at Ogilvy & Mather. He stuck with advertising for years and worked his way up to Senior Partner / Creative Director. The brand list reads like a tour through 1980s and 1990s American life: Hot Wheels, Barbie, He-Man, Kraft, BP, Hilton, Chevron, Pepsi, Carl's Jr., Toyota. He won a Cannes Lion, a D&AD pencil, and a Gold Pencil for the work.

Here's the part that gets me. He was drawing Radical Rick the whole time.

Marvel Productions and Disney

Advertising work led him into animation. Fulton took a job at Marvel Productions as VP / Head of Creative Development. From there he went on to work as a senior designer at Disney, including commemorative pieces for Disneyland's 50th anniversary in 2005.

Spinifex Group and the Elton John VR film

Fulton became Executive Creative Director at Spinifex Group. In 2018 the studio built Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Legacy, a six-minute stereo VR360 film that announced Elton John's final tour. Fulton served as Live Action Director. The piece picked up industry recognition, including Cannes Lion attention.

The return to gallery painting

About a decade ago Fulton stopped making art only for clients and started making it for himself. He lives in El Segundo and he paints the place where the city runs into the water: pickup trucks at the curb, surfers walking under power lines, palm trees set against industrial buildings, waves breaking right next to the refinery. People call it urban surf art.

His paintings hang at La Luz de Jesus and have traveled to Tokyo, New York, France, Germany, Canada, Spain, Hawaii and Brazil. In 2014 La Luz de Jesus put up "Rad!" — a Fulton show that pulled together the largest collection of original Radical Rick artwork ever assembled in one room.

Radical Rick today

Rick never really went away. The complete BMX Plus! run got collected as Radical Rick: The Complete Episodes, a softcover that gathers every published strip with new material added in. Haro released a Radical Rick cruiser line in 24, 26, and 29-inch sizes with hand-drawn Fulton graphics. Flite makes Radical Rick pad sets in the original screen-printed style.

Fulton has taken Rick out on the road, too. The Radical Rick 45th Radiversary Tour put him at old-school BMX races and reunions all over the country.

Why Fulton matters to BMX

BMX has a habit of remembering the riders and forgetting the people who drew the world those riders rode in. Fulton is the exception. He gave BMX a character that outlived a magazine, outlived a decade, outlived the original bike brands that ran ads right next to him, and is still getting printed on number plates in 2026. That kind of staying power is rare in any sport. In BMX it's close to unique.

← Part of The History of BMX

Sources

Radical Rick official site — "Who the heck is RADICAL RICK?" and "The Book" (origin date, BMX Plus! publication, 13-year run).
BMX Union — "Through The Lens: Creative Minds — The Creator of Radical Rick."
El Segundo Art Walk — Damian Fulton profile.
Surfer Magazine — "Damian Fulton: Urban Surf Artist."
Club of the Waves — Damian Fulton interview.
La Luz de Jesus Gallery — Brad Parker & Damian Fulton show page.
Damian Fulton Fine Art — artist website (damianfultonart.com).
IMDb — Damian X. Fulton director credits.
MediaPost and Adweek — Spinifex Group / Farewell Yellow Brick Road coverage.
BMX Union — Haro Radical Rick bike coverage.
Flite BMX — Radical Rick pad set collection.
Sugar Cayne and DIG BMX — Radical Rick complete-episodes book coverage.

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