Word Balloon Comics Podcast Beavis Butthead and Rick Parker
Mar 11, 2026
01:10:36
In this episode, I sit down with cartoonist and longtime Marvel letterer Rick Parker for a wide-ranging conversation about his career in comics and cartooning. Rick spent years lettering at Marvel Comics, working during a fascinating period in the company’s history and contributing his distinctive hand to titles like Amazing Spider-Man and many others. We talk about what lettering at Marvel was really like. How the job worked day-to-day, the production realities of the era, and how lettering quietly shapes the rhythm and storytelling of a comic page.
Rick also discusses his creator-owned graphic novel Drafted, a powerful and personal project that reflects his own experiences with the Vietnam draft and military service. It’s a candid look at the book’s origins, the emotional weight behind the story, and why he felt compelled to tell it in comics form.
And of course we dig into Rick’s work as an artist, including his run drawing the Beavis and Butt-Head comic book, translating the anarchic MTV characters into comics while keeping their chaotic humor intact.
Rick also discusses his creator-owned graphic novel Drafted, a powerful and personal project that reflects his own experiences with the Vietnam draft and military service. It’s a candid look at the book’s origins, the emotional weight behind the story, and why he felt compelled to tell it in comics form.
And of course we dig into Rick’s work as an artist, including his run drawing the Beavis and Butt-Head comic book, translating the anarchic MTV characters into comics while keeping their chaotic humor intact.