Rocky Hartberg

Who is Rocky Hartberg?

Rocky Ray Hartberg is an American underground comic and commercial artist residing in Langford, South Dakota. He graduated from Northern State University in 1975 with an art degree. In 2003, Hartberg received a second art degree from Northern.

He is best known for his hard-boiled detective, Cole Black, featured in a variety of comix between 1976 and 2006. These comics include Cole Black Comix, Cole Black Comics, Cole Black, Cole Black: the Missing Issue, and Cole Black Comics. Other comic books by Hartberg include Lonesome Cowboy Comix and White Knight Comics. His work can also be found in a number of fanzines, mostly in the late-1970s and early-1980s.

In the early-1980s, the market for small independent comics flourished driven by the success of Cerebus the Aardvark and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Investors hoping to cash in on the next black and white success were quick to purchase new issues and new black and white titles flooded the comic shop market. However, this craze was short lived and the resulting black and white comics implosion in the mid-1980s damaged the circulation of Cole Black.