Rick Leonardi is an American comic book illustrator. He was born in Philadelphia, and grew up in New England. His work is characterized by his use of dynamic poses, panel composition, and shifting of the camera eye and perspective.
His well-known works include various sporadic fill-in issues of The Uncanny X-Men and The New Mutants, as well as runs on Cloak & Dagger, Spider-Man 2099, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Green Lantern Versus Aliens.
He is credited, along with fellow illustrator Mike Zeck, of designing the black-and-white costume to which Spider-Man switched during the miniseries Secret Wars, and later wore for a time. According to the Spider-Man 1/2 special, the costume began as a design by Zeck that Leonardi embellished. The plot that developed as a result of Spider-man’s acquisition of the costume led to the creation of the Spider-Man villain known as Venom.
