Among Malden High School, one of the most notable aspiring creatives is teen cartoonist Richie Cortese, known by most as Richie. Cortese is best known for his contributions to The Blue and Gold with his Teen Daze comics, and also for contributing to The Oracle.
However, there is even more about his cartoons you may not be familiar with, as he has been working on them since preschool, being inspired by many talented artists and authors.
First Influences
Cortese was diagnosed with autism and ADHD when he was a child. When he attended preschool, he was already passionate about drawing during arts and crafts time. He loved drawing pictures of himself, “and the drawings would be different topics,” like him as a doctor, superhero, or even a bug.
He later attended Forestdale School, where he started to get into drawing around 2nd grade, when he discovered the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. The former he had found “from a Scholastic book fair,” and he “fell in love with it.”
Cortese cites Pilkey as one of his main inspirations, describing how his stories “have the most whimsy and the most exaggerated characters I’ve seen,” and also took a liking to the book’s humorous style. “Even though I do find potty humor kind of ridiculous, I find it really good in the Captain Underpants series,” Cortese added.
You can see a fair amount of inspiration from Pilkey in his artwork alone, with similar eye styles, expressive characters, and silly sense of humor. Other cartoons Cortese was fascinated by were works on Nickelodeon & Cartoon Network, movies made by Illumination & Warner Bros. Studios, and the Peanuts comic by Charles M. Schultz.
He also mentioned two more authors he was inspired by, which were Dr. Seuss and Mo Williams, known for their young children’s picture books. “They’re examples of making early reading successful,” commented Cortese.
Early Comics
One of Cortese’s first comics he could find was made around 2019, when he was in 4th grade.
“I was on YouTube and was really fascinated with trying to make my own book,” he explained. “So me and my dad went to Michaels, and we got some art supplies of how to make your own book cover.”
The comic centered on the titular character “Super Guy” venturing on typical superhero adventures, inspired directly by Dav Pilkey. He used a lot of elements from the books, such as the Flip-O-Rama pages.
A year later, towards the end of 2020, when he was in 5th grade, he made his own comic series inspired by Peanuts in a comic book-making book, which had miscellaneous gags of characters doing bizarre things.
Both of his early comics, despite being aged and crude, show a genuine, early passion from him. They are full of references to his inspirations, and eventually became a precursor to his later comics.
Cortese also commented on another comic he made around 2019, where he reused the Super Guy character, renamed Captain Hero. “It was an eight-chapter, homemade comic,” and again, “there were a bunch of Dav Pilkey references.”
Academic Achievements
Around 5th to 8th grade is when Cortese began to receive academic achievements for his work. In the winter of 2020, his teacher “held a drawing contest where whoever drew the best picture would get their art selected for the front cover of the Forestdale School winter contest”, so Cortese got to work, and he ended up winning the contest. One of his rewards was a blue sketchbook.
He also won a participation certificate for an art drawing he submitted to the MWRA (Massachusetts Water Resources Authority), which was an organization dedicated to tracking water quality and systems in Massachusetts. Although he didn’t win, he did make it into the finals, and he was one of 1745 posters submitted.
Work in High School (Teen Daze)
When Cortese started high school, he initially wanted “to be in animation class,” but Malden High did not have any of those. But he was able to join the Animation Club.
One of his teachers, Jessica Depaula, or “Miss Jess” to Richie, “was one of The Blue and Gold editors back in her days in high school.” When she saw Cortese’s work, she recommended he submit it to The Blue and Gold. Cortese took the opportunity, as “it was my chance to show everyone my artwork through the school newspaper.”
In late October 2024, he started the monthly Teen Daze series. These comics were soon “a success with students and teachers,” as they found them hilarious and “wanted to see more of them.” In fact, later that year, “one of them won an NESPA (New England Scholastic Press Association) award” for being the Best Editorial Cartoon.
Cortese was motivated, deciding he “wanted to create more comics for the school newspaper.” Cortese continues to submit Teen Daze comics monthly.
Cortese has also submitted his work to The Oracle for “the same reasons” he created Teen Daze. He remembers looking through “one of the past Oracles from 2024,” and after seeing a comic, he was inspired to submit his comic to The Oracle. He told Miss Jess, who told him that she “used to make poems for The Oracle, and maybe you should submit work too”.
Characters & Worldbuilding
In addition to his comics, Cortese has many characters outside of Teen Daze, each with their own creative personalities and stories.
For instance, he has a dog and cat named “Dig & Casey”, and Cortese described them as his own “Ren & Stimpy,” with Dig being responsible and grumpy while Casey as more energetic, “and like my personality.”
Casey also has a superhero persona, “Cattacker”, a persona which Cortese has filled full sketchbooks detailing stories about him. He inserts a lot of slapstick and superhero actions in his stories. He confesses it can come across as “juvenile humor, but it’s just the stuff I come up with,” and Cortese loves his work.
Final Thoughts
Cortese finished by saying that “in a few years from now,” he hopes to fund an “independent animation studio or a comic studio” and to “become an advocate for creative people with disabilities,” like him.
Cortese has grown vastly as an artist and has been influenced by a lot of sources to make his own work. He used that inspiration to create his own imaginative world. And just because he will be graduating in 2026 does not mean his story is over. If anything, it is just starting.
With dedication to his craft and having support from his family, friends, and the school, Cortese’s story is a great reminder of how far you can come by combining inspiration with passion and commitment.
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