Ray Billingsley was raised in New York's Harlem neighborhood, where he shared a room with his older brother, who first got him interested in art. He won his first art award from a city-wide competition at age eight, and at twelve years old, was discovered by Kids magazine and hired as a part-time staff artist. By sixteen he had begun freelancing around New York City, and eventually became a regular in Ebony magazine and Crazy magazine while attending the High School of Music and Art.
After high school, Billingsley attended the School of Visual Arts, where he received a full four-year scholarship. He continued working as a freelance artist while in school, including a stint at Disney, training to be an assistant animator. In 1980, he launched his first comic strip with United Features Syndicate, Lookin’ Fine, which ran until 1982. It made him the youngest nationally syndicated strip cartoonist at age 21.
Billngsley most enduring work, Curtis, was first published by King Features Syndicate in 1988. Not just a humor strip, he never shied away from tackling tough society concerns, and even gave Kwanzaa an annual event with original storylines. Curtis was the first to depict a full family dynamic featuring African-Americans, and had a daily readership of at least 43 million. He has won many prestigous awards throughout his career, including the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award in 2020, which is the highest award given in the industry.
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