Richie Goodtimes is from Los Angeles, California. He’s nearly blind…and he makes rock posters. After a quarter century in the rock poster industry, people are begrudgingly coming around to the idea that maybe he should be taken seriously. He’s not used to this idea either.

Richie has a very strong and unapologetic view as to what rock posters should look and feel like. It’s not just illustration. It’s not graphic design. It’s not fine art. Rock posters are a beautiful symbiosis of the artist’s ability to not only represent the band, but the show, and ultimately the audience, on one exquisitely screen printed sheet of paper. This is what Richie Goodtimes strives for in his work, and in assisting other artists in the production of their work.

After dropping out of college in Philadelphia in the late 90s, Richie moved to San Francisco to join his friends at Babylon Burning as their production artist, even though other than being able to barely use Photoshop and Illustrator, he didn’t really know what he was doing. But he learned, quickly, out of necessity, and got pretty damned good at taking artwork and translating it into something that could go through the mesh of a screen and exist in the real world. 

Before the internet, rock posters were actually used for advertisements! Richie saw those all over San Francisco, not realizing that the people making them were in his neighborhood, and wanted to know how he could make those too. And then he found out that Frank Kozik’s studio was a couple blocks away, and that Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan of the Firehouse were right next door. These guys were accessible and invited Richie in when he said, ‘I want to do what you do.’ The very first rock poster Richie ever printed came from ink that Ron Donovan gave him. And that’s where it really started. 

Richie Goodtimes is a natural problem solver. His primary function is to take art that could be considered unscreenprintable and make beautiful screen prints. The act of screen printing is relatively simple. The act of creating color separations is not especially complicated. Richie Goodtimes’ strength in the handling of art for screen printing is the ability to see the intention of the artist and translate the intention into something that can be reproduced. Every piece of art is a unique challenge and new puzzle. The goal is to make beautiful, fully considered prints. Every print a universe unto itself adhering to its own laws of nature. High level intangible bullshit, but you know it when you see it.

Richie Goodtimes wants to make you the most beautiful screen prints possible, within the constraints of budget and time. You can find him, everyday, in the building at MK Ultra Ink, overseeing the act of ink hitting paper.

Also…Richie Goodtimes makes some of the best goddamned pure rock posters out there and if you ask nicely, maybe he’ll make something for you. He has created artwork for…for better or for worse…The Melvins, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, High on Fire, Kid Rock, OFF!, Mudhoney, The Pogues, Flogging Molly, Green Day…and a bunch more that he can’t remember, honestly. A lot. 

And the punchline to all of this..In 2023, Richie Goodtimes lost about 70% of his sight, and through a combination of anger, spite and technology, continues to do incredibly sophisticated design and separations for screen printing. He can’t fucking see.