Richard Corben grew up in Kansas City, where he studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, graduating in 1965. His first work was published 1968 in the Fanzine Voice of Comicdom. Two years later Corben published his own underground comic book entitled 'Fantagor', which consisted of four science fiction tales that he had conceived and drawn himself. They contained elements of horror, violence and sexuality, and already embodied the main themes of his future work.