Alberto Ruiz was born in Ecuador but moved to New York City when he was 18. Alberto's first work was as a freelance political cartoonist, but since then has worked in nearly every aspect of visual communications from caricature to advertising to corporate identity to editorial illustration to character design for animation to pin-up illustrations. In other words, Alberto Ruiz does it all. And does it well!

I love Alberto's work. His design and execution is amazing. He knows what to put in and more importantly what to leave out. Check out Alberto's Site and I'm sure you'll agree.

You can imagine my surprise when Christmas rolled around and John Beatty presented me with Alberto's take on Sly as Rocky. Looks like I'm gonna have to put John on Sushi Standby a few more times to return this favor!

Big thanks to Alberto and John!

Craig Zablo [February 6, 2004]