Richard Pini is one-half of a husband and wife team with Wendy Pini that created, most notably, the Elfquest series.

He was raised in Orange, Connecticut with his three siblings. Richard began writing science fiction stories early in his childhood.

In 1972, Richard and Wendy were married after a courtship of four years. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973 with a degree in Astrophysics. He worked at the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science in Boston until 1975 and Taunton High School until 1979 when he began his career at IBM.

In 1977, Richard and Wendy established a publishing company called Warp Graphics to publish their first Elfquest comic. Richard is credited as co-writer and editor on Elfquest, as