Rick Spears is from Richmond, Virginia as is his main collaborator Rob G., although they did not actually meet until after they left: "[we] have lived sort of parallel lives. We're from the same place, went to the same college and have a bunch of the same friends but we never met until we both moved to Brooklyn." After moving to New York City they met and began self-publishing Teenagers from Mars forming Gigantic Graphic Novels to collect the issues and then using it to publish their first graphic novel Dead West. The pair would also have an early success in mainstream American comic books with a Batman story for DC in 2003 and they published the comic series Repo with Image Comics. Since then he has continued producing creator-owned work, like Black Metal, as well as working on the properties of others, as he has done at Marvel and producing the graphic novel adaptation of the film Jennifer's Body.

Comics work includes:

• Teenagers from Mars (with Rob G., 8-issue limited series, self-published, 2001—2003, tpb, 272 pages, Gigantic Graphic Novels, February 2005, ISBN 0976303809)
• Detective Comics #785-788 (with Rob G., DC Comics, October 2003 - January 2004)
• "Call To Arms: The Ballad of Archibald Copperpot: Act 3 - Scene 5" (with Rob G., in Metal Hurlant #12, Humanoids Publishing, June/July 2004)
• Dead West (with Rob G., graphic novel, 144 pages, Gigantic Graphic Novels, August 2005, ISBN 0976303817)
• Filler (with Rob G, graphic novel, 96 pages, AiT/Planet Lar, April 2005, ISBN 1932051325)
• "The State I Am In" (with Rob G., in Put the Book Back on the Shelf: A Belle and Sebastian Anthology, anthology graphic novel, Image Comics, March 2006, ISBN 978-1582406008)
• The Pirates of Coney Island #1- (with Vasilis Lolos, Image Comics, October 2006—present)
• Repo (with Rob G., 5-issue limited series, Image Comics, June—December 2007, tpb, 152 pages, March 2008, ISBN 1582408742)
• "Operation Torch" (with Rob G., in True Stories That Never Happened, anthology hardcover graphic novel, 160 pages, Villard Books, July 2007, ISBN 034549850X)
• Black Metal (with Chuck BB, graphic novel, 160 pages, Oni Press, August 2007, ISBN 1932664726)
• Fear Agent #23: "Heath 2.O" (back-up story, with James Callahan, Dark Horse Comics, August 2008)
• Jennifer's Body (with Jim Mahfood, graphic novel, 112 pages, Boom! Studios, September 2009, ISBN 1608865010)
• Immortal Weapons #3: "Urban Legend" (with Timothy Green, Marvel Comics, November 2009)
• Iron Protocols: "His Girl Friday" (back-up story, with Iban Coello, one-shot, Marvel Comics, December 2009)
• "Tabitha Smith and Elsa Bloodstone in: Super Boys!" (with James Callahan, in Marvel Heartbreakers, one-shot anthology, Marvel Comics, April 2010)