 Born in Glasgow, Ritchie attended the Glasgow School of Art, where he learnt little about cartoons or comics; instead, he taught himself by practising from local comics artists Jack Lindsay, Bud Neill, Jimmy Malcolm, Harry Smith and Bill Tait.It was Malcolm who suggested he try to draw comics for D. C. Thomson in Dundee.While serving in the army in Korea, he submitted his first cartoons to the publisher, which were printed in "The Weekly News".