In Stephen King’s novel Cell, the artist’s first name is Clay Riddell.
Clay is a graphic artist who is in Boston when a mysterious event transmitted through mobile phones causes people who receive it to become violent and mindless. He is separated from his young son, Johnny, and sets out to find him while society rapidly collapses around him.
The character’s professional identity matters because Clay is not introduced as a soldier, scientist, or police officer. His survival depends on observation, improvisation, and cooperation with other civilians, including Tom McCourt and Alice Maxwell. Their journey gives the apocalyptic premise a personal objective.
Cell was published in 2006, when mobile-phone dependence was already becoming a widespread cultural concern. The novel is sometimes confused with King’s supernatural stories involving telepathy, but its outbreak begins through a signal carried by cellular phones. Clay’s surname is Riddell, while Johnny is his son, not an alternate name for the protagonist.