There are not a lot of fictional characters that resemble him. Even the character he is straight up based on - his name was "the Mouse" if memory serves right - is almost exactly his opposite in many ways, so to picture Riviera in detail one pretty much has to consider the then-contemporary personalities popularly associated with illusionism, eccentricity and harsh living.

And suddenly, you have a frighteningly delightful cocktail of the most extreme traits of David Copperfield, David Bowie and Iggy Pop.



The only significant difference is a detail that is probably a matter of age. Read Neuromancer in the late 90's when sleek "invisible" computer design was still a niche and frosted plastic was still prevalent enough to be the norm, so rather than decorative scarring, pictured him to have an emphasised slot low on the side of the ribcage from where the optics would extract when in use.