DARICK ROBERTSON
by David O'Leary
Welcome back to 5 Minutes With... With this the tenth edition of the column we are joined by an artist of big stature. He has struck gold twice with his collaboration on Transmetropolitan with Warren Ellis and on The Boys with Garth Ennis. Darick Robertson is a guy who has had a long career in comics going back to his high school days. In a revealing interview Darick goes into depth explaining his late fathers encouragement at an early age, how DC were amicable when dropping The Boys and how he got burned by Malibu in the nineties and more besides so read on...
David O'Leary: Hey Darick, cheers for taking the time to speak with us on CR.
Darick Robertson: My pleasure!
DO'L: First off I want to ask you about striking success twice when it comes to creator owned material. Some creators are lucky to have it happen once in their career. But yourself, with The Boys and Transmetropolitan, you have struck twice in a relatively short space of time. Do you consider yourself lucky?
DR: In some ways, yes, and in other ways I subscribe more to the idea that the harder I work, the luckier I get. I knew Warren Ellis was a great talent when not many others seemed to notice, and initiated working with him on a monthly comic back in 1996. I'm lucky he wanted to. I am lucky I said yes to Garth Ennis the second time he offered to create ';the BOYS' with me. I'm lucky that sales remained strong once we move to Dynamite. But I have devoted most of my last 13 years to both of these endeavors.
DO'L: You had a meteoric rise to top tier material with top tier creators. From your own 11 issues of Space Beaver, you went to the Justice League (Quarterly & Europe). Were you feeling under pressure at that point to make good your potential to try remain at high level titles?
DR: Not really, but I felt blessed to be getting work on books I enjoyed. I had done a lot of obscure stuff in the five years between Space Beaver and JLE, like an adaptation of Child's Play 2, and other books for the now defunct "Innovation". Like the old joke, it took me 20 years to become an overnight success.
DO'L: You've mentioned in other interviews about how supportive your late father was of your first work Space Beaver, when he used to carry a beat up copy in his pocket to show people. Obviously that kind of support can only be an inspiration to you. Did he live to see you make it at DC and your later successes?
DR: Yeah, my Dad was a mechanic and had a work jacket within he'd keep a folded over copy to show his friends at the auto parts store and such. He passed away in 1997, and wasn't that coherent his last few years, as he was elderly. But his support and my Mother's hard earned approval meant very much to me. My Dad was the one who bought me comics, drove me many miles to Comic Book shops and would get me art materials before I was old enough to get an actual job. I started to get published out of senior year in High School and he was a big reason I was already creating publishable work.
Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan by Darick
DO'L: It's fairly well known how you got burned when it came to the rights of Nightman at Malibu. Although that character and universe are now consigned to history along with the toy line and cartoon etc., do you still harbor frustration at how the whole episode turned out?
DR: Somewhat, as I saw it as a petty and squandered opportunity. My career seems to have weathered the transition though, so I don't have too much to complain about. Live and learn. The hardest part was seeing all the product and shows when the rest of that line had died. I would have at least like to have received the credit and royalties I was promised when the project began.
Cover to The Boys #34
DO'L: My favorite work of yours is Punisher: Born. When that book was done, it was early on in the MAX lines of titles. A lot of people responded well to the retelling of Frank's origin in the manner it was done. You were of course already off the back of a more hard edged line of storytelling in Transmetro, but was it fun all the same to bring that style of storytelling to the Marvel U. where just a couple of years beforehand you would have never seen the Marvel characters be presented like that?
DR: I really enjoyed the MAX line and the direction Marvel had taken by bringing that element to their books. It was some of my favorite work I did there. A lot of what made BORN great was Nick Lowe, who now edits the X-Men. Nick had a real passion for the project, and even loaned me his Father's photo album from Vietnam and it allowed me to really see details I never would have seen quite the same way otherwise.
The Punisher:Born cover
DO'L: When DC optioned out of publishing The Boys, did you think that was the end of the book or was it always going to another publisher? By accounts I've read, DC were very amicable in the end about returning rights to the characters to yourself and Garth.
DR: DC was fantastically cooperative and I am always grateful that they were, because they could have held things up and the book might have suffered. They were magnanimous with me, and ';the BOYS' has done very well at Dynamite.
DO'L: Is there a life span on The Boys?
DR: Issue 70.
DO'L: You were working right at the height of the comics bubble in the nineties. Comparisons are being drawn to the glut of titles that are now on sale today to the amount of titles that were there at the height of the boom. The one difference being that today's books are better quality, both writing and art wise. Is there still a degree of caution to be had or lessons to be observed from the fallout from the nineties in your opinion to today's business model?
DR: I think the big difference now is that books are being published to people that actually read them. The Nineties bubble was expanded by naive collectors who thought any number one issue would gain value and publishers who couldn't provide enough variant covers, of which no gimmick seemed to gimmicky. The Big three pumped out a lot of really crappy books, and surprise, surprise, people stopped buying them. POP! When they start slaughtering the big name heroes though, you know someone is looking at the profit margins. I think there's a desire to recreate that lightning in a bottle that the ';Death Of Superman' brought.
However, today the indie market is heating up like never before and most comics fans are readers, so titles like ';Walking Dead', ';Scott Pilgrim', and ';The BOYS' find an audience that they never might have before.
DO'L: One book that you looked like you enjoyed doing was the cut short Nightcrawler book. It ended a bit abruptly. Had Robert and yourself more in mind for the book prior to its cancellation and would you revisit the character given the chance?
DR: Oh yeah, I believed the book was to be "Ongoing" when we started. There was a strange interruption between issues 6 and 7 where it left the shelves a few months, and was supposed to come back ongoing, but only went to issue 12. Roberto and I had planned out a great second year which ended up being a rushed second arc. I wish we'd been able to do all we'd envisioned with the character as we had some really fun stuff plotted out and I really enjoyed working with Roberto and Mike Marts.
DO'L: Any desire to return to writing your own work?
DR: Very much. The success of "Conan: Weight Of The Crown" left me itching to do more Conan comics at least.
DO'L: We are at the start of Con season at the moment. Will we be seeing you making appearances this year?
DR: I will be at few cons, possibly San Diego. You can always see updates at my website darickrobertson.com where I usually post upcoming appearances.
Darick Robertson
DO'L: I've taken enough of your time Darick, thanks for putting up with me!
DR: Thank you!
That was a big thrill for me to talk with Darick. He's a guy that I've long admired and wish him all the best for the future. Please join me again when my guest will be the Eisner nominated creator of the Crogan Adventures from Oni Press, Chris Schweizer.
Interviewer Bio
Name: David O' Leary
email: idwfan@yahoo.co.uk
Been reading comics: for about 12 years now.
Review Bio: I am a 26-year-old Hotel Manager from the west coast of the Republic of Ireland and think this is a great way to talk to others about this cool medium. I am a husband to one wife and father to one girl (so far).
Favorites: ONI's Whiteout, Vertigo's Scalped and Garth Ennis Preacher and Punisher in Trades. In comic form I am reading a lot of Marvel and a bit of IDW, Dark Horse & WildStorm among others.
Website: Sorry, I don't have one!
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