Darick Robertson
Darick W. Robertson is an American artist best known for his work as a comic book illustrator on series he co-created, notably Transmetropolitan and The Boys.
Robertson has illustrated hundreds of comics in his thirty-plus years in the industry. His body of work ranges from science fiction characters of his own creation to work on renowned classic characters from Marvel and DC Comics.
Early life
Robertson was introduced to comics at an early age. He read Gold Key Comics found at the local barbershop and before long his father drove him to Palo Alto where young Robertson could buy weekly comics such as Flash and Spider-Man. By fifth grade the young artist was already stapling together homemade comics to show to his friends. Darick Robertson cites Paul Smith, George Pérez, José Luis García-López, Neal Adams, Joe Kubert and Bernie Wrightson as early formative influences on his craft, and states it was Brian Bolland's work on Camelot 3000 that defined for him what a comic artist could aspire to. Robertson also cites Frank Miller as a hero, and hopes to eventually emulate Miller's success as both an artist and a writer.Career
Robertson created his first comic book at the age of 17 while still in school and also working as a bill collector. Many small-press black and white books featuring anthropomorphic heroes were seeing sudden critical and commercial success in the wake of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Robertson had "always loved this idea of stuffed animals fighting they bleed and stuff comes out of them when they die." As a result, he created Space Beaver, “a cute little beaver…running around shooting people."Robertson showed his new work, drawn on typing paper in ball-point pen, to Michio Okamura, an inker working as a security guard in the same building as the collection agency. Okamura inked Reggie Byers's Shuriken for Victory Comics, and introduced Darick to the use of Bristol Board, ink pens, and zip-a-tone. Okamura sent Robertson's pages to Victory Comics, who agreed to publish Space Beaver, but not to compensate Robertson. Robertson then took the finished pages to Tibor Sardy, owner of Peninsula Comics in San Mateo California. After seeing Robertson's work, the comic store owner agreed to pay Robertson and publish Space Beaver under the name Ten-Buck Comics. Robertson would now spend every day after work and school drawing the book, which would run for 11 issues. Years after the series ended people still ask Robertson to confirm he was the creator of Space Beaver. Robertson's father carried a worn copy of Space Beaver #1 folded into his coat pocket to show his friends what his son had created.
In 2000 Larry Young acquired permission to publishSpace Beaver and AiT/Planet Lar released two trades collecting the entire run.
DC and Marvel Comics
After Robertson launched his career with Space Beaver, he began to regularly attend comic conventions seeking advice and professional connections. As a result, by age 21, Robertson landed his first work for a major publisher illustrating Justice League Quarterly #4 at DC Comics. He would then illustrate a run of Justice League Europe working alongside writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist/writer Keith Giffen. Over time Robertson would develop his craft finishing Giffen's panel breakdowns on a JLE/JLA crossover entitled "Breakdowns". Robertson worked on JLE issues 26, and 30–35. Later in his career Robertson would return to the Justice League to work with Mark Waid on Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare.After breaking in at DC, Robertson's first work at Marvel was Wolverine issue #54. Robertson would then have his first extended monthly run working with Fabian Nicieza on Marvel's New Warriors. after Mark Bagley departed the book, a run Robertson recalls with pride. According to Nicieza, readers immediately took to Robertson's art despite its sharp stylistic differences from Bagley's. Robertson worked on New Warriors for two years, from issue 26 until issue 50, collaborating with artist Brandon Mckinney later in the run. He also moved beyond the drawing board, writing for New Warriors Annual #3 and #4. While at Marvel, Robertson would also have a chance to work on his first iconic character – Spider-Man. Robertson illustrated Deadpool #50 and 51, which featured the first appearance of Kid Deadpool. Robertson illustrated "Spider-man: the Power of Terror", "Spider-Man: The Final Adventure" and a Spider-Man story written by Stan Lee and inked by George Pérez. This story is found collected in Best of Marvel 1995. Robertson would also add additional writing credits working on Spectacular Spider-Man Super Special #1 and Spider-Man Team-Up #5.
Malibu and Acclaim
Robertson's career continued as a key creator on Malibu Comics's Ultraverse comic line. It was also his first foray into creating new characters for an existing business. At Malibu Robertson co-created and designed the character Nightman, and both wrote and created the character Ripfire. This brought about some frustration, however, as Malibu promised Robertson the rights in Nightman only to renege and sell the character to Marvel. Nightman eventually produced toys and a TV show, and Robertson later described the experience as “a sore spot.” However, while still at Malibu, Robertson met future DC and Wildstorm editor Hank Kanalz as well as a then obscure British comic writer, Warren Ellis.While working on a short run of Malibu's Ultraforce, Kanalz paired Robertson with emerging British comic writer Warren Ellis. Robertson enjoyed working with Ellis and contacted the writer explaining,"I had the greatest time working on the ; they were funny and violent but, interesting… you ever want to work on a monthly project together, I'm all over it." Ellis agreed. When the Malibu Comics work ended, New Warriors writer and then Acclaim Comics Editor Fabian Nicieza approached Robertson about re-teaming with Ellis on a Solar, Man of the Atom special. The special became a science fiction heavy work including a two-page spread of a secret Vatican library. After the special was complete, Robertson received a phone call from Ellis asking up on that offer to work together on a monthly book.
''Transmetropolitan''
Transmetropolitan was created for DC's new Science Fiction imprint Helix. Robertson's immediate response to Ellis' pitch was to tell the British writer "that sounds great, I told you I'd want to work with you anytime you could." The future collaborators began to brainstorm on finer points of the new work, including arriving at the new name for the books lead. Helix editor Stuart Moore had worried the original name of Caleb Newcastle was "too British", so the collaborators settled on Spider Jerusalem.Robertson now faced a difficult choice in turning down the opportunity to draw Spider-Man monthly. A close friend pointed out to Robertson that choosing Transmetropolitan would mean he has a book that was always his, while choosing Spider-Man could make Robertson just another Spider-Man artist. Recalling his experiences with Malibu, Robertson chose the project where he would own the work. Ironically, despite Ellis's enthusiasm for Robertson's work, and the hard choice he made turning down Spider-Man, Robertson had difficulty overcoming an initial editorial perception that he was a superhero artist. Yet after a number of concept sketches and taking a firm stand, and submitting the first four pages of pencils for the first issue, Robertson was confirmed as the book's artist. Robertson described the Transmetropolitan process as "a real collaboration unlike anything I've ever worked on before because there are things that I added that were never a part of the script." Notable contributions from Robertson include the idea of television buy bombs and the notorious Sex Puppets. Robertson even modeled Spider's ex-wife on his own wife, operating under the request that if she was drawn into the book, she didn't want the character to be anything like herself. Robertson is also behind the creation of Transmetropolitan's iconic gecko eating two headed cat. Robertson drew the cat into an alley panel after considering what strays might exist in the future. After seeing the sketch co-creator Ellis declared "let's make it pet."
Writing for Wired magazine, Cory Doctorow called Transmetropolitan "the graphic novel of the decade." Notable fans of Transmetropolitan include Patrick Stewart, Robin Williams, and writer/director Darren Aronofsky. Robertson called working on Transmetropolitan a rewarding experience, citing the critical acclaim, continued popularity of the characters and unique fandom. Robertson expresses fond memories of Ellis's scripts but he has no desire to return to Transmetropolitan. When the book ended he found no longer operating under the book's constant tight deadlines was a great relief.
After DC shut the Helix label down, Transmetropolitan moved to Vertigo, with issue 7, where it ran for 60 issues.
Return to Marvel
In 2002, after Transmetropolitan ended, Robertson found his schedule opening up again for new projects. Former Transmetropolitan editor Axel Alonso approached Robertson with the opportunity for an exclusive deal at Marvel Comics. Robertson was instrumental in Marvel's launch of the Marvel MAX mature imprint. Alongside writer Garth Ennis, who Robertson had met through Warren Ellis, Robertson worked on Fury, a hard-edged modern take on the seminal Marvel comics spy character Nick Fury which Rolling Stone hailed as "cool comic of the year". Robertson and Ennis developed a solid working partnership and would re-team again on a number of projects including a follow-up miniseries depicting Nick Fury during World War II entitled Fury: Peacemaker. Darick also illustrated Spider-Man: Sweet Charity with veteran television writer Ron Zimmerman. Robertson referred to the book as "his best Spider-Man work to date."Robertson soon collaborated again with Garth Ennis, illustrating the Ennis's 2002 run on the Marvel Knights Punisher series, in which Wolverine was mutilated by little people The next major collaboration between Robertson and Garth Ennis was Punisher: Born. Originally planned as Punisher: The War Where I Was Born, for the Ultimate line, the book instead became the new origin of Marvel's signature vigilante, and the starting point for Ennis's run the Punisher series published under Marvel's MAX imprint.
Image:Nightcrawler.PNG|thumb|left|Image of Nightcrawler by Darick Robertson