Space Beavers and Three Headed Cats

Darick Robertson

Interview by Christy Kallies (christy@sequentialtart.com)

Sequential Tart: How did you and Warren meet?

Darick Robertson: Warren and I were working on a book called Ultraforce. I came in on it later, but he was doing a three issue run on this book for Malibu - it's kind of defunct - and they needed someone to come on and fill in for the guy that wasn't doing it. I think I was supposed to take it over after that. It was really vague. I didn't know who the writer was. They said it was this guy Warren Ellis with this other guy doing dialogue. I really feel like most superhero comics are, like, nothing's going on right now, so it's really boring.

But I read Warren's script, and he took really mediocre characters that, most people would let flounder, and he made them interesting. He would write about the way their clothes fit them — they'd be sweating or what they'd be eating, which he'd describe in detail. It really made the characters more tangible to me. I really thought, "Wow, here are characters I can practically smell when I read the script, much less visualize." And I wouldn't think in terms of comic book pages, I would think like a movie, and those images would come to me rather than comic book pages. And that was really exciting. So I would have a lot of rich stuff to take from it when I would go to a page.

And I immediately realized that he's probably the only guy that I could really say - next to Garth Ennis - that really enjoy their work anymore. So I called him and I said "Hey, I had the greatest time working on the script; they were funny and violent but, interesting" - the violence meant something - and I said "you ever want to work on a monthly project together, I'm all over it." And, he was like "Great. Very nice. " We got along fine.

Nothing really came of it. I went on to do Spider-Man stuff and other things for Marvel that I enjoyed doing, but he called ... oh, and then Fabian Nicieza from Acclaim said, "Do you want to do this Man of the Atom with Warren Ellis" and I said sure. It was a 45-page project. It was really more of a sci-fi story. It had no action in it. Nobody got punched; nothing blew up, really. The only explosion there is, you see the aftermath, and you never see the explosion. It was really a conversation book, and I really enjoyed drawing it. He had me draw the Vatican, the secret library in there, in a double page splash. Rather than what I had been doing which is like a double page splash of, like, some big monstrous guy with things coming out of his hands. So it was a double page splash with this ancient library that no one had ever seen. Ah, it was challenging! That was interesting. And, superhero comics become very redundant if you don't challenge yourself in my opinion.

So, I did this library, and the book went well, and we got good sales on it, but it turns out Warren was really happy with it, because he didn't know how I would handle it. And on that he called me up and said "I'm doing this book for Helix called Transmetropolitan." And he told me about it, and I was immediately like "Great, that sounds great, I told you I want to work with you anytime you could." And he gave me some ideas on what he was looking for. And the character originally was going to be named Caleb Newcastle. Same concept [as Spider Jerusalem], but Stuart Moore sort of thought that it sounded too British, and Warren had this bad habit of making everything too British. He wanted to do something different. And we talked about names, and Spider Jerusalem is what came out of it.

And, so I was doing concept sketches, and it all came together from there. He was really happy with what I turned in to him. Stuart had liked my work before and was really interested to see what I'd do. I had some trouble getting on to the book. I was so stereotyped as a superhero artist, and [they] didn't think that I could do this. I kind of had to just go, "Well, [if] you want me, then you want me, if not, that's fine." Whereas, at the same time, I was entertaining taking on the Spider-Man book. So, it ended up working out, and I'm really happy that over a year and a half later it's come to this. And it seems to be enjoying a growing success rather than floundering. Which, I would be very worried. If it were floundering, it'd be cancelled immediately.

ST: You have a large female readership...

DR: Which I really like. I really think that's great, because now in a lot of ways I don't think people would think women would enjoy the material. But to me, I think Warren has a really interesting view of women, which is very original from what's going on in comics right now. And I enjoy that, too. These women are strong, and they're not ... I don't know, I essentially try to make them, even if they are sexy, not to up-play the sex, just to let the sex be there, you know what I mean? I think to some degree women are really exploited in comics. And I like looking at naked women as much as the next guy or draw to one, but I think there's something to consider about what makes a woman attractive rather than just, you know, the over-inflated breast and curvy waist.

So, I think that might be why the women readership is strong.

ST: So when you and Warren get together, do you discuss characters and how they're going to look or does he tell you in detail how he wants them to look?

DR: Yeah, I mean, he does. I often bring whatever I want to it, as well, but he is really descriptive, which is what makes it a pleasure to work with him. I always know what he wants, but he's never rigid about it. He never says, "Hey I asked for that!" if I have an idea. The book has got a real collaboration on it unlike anything I've ever worked on before because there are things that I ask for that were never a part of the script. And that's great.

In issue five, the TV issue, I contributed, the buy bombs, the Sex Puppets thing, it was me. And those things become a part of the book. People write in about it. So it's great. Then I see stuff where it's like that's what I contributed. And he's really smart about that. I like that a lot. A lot of writers will just be "I write, you draw." It's not like that on this book at all.

ST: I told you before that I really liked the backgrounds, and there's so much hidden in them. Is that all you or does he ...

DR: That's pretty much all me. I mean, he occasionally makes suggestions if it's important to the story, for example, like, this sign is here or something. In issue 8 where the cryogenic freeze woman wakes up and it goes through her story, when she sets out on the street, he was very specific about what she sees that makes her freak out - the woman eating a human being. This cloned human meat. Good God. I mean, if you woke up to that ... ugh. So, he gets pretty specific about that. But a lot of the time it's actually stuff I just throw in because I think it's funny at the time, or, it's my book so I really feel like I can do whatever the hell I want on this, and they've got to publish it, for the most part. And I love that; it totally challenges me to go "Hey, I can cut loose here." That's why I did the big Charlie Brown, you know. Why not?

ST: Now, Transmet is creator owned, right?

DR: Yeah, that makes a big difference because they can't take it away from you if it's yours. (laugh) It makes it nice.

ST: What are some of the major differences between doing that and working for hire where you have to do something?

DR: Yeah, I mean, roughly I kind of am for hire even on this project, but the big difference is, at the end of the day, especially when I draw him, Spiderman is someone else's property. I'll never own Spiderman. Even Todd McFarlane, with the impact that he made on the character recently - it's still not his. And ultimately, I'd always be the guy who draws Spiderman if I took that route. But whereas with this, I give a shit about it, at the end of the day, about what the characters look like, what the book says, it is something I would read. And, ultimately, if it fails, that's a reflection on me. Because, I created this guy, I created this guy with Warren, and you know if it fails, ultimately it means that my ideas aren't stimulating to anyone but me. And I don't really want to go there, but I also don't want to ride on anyone else's coattails, like Stan Lee's, Steve's, or those guys from Image that made those characters so hot. I could ride that wave, but I'd rather be with Warren making it on our own, you know. I'm much more excited to be considered a peer of Garth right now. Like where people say, "Oh, this is the next Preacher" or they compare it with Preacher. It's just, even the fact that they just kind of mention it in the same venue thing as Grant's books. I mean, those are the books that I read. And to be doing a book in that same kind of group of people is really exciting. I mean being creator owned is also challenging. And I think that's what I'm enjoying the most about it. I think that's what it means at the end of the day. It's creator owned; it's yours so you care about it more.

ST: You said you were raised in a fundamentalist family...

DR: Yeah, my family is, uh, I was raised Christian. My mother and my brother are still very religious, and it's an interesting dilemma. I'm actually worried that my mom is going to read the book. I love my mom. I just want her to think well of me. Religion's kind of a weird topic for me because of it, too. I'm really opinionated, you know, and a lot of early things growing up, and, I mean, technically I'm breaking the rules now. In some ways, it's challenging and exciting, but in other ways, it gets kind of like intimidating because I don't want to be sending a message of hate or anything. I don't really want to be just, I don't know, producing something nasty for the sake of being nasty. But even when Spider's nasty, ultimately, Spider tells the truth, and that's more than you can say for a lot of people who claim to be very religious. And at the end of the day I think it's important to look at people. Sometimes the people who are wearing the nice clothes are the ones you have to worry about. Sometimes, the person who's smiling and shaking your hand is going to fuck you over, not the junky on the corner here who is just really messed up. Sometimes we just take things for granted. And I like that because Spider's the one who goes through and pokes those balloons and says, "Bullshit, bullshit, the Emperor has no clothes." That's a character I can be really proud of participating in. That's something I truly believe in, and I really like the fact that Spider is really a real marriage of our ideas. It's really as much me as it is Warren, and we really are the Mommy and Daddy of him. We both contribute something that makes him live. I think that's really cool, I like being a part of that.

Being raised fundamentalist, I was very fortunate, though, I had a very open minded mother in regards she and my father never once said, "you can't do this, you can't draw, you can't watch this movie, you can't listen to this music". I went a big punk rock phase where my hair was all shaved off and different colors, and my mom was, like, no, that's great, y'know? The earring freaked her out but my messed up hair, ripped up clothes, Sex Pistols blasting through the ceiling, no problem. But, she used to pay me to take piano lessons, and she was very encouraging. And I would draw in church. I mean, I actually learned to draw in church because I had all this time to sit and do nothing, you know? Listen to these stories and sit there and learn to draw. They were always very supportive of that. I always appreciated that. They didn't always agree with them [my drawings], and I didn't always agree with them, but they never said, "You can't" or fight me on it or try and stop me from being an artist. My first book came out when I was 17, just getting out of high school, and they were really excited for me, you know. They were, like, "Wow that's great, how did you do that?"

My dad was an airline mechanic; my mom didn't work, she was a housewife. I don't think they expected any of their kids to actually go out and work in artistic careers of any kind, but they were always very supportive, and I owe a lot to them. Even though they were fundamentalist, they weren't very restrictive, and I think their open mindedness contributed a lot to how I turned out and what my art looks like, you know? There's a discipline, I think, in my work, and there's freedom in it. And I think the best artists are the ones who have a balance of both. Discipline but yet freedom of expression.

ST: So how did you do your first book at 17?

DR: At 17, I did a book called Space Beaver. At the time, black and white comics were really popular and selling a butt load. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had just grown out of their black and white comic to the cartoon and the toys. As a result, all the old issues would shoot up in value and publishers were putting out black and white comics the way Image puts out multiple covers.

Black and white comics were booming. As a result, a lot of people were putting out cheapie comics. From these, some good ones came, other ones were not so good. One of the good ones was Fish Police. It just hovered there. Cerebus is an example of another one enjoying a good success. But then other books that came out were just awful. But, retailers bought up a lot of them and the market exploded.

Just before anyone noticed a crack in the ceiling and that it was going to fall down on all of us, somebody thought that I was talented. I had drawn a three or four page story on binder paper where I actually drew it out in ballpoint pen - during summer school. I failed history, so I had to take summer school, and I'd just sit there and draw in class. None of my teachers appreciated that. I took it to a guy that I met, a security guard at an office I was working at for the bill collector, City Bank Visa. And he asked to see it, as he was drawing comics himself for a really small company. He was on a book called Shuriken. He really liked the pages I drew. He said "I like this, I'm going to send it in to my publisher." They offered me the option of being published for the first time by saying, "Hey, we'll publish it. We can't pay you. Go do all this work, you won't get any money, but you'll see your stuff in print." I was like "Okay, great, I'm going to be in print." So I moved to the south, got in an accident, went back and did the book.

So I started doing the original art and took it to a local store [Editor's note: Ten Buck Comics, the publisher, was run by the store]. I was showing them, and they were like "This is great, I'll publish your book. We'll pay you and you'll have your own title." I was like "Okay!" So I ran home and finished the artwork and finished high school simultaneously and went to this credit card job. It took me about four hours a night. It was get up at 7:30 in the morning, go to school, have lunch, go to this job, get home about 10, and then draw 'til 3 or 4, and then the whole thing would start over. I did this the whole semester. It was ridiculous. Graduated high school and turned this thing in. And, they published the book. Somebody came up today with it. Ironically, there's a web site for it. A fan based web site. And people still come up and go 'Hey, aren't you the guy who does Space Beaver?' So, I mean, even though it was like ... I thought it was terrible, I was just backing up like 'Oh, man, oh'. Now I have this burning desire to, like, do this book again, do the same story but with everything I've learned in twelve years of comics and just see how the different product would be. But that was how I got my first book. Actually, it was a cute little beaver, and he was running around shooting people, and their guts would come out. So I always loved this idea of stuffed animals fighting and they bleed and stuff comes out of them when they die. It's the combination of the super cute and the very disgusting that just thrilled me to no end. I used to draw this all the time. Eleven issues. A couple years. The sales were down to nothing, and finally I was like, maybe it's time to move on. So I started going to cons and try my stuff with new people and see how the business works. But that's how it started. Space Beaver. You can look it up on the Internet. Type in Space Beaver, my name, there's a web site for it.

ST: Did you read comics as a kid?

DR: I did, actually. My father used to take me to a barbershop, and he had Gold Key comics on this ledge. And if I reached up and grabbed a comic, I could read it. My Favorite Martian and that kind of stuff. Sometimes I get Playboy and read that instead. Time Life magazine. You know the comic was good, and it won out over the Playboy. Then there's a pharmacy around the corner, and I realized when I went to the pharmacy one day that they had a big rack, one of those "Hey Kids" comic racks that squeaked. And, it was wholesome. But they had comics that you could buy new, and you didn't have to read it in the comic shop. Bad thing [for me] to discover for my father, because he was a very generous man and bought me every comic book I wanted. Drove me to Palo Alto, which was a good 25 minutes away by car, in this heavily congested area, just so I could buy comics on a weekly basis. He was really great that way. And I was immediately fascinated. The first one I bought at the pharmacy was this issue of the Flash. There were these three executives balancing on a tight-wire with a powerful, excellent perspective. Still, to this day, I see this cover and it's 'Yeah, this is great'. It's these three executives in like a triangle ... It's back when comics where still kinda dumb, I think ... You're like 'Oh, this is kinda dinky', but I loved it. Three guys and they're all balancing this pole like a circus act and there's a triangular chair on a unicycle. And the Flash was frozen. He was trying to get to them, because they were about to fall, but now he's frozen. There's a clown on a calliope, playing away with this mad 'Muahahah' and you figure out this calliope tune freezes the Flash, and he can't run. But every shot from where he left the point of the guys on the unicycle to where he's got this frozen agonized position was detailed, each running position. It was a still image, but I was getting the animation thrill out of it. It was just the dynamics and the figure, I had to go home and figure out how it was done. I've been doing that ever since. You know, I still get excited when I see a comic that blows my mind. It's like 'Gah, how do you draw that?' You know? It's really great that way. But, yeah, that's what got me into comics. And I do read comics. A lot of Spiderman, and my big hero is Flash who I really like. So when I got to draw him, it was a big day. I still have, like, little markers. I haven't gotten to do Batman yet. Batman and Daredevil are the only two. I want to draw them. I want to Batman or Daredevil or something like that with Warren. I think those are characters without a lot of superpowers. We would really understand them better. I like that about him. It's what they smell like. You know, like, Spider smells of pure cigarettes. He's got this cloud about him. I'm sure he's got reeking, sour breath. You shake hands with him, and you've got to wipe your hand after it. He's a nasty fellow. And I like that. I like that I think of him in those terms. I don't think about that when I draw Spiderman, you know? And I think people like Daredevil or Batman, you'd have a really great, you know, opportunity ... I think it's what made the stuff I grew up on better. You know, maybe I'm being nostalgic, I don't know. Now I'm 10 years away from it, so I'm like looking back and 'Mine was better'.

ST: So were you reading comics when Barry Allen was killed? [Editor's note: Barry Allen was the Silver Age Flash.]

DR: Yes. Yeah. I remember that. I did. I remember being really upset. Like, being way upset about the drawing of a guy running around in red underwear. But I cared. 'Oh my gosh, Barry Allen is dead.' I wanted to name my kid Barry. Barry's a great name, I was really into it. My first tattoo was going to be the Flash symbol for a long time because it meant so much. So, I got this one instead.

ST: Which one is that?

DR: Oh, you haven't seen it? It's very fresh, actually. But it's the fleur-de-lis symbol. It's a symbol of Italy.

ST: Do you have any other upcoming projects?

DR: Not at the moment. I did a Wolverine novel with Christopher Golden for Byron Price called Codename: Wolverine. That's coming out soon. But, I've been really devoted to Transmet. Anybody that's followed my career would know how unusual that actually is. I would spend so much time taking on three or four projects at once and then finishing them for the most part. But I've been really good about staying focused on this book. And I'm really enjoying it too. I find that it's really rewarding to focus on one thing. And you can tell from the detail and all that. You can see that's where my time goes. It'd be really hard to fit in another project and do that as well. But I really love it, and I want to give 100 percent. Again, what I was saying before, at the end of the day it's mine, and anything that comes of it comes back to Warren and I. And it's my responsibility to hold up my end of it. That means something to me, more so than, you know, drawing somebody else's character. I would still get a thrill out of doing Batman because I like Batman. The whole mystique, and the way you draw the costume and shadows, and Gotham City, I love that. But, it would never be mine. It would be Warner Brothers. It matters to me because if this book is good, and it gets really successful, it's the same way as if it fails, it's a reflection on me. I can be proud of it.

A preview of Transmet #19 is available at the official DC Comics site in the B&W Advances section.
http://www.dccomics.com/b&w/tmet19/a.htm

Space Beaver - aka the Darick Robertson fanboy page
http://www.prairienet.org/~kiadm/beave.html

" ... but I read Warren's script, and he took really mediocre characters that, most people would let flounder, and he made them interesting ... "

" ... in issue five, the TV issue, I contributed, the buy bombs, the Sex Puppets thing, it was me ... "

" ... with this, I give a shit about it, at the end of the day, about what the characters look like, what the book says ... "

" ... sometimes the people who are wearing the nice clothes are the ones you have to worry about ... "

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