5 Quick Questions with Darick Robertson

Darick Robertson is the co-creator of Transmetropolitan. After 20 years in the industry he can easily be considered a seasoned veteran of comics, having worked for Marvel, DC, Vertigo, and a few now defunct companies, such as Malibu Comics (where he co-created and designed the Nightman, and wrote and created Ripfire), Acclaim, Eclipse and Innovation. At 21 he broke into the mainstream with his work on Justice League for DC Comics. From there he went on to work for Marvel on Wolverine, Spider-man and most notably the New Warriors; A two year run with Fabian Nicieza, who in his own way was partially responsible for bringing Darick and Warren together on the project for Acclaim comics “The Man Of The Atom”, which lead Warren to choose Darick as his co-creator for Transmetropolitan. Transmetropolitan came about as a meeting of the minds for Darick and Warren.

In 2002 his projects included the launch of the Marvel Max line with the title “Fury” written by Garth Ennis, which Rolling Stone magazine picked as the “cool comic of the year”. Also in 2002 was Spiderman: Sweet Charity written by TV veteran Ron Zimmerman.

In May of 2002 Robertson went exclusive with Marvel comics and was picked to relaunch one of their flagship characters WOLVERINE, with writer Greg Rucka. He followed it with the critically acclaimed “Punisher: BORN” mini series with Garth Ennis and the first solo Nightcrawler series with play-write Roberto Aguirre Sacasa. In 2006 Darick resigned from his exclusivity at Marvel to do a new creator owned series with longtime friend and collaborator Garth Ennis entitled “the Boys”. DC/Wildstorm comics offered an exclusive contract to keep him tied down while he creates the first ongoing series for which he will design, pencil, ink and create the covers.

In a storm of controversy, Wildstorm/DC cancelled “The Boys” after 6 issues and the title resumed with Dynamite! publishing in June of 2007



He agreed to answer 5 Quick Questions.

1) What would you say is your greatest achievement in comics?

At this point I feel most proud of co-creating two series, Transmetropolitan and The BOYS, with two excellent writers. Two writers whom i came up through the industry with, and to have those series both be regarded with Eisner nominations and other awards, as well as being lucrative. It's one thing to achieve some attention and success with Wolverine or Spider-man, and another altogether to be a part of something that you designed and help create.

2) Who was your favorite writer or artist that you worked with & why?

It's difficult to pick a favorite as it implies something about those you don't pick. I have been fortunate to work with many great writers. I would say any writer I've done a significant amount of titles or runs with is a writer I respect and love to work with.

3) What character you have never worked .., would you like to do & why?

It would probably be Batman, although I've done little things here and there. Batman, because I love the character, it was my first super hero favorite and he has great villains.

4) Who are your influences?

I have many, but I usually list Brian Bolland as my main influence, Neal Adams, Ross Andru, Jose Garcia Lopez, David Mazzuchelli, John Romita Jr, Dave Gibbons, Adam Hughes, Keving Maguire...

5) What hero or villain would you like to change if you could and why?

Firestorm, because I loved the original concept so much that I think DC missed a great opportunity to have their own Spider-man had Ronnie Raymond stayed the way he was originally conceived and then see the character grow up with the power, like Peter Parker didi with Spider man. I'm sure what's been done is cool in it's own way, but that's what I would do with it, if given the chance.

Check out Darick's website at www.darickrobertson.com.