Doin’ Alright With The Boys: Q&A With Comic Creator Darick Robertson

Hughie, Frenchy, and Spider Jerusalem all have shaved heads: are bald characters easier to draw, or are you just a big fan of the shiny-head look?
It comes down to the collaboration of the what the writer envisioned and the characters themselves. I actually prefer drawing hair, as bald heads are difficult to shape and ink consistently, and hair can be dramatic.

As with Transmetropolitan, The Boys is filled with action and violence, but both have a humanitarian center, with real heart underneath the gore. Is that something that you help to bring to the table, or it is part of the scripts that Ellis and Ennis create?
I would hope it’s the element my collaboration has been on both, as that is the element I seek out in a good script and always find gold there when working with Garth Ennis and when I worked with Warren Ellis.

In The Boys #29, there’s a stuffed Space Beaver on page seven. How often do you sneak references to your first creation into your art?
Whenever a toy or cartoon character is called for I usually sneak the Beave in. You can see him in my last little bit of DC’s 52 on the teacher’s desk before Elongated Man appears with his wife. Space Beaver is once again going to press, and is getting collected into a new omnibus collection from Dynamite later this year.

The realistic take on superheroes in modern society, with their reliance on public relations and their all-too-human personal problems arguably began with Watchmen, but was carried to extremes in series like X-Statix and The Authority (which you did a run of). What is it about superpowers bringing super corruption that is so appealing to readers?
Hard to say, but I can only speak to my own attraction to it. We live in a time of flawed heroes and corrupt power and people know it. 50 years ago when these characters were still relatively new, people believed in power being capable of being good and in self restraint. I don’t think people buy that so much anymore when power so clearly does whatever it wants to and the people are suffering as a result. Garth theorized that if there were real super heroes, they’d be drawn into that web of sex, money, and power like any other living thing and like the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Only the little people who are burning mad for revenge will fight for real justice.

In The Boys #20, you created a logo for Original Comics consisting of the company’s initials over a star, and then scrawled a rude word over it. Is there any intentional similarity to other comic companies’ logos?
It’s all allegory about the evolution of the companies. In our world the heroes are real people with public relations to consider and there would be rivalry between the companies in that world as there is in our world. To look too deep for your giggle and snicker material is to miss the bigger laugh and larger point about what The Boys is aiming for. We walk the line because we see a line, but for me, I am not out to insult the major companies with my work; I’m putting a Halloween mask on it and saying “BOO!” Making fun of the big iconic super heroes is the easy part; it’s the craft of the real metaphor and deeper story below that I take pride in. I believe character counts and putting on Superman’s costume doesn’t make you Superman. I think The Boys has a really human element too it, and that’s what Garth and I are exploring with these stories.

You’ve worked on short runs and long series: setting aside the dependable paycheck, do you prefer to draw the same book for a long period of time, or a variety of titles?
These days I’m looking forward to short series and writing and creating more.

Cerebus‘ Gerhard nearly went crazy drawing the same bar for twenty issues in a row during the Guys run. When you work in the same basic world for a long period of time, how do you keep the characters and their world fresh for you?
They become more consistent. I’m lucky to work with Garth Ennis as he is really a creative force of nature and has an uncanny ability to drill down to the root of the cavity with his insight into these characters and their wold.

Were there differences between working for Marvel and DC? What is better or worse about working for smaller imprints/companies?
There are differences.

When you draw an established character like Wolverine or Spider-Man, are you ever hampered by the rules and guidelines for the character?
Yes, and those boundaries change from team to team. When I was on the title [Wolverine] I wasn’t allowed to draw a gun-wielding hand being cut off in a tiny silhouette. It was removed from issue #5 in the panel along with a lot of other changes asked for, like no red blood. I recently saw an issue of Weapon X and there’s a large four panel sequence with Wolverine cutting a mugger’s hand off in very close up graphic detail. I was told “No red blood” and there was lots of red blood. I didn’t see a label making the title any different than my issues, but the rules had clearly changed for the artists on that book, so yeah. It depends on who’s calling the shots when it comes to heavily marketed characters.

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