Дарик У. Робертсон: Художник комиксов и создатель "The Boys" и "Transmetropolitan"

American artist

Darick W. Robertson is an American artist best known for his work as a comic book illustrator on series he co created, notably Transmetropolitan (1997–2002) and The Boys (2006–2012; 2020). 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.

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.

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 [so] 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." 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. In 2000 Larry Young acquired permission to publishSpace Beaver and AiT/Planet Lar released two trades collecting the entire run.

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 (volume 1) issue #54. Robertson would then have his first extended monthly run working with Fabian Nicieza on Marvel's New Warriors. Robertson worked on New Warriors for two years, from issue 26 until issue 50, including 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 (aka Poolboy). 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

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 [scripts]; they were funny and violent but, interesting you ever want to work on a monthly project together, I'm all over it." Ellis agreed. 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. Some controversy emerged during Robertson and Greg Rucka's run in regards to a mandate to replace Wolverine's classic squat design, which Robertson sought to develop and refine, with a design based on the 20th Century Fox X Men movie franchise look of Wolverine portrayed by Hugh Jackman. Robertson states the Marvel request made him unhappy, but it was a company wide choice and did not require his work to mimic the appearance of the actor exactly. Darick Robertson worked on Wolverine (Volume 3) for 14 issues. Following his work on Wolverine, Darick Robertson moved directly to another high profile X Men project. Robertson, a stated lifelong fan of X Man character Nightcrawler, was nominated by Marvel Editor Cebulski, Robertson's collaborator on X Men Unlimited, as the artist for the fan favorite character's first ongoing series. Robertson, who had once dressed as the teleporting X Man for Halloween, said at the time, "I never imagined I'd be so lucky as to move onto a Nightcrawler series on the heels of Wolverine, so in some ways it's still a childhood dream manifesting." The Boys, far from a simple story poking fun at superheroes would be an "allegory about absolute power corrupting absolutely." To promote The Boys launch, and acting alongside comic store Isotope, Robertson gave away 10 original sketches of The Boys cast kicking the ass of the winner's choice of superhero. In response to this project DC/Wildstorm offered Darick an exclusive contract which would also see him working on Batman and the re launch of The Authority. However, after six issues under the DC/Wildstorm imprint the publisher elected to cancel the book despite critical acclaim and fan buzz. Robertson stated "it became obvious that DC was not the right home for The Boys," though he thanked Scott Dunbier and Ben Abernathy at Wildstorm for their support. The Boys did not lack a home long as it was soon after picked up by Dynamite Entertainment in February 2007. In 2008 The Boys was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series as well as a GLAAD Media Award, and is now under development through Kickstart Entertainment and Original Film for Columbia Pictures. Subsequently, Columbia put The Boys into turnaround and it was picked up by Paramount Pictures Darick left the monthly art chores on The Boys with issue 43. Darick focused his attention on the six issue origin story Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker that focused on The Boys central character Billy Butcher. The collected 6 issues made the New York Times bestseller list in April 2012. In November 2012, the final issue of The BOYS was released with issue #72. Robertson returned to draw the finale with art assistance from Richard P. Clark.

In 2012 Image Comics released the four issue mini series HAPPY! co created with Eisner Award winning writer Grant Morrison. Critically acclaimed and best selling, HAPPY! marks the first collaboration of Image Comics, Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. The story centered around a beat down New York Detective turned hitman, Nick Sax, who awakes from a heart attack to a conversation with a perpetually upbeat "Unipixisus" (as named by Robertson's son), who calls himself "Happy The Horse" and takes the shape of a little blue flying donkey with a Unicorn horn. The creature is a little girl's imaginary friend and she is in danger. Only Nick Sax can save her as only Nick can see or hear Happy. It's an unusual buddy story and caught the attention of The RZA and Producer Reginald Hudlin who have expressed their desire to adapt the comic into a film. Harry Knowles' "Ain't It Cool News" announced Darick Robertson as one of their BEST ARTIST picks for their 9th Annual AICN COMICS @$$IE AWARDS, citing his work on HAPPY!.

In 2013 Robertson launched the 5 issue series Ballistic, "a psychedelic, transreal, hard sci fi adventure" with co creator and writer Adam Egypt Mortimer, from Black Mask Studios. The series was well reviewed but struggled to find an audience on its initial release. A collection is due in 2015. It was co created with writer Gary Whitta based on a screenplay he wrote in 2001. Oliver was published as a four issue series by Image Comics in 2015.

On September 9, 2020, Grasshopper Manufacture's official Twitter page confirmed that Darick Robertson would contribute to No More Heroes III's promotional material by providing several illustrations and designed the game's cover art. Darick is one of the few western guest artists to join the development team of the game.

In 2021, Darick Robertson drew the series Space Bastards written by Eric Peterson and Joe Aubrey with additional art by Simon Bisley. The series was collected in two volumes