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Contact the Artist
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of Rob Cabrera |
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 Q. When did you first start drawing cartoons?
A. I've been drawing cartoons all my life. Specifically, when I was a kid, there were a bunch of really cool Japanime shows on TV, like “G-Force,” “Voltron,” and “Transformers.” I soon discovered the best way for me to make friends was to draw those cartoons. Realizing how well that worked, I gave up any notion of become anything else.
Q. Who were the cartoonists who most influenced you?
A. First off, Charles Schulz was THE MAN! Without the success of “Peanuts,"ˆ none of us would be able to do this. Consequently, “Peanuts” inspired me to love reading comic strips. Bill Watterson's “Calvin and Hobbes” and Berke Breathed's “Bloom County” inspired me to draw my own comic strips. And meeting “Liberty Meadows” cartoonist Frank Cho at a convention many years ago inspired me to, finally, get in the game myself.
Q. How did you get your professional start?
A. While attending college in Milwaukee, WI, I drew an obscure comic strip called “Rob the Cat” for the UW-Milwaukee's The Leader newspaper. The storyline (if you could call it that) was about a cat sentenced by a Judge Judy look-alike to attend college. The strip wasn't anything to write home about, but doing it did teach me the discipline required to meet deadlines and turn out a great quality strip.
Q. How would you describe your style?
A. Deadly. My kung fu is the best... All kidding aside, I'm very detail-oriented. (You can blame famed comic book artists Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane for that!) I would love to put lots of detail into each and every strip. But the reality of it is that the strip simply would not reproduce well.
Q. Where do you get your story ideas?
A. Everywhere! Life is comic strip material. I think it's a matter of learning to tune in to the funny stuff that constantly happens around you. Once you have a grip on that, the ideas come steadily. But I've discovered that getting ideas is only half the battle. Developing them into funny strips is the real skill.
Q. How did you come up with your characters?
A. My real family is FULL of characters! I loosely based the Roberts family on them, except I switched around some of the personalities to make the dynamic interesting. I also like going to crowded places to people watch. You can get a lot of good characters that way.
Q. Which are your favorite characters in your strip and why?
A. I love them all, but at the moment, I enjoy writing for the main character Silo because he's at an interesting point in his life. He's in 4th grade and just beginning to realize the way the world really works. I also love his little sister Lisa because she doesn't suffer fools. Instead, she makes them suffer.
Q. Do you create on a daily basis? Do you prefer to work in the morning or at night?
A. I work on many aspects of the strip daily. Basically, I have strips in any one of three phases: the writing book, the drawing board, and computer prep. This helps me keep a steady flow of material moving. Plus, it ensures that I don't get bored or frustrated in any one phase.
I love working midnight through early morning. I'm at my sharpest at those times. However, on the flip side, I'm completely nonfunctional during prime time (because that's when basketball's on).
Q. What materials do you use to draw your comics? Do you use a computer?
A. I hand draw everything. I like using mechanical pencils to draw because of the crisp lines they create. I also use black artist ink pens and brushes for the inking. Once the strip enters the computer, it goes through a final digital revision. All the color for the Sundays is done on computer using Adobe Photoshop.
Q. Do you have any suggestions on how to become a professional cartoonist?
A. This is probably one of the toughest businesses to get into (I was trying for 11 years). Everybody has a different path they must travel to get to where they want to go. My path included drawing a comic strip in college, joining an improvisational comedy group, doing stand up comedy, and teaching in an elementary school. Someone else's path may be completely different.
But one thing all paths have in common is that everybody worked hard to get there. If you really want to become a professional cartoonist, do what the pros do: Draw every day. Write every day. Educate yourself on how this business works. Develop a professional mentality. And, most of all, have faith in yourself because that will be the only thing that carries you through the tough times.
Thanks for reading,
Rob
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To contact the artist, write to:
mailto:siloroberts@aol.com
Rob Cabrera
c/o United Media
200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Your letter to the cartoonist will be forwarded via snail mail
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