Another artist profile, another great TMNT artist!  Can you tell I’m a big turtle fan?

This week we have Enrique Robledo.  Enrique has his own fun and crazy comic book with an even crazier title, PsychoFuckomics.  He loves and and we discuss how he became so great.

Nerd Society (NS): Who’s your favorite turtle to draw and why?
Enrique Robledo (ER): Michaelangelo,  nunchucks are the shit!

NS: You’ve attended plenty of cons, what’s been your favorite one and why?
ER: Phoenix.  It reminds me of what the San Diego Comic Con used to be before it got as big as it is.

NS:  How were you introduced to art?
ER: I’ve been drawing since I could remember.  I would get bored of the Mickey Mouse,  he-man and Transformers coloring books i’d be given,  then I’d go off and draw them on my own.  As far as comics go,  I came up on a stack of comics that the Image founders (Todd macfarlane, Jim lee,  marc silvestri) had their art in and that stuff just blew me away.

NS:  Were you self taught or go to school for art?
ER: Self taught mostly.  The only real schooling I had came from poorly trying to rip-off my favorite artists’ (Greg Capulo,  Danny Miki, Jon Wayshack) style…  Also read Books by Stan Lee,  Will Eisner,  Claus Janson… But what really pushed me to work on the craft was showing my art to the pros at conventions.  Not to get praise or told how cute I was,  but to really know where I was at skill-wise,  and hot-damn they tore me up!    “This looks wrong! That’s fucked up!  You need to work on this! etc,  etc… “,  all of which I embraced and took to heart along with the drive to grow as an artist.

NS:  What’s your favorite character to draw, the worst?
ER: Wolverine is my favorite.  He reminds me of me.  We’re just the baddest mother-fuckers there is at what we do,  although what we do isn’t very nice!  My least favorite would be any robot or cyborg… I just can’t get the look right.

NS:   As an artist, what has been the hardest challenge you’ve overcome.
ER: Something I’m still struggling with,  my hard-headedness… I’m very big about doing things my way that it’s kept me from getting a paying gig and in working comics.  Instead it’s kept me at a day job that I hate.

NS: Tell us a little bit about Psychofuckomics.
ER: It’s my own little comic book “company”. I’ve been using that handle since about 2005.  It’s the most fitting name I could come up with for the type of stories and art that I was trying to put out at the time.  Bunch of goofy,  unoriginal,  shock-value crap that I got tired of fast.  I’ve just recently found the direction I want to take with my art,  only I’ve decided to keep the name…

NS:  How did you come up with it?
ER: I was drawing in my room,  listening to music,  and I was thinking of a name to start promoting at conventions and whatnot.  I wanted the word comics in there.  Not studios.  Not productions. Comics!… but nothing came to mind.  Then the song “Ball Tongue” by Korn came on.  In the time that the song came out,  Jonathan Davis,  the singer if Korn,  had this weird thing he’d do where he’d inaudibly growl the lyrics,  but in Ball Tongue,  it was just gibberish.  It sounded like he was singing-growling “you’re a psycho-fuck, you’re a psycho-fuck, you’re a psycho-fuck”… Then,  BAM!!! It just hit me… Psycho Fuck Comics!  But I only wanted to make it one word,  so I decided to drop the C,  spell comics with a K, and mush it all together.  Psycho-fuc-komics.  I get a kick out of it at conventions when people read it out loud and their reactions.  Some like it,  some just wince and walk away… Still fun though.

NS:  What’s the favorite art you’ve done?
ER: So far it’s between the zombie mad batter and a cover concept I did for my book, Macabra.  (Ill send you jpegs when I get home).
The original zombie hatter was sold at the Phoenix comic con.  The collector said its going next to an original piece from Nat Jones,  so I know it went to a good home.  The cover concept, to me,  sets the mood for Macabra,  and shows the direction I want to go,  artistically.

Thank you to Enrique for his unique art insight.  Make sure to  follow his comic here!

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