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This month, my column has featured a series of interviews with comic book artists and creators going to STAPLE! THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA EXPO (this Saturday, March 3rd). Staple is an annual event in Austin Texas to promote independent creative media: comics, art, animation, and self-published literature.  In its third year, Staple is the must-attend convention for any self-respecting fan of indie comics.

Rob Osborne is the artist/creator of the award-winning 1,000 Steps to World Domination, Sunset City for Active Senior Living, The Old Man And The Pants, and his newly released The Nearly Infamous Zango. Rob is a unique voice in comics, and his work is always excited with its own quirks and sensibilities.

How do you approach writing a new story? Where do you begin?

OSBORNE: Stories start with ideas, but I’m not really sure where the ideas come from. They’re just out there, in the air, floating around, waiting to be plucked and put down on paper. Usually, when I get some notion in my head, if it preoccupies me, it may be the seed of a new story. This thought may be a character or a scene, or prompted by some current event or a news story.

Typically, I will make a few notes; maybe do a few sketches, whatever the notion calls for. I may set those scribbles aside for some time. I’ve got a system that’s grown organically, where I have files labeled “ideas”. I’ll throw the various scraps that I accumulate into one of those folders. Now some ideas continue to bark at me, scratching for attention. You’d think it’s pretty easy to just watch more TV or maybe bake a cake, anything other than developing a story. But alas, some dogs demand attention. Eventually one of these flea-ridden mutt develops and matures, grows up, leaves home and becomes a big dog. A story.

If necessity is the mother of invention, she’s also the mother of the new story.

An example of how this process has worked for me, a long while back I was doodling about a guy, let’s call him Jim. He was on his morning commute and really didn’t want to go to work. Like most people, Jim would prefer to stay home and lie around. Stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, nearing the big city, he was feeling desperate. So he prayed, “Dear God, please don’t make me have to go to work today. I’ll do anything.”

Just then, a beam of bright light shines down from the sky and engulfs Jim’s compact car. The poor schmuck and his car are lifted up, taken away from the traffic gridlock. He’s sucked up by a UFO tractor beam. 

So God sent aliens to swoop down and prohibit Jim from going to work. He should be really happy, right? But instead of pushing papers all day, Jim receives an anal probe aboard a space saucer. The lesson: Be careful what you ask for.

Well, that little nugget sat in my idea file for a bit. It wasn’t until Tony Parker and I decided to work on a project together that it served as the seed to the alien abduction series Interlude. “The extraterrestrials are out there watching us, studying us. Sometimes the aliens take a closer look.”

Your work has a political quality to it, satirical and socially observant. Do you enjoy politics? How would you characterize your own perspective?

OSBORNE: I love politics. And I hate them. I see politics as an arena meant for ideas but mostly it’s about entertainment. If a politician can entertain you, the constituent, then he can win election or re-election. Of course, that’s what American politics is mostly about. Winning elections. That seems prudent. The only way to get things done is to win. But really, shouldn’t politics be about ideas? Ideas interest me. Though I do enjoy watching the circus. I like to be entertained too.

Wit, irony and sarcasm spin the world. Satire is a worthy sword meant to lop off diseased appendages. You cut while you smile. Swing the blade, have a laugh. That’s what I say.

Can you tell us about what you’re working on now?

OSBORNE: Debuting online at my new website, www.robosborne.net, is The Nearly Infamous Zango. I’ve endured the contractions on this baby for years, and finally, he’s pushing into the world. A somewhat-successful super villain, Zango is afraid to leave the house. Makes it challenging to achieve any nefarious results when you won’t leave the couch, doesn’t it? Zango appears in weekly installments.

In March, the collection 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2006 arrives in stores. The fastest comic I have ever made, The Old Man And The Pants, was selected as one of ten stories to be included in the Highlights anthology. I liked the Old Man so much that I am writing and drawing a series of stories about this aging fisherman. He sees the tops of the clouds and the bottom of the sea and learns that life is a wonderful thing to live. That’s Old Man.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m also writing a series of alien abduction stories, and I’m working with a very talented artist, Tony Parker. Each story explores terrestrial dramas that are interrupted by an extraterrestrial interlude. How would you like to awake, nude and incoherent, not knowing that you just had a transformative life experience? That’s Interlude.

You are officially an Austin native now. What do you enjoy about this fair city?

OSBORNE: My house. I’m living in a McMansion, and it feels good. I mean, I spend an awful lot of time in my house. I work at home. I leisure at home. Occassionally, I do get out, but I’ve only been down to the world famous 6th Street once. That was interesting. Went to a Longhorns basketball game the other day. That was like a burnt orange cult. I expected someone to lean over and whisper to me, “Son, have you considered accepting Texas into your heart as your lord and savior?” The game opened with the national anthem, and there was a giant flag brought onto the floor by twenty-some people. They were struggling with it during the anthem, and I thought it was sad that they bungled this pageantry. However, you can imagine my surprise when the national anthem was followed by a Texas anthem and that giant flag was unfurled. A Texas flag. People here are really zealous about being Texan.

I do love the lakes around here. I’ve been water skiing on Austin Lake. Been running along Town Lake. That’s fun. And we’ve met a lot of really nice folks here. Plus, Austin Books & Comics is one of the finest comic stores in the country.

What are you most looking forward to with Staple?

OSBORNE: Meeting lots of new people, and getting to introduce you to my work. I’ll have copies of the award-winning 1000 Steps to World Domination as well as the much acclaimed Sunset City. My limited edition Sketchjournal will be available. Come by and say hello. I’m Rob Osborne, it’s nice to meet you.

Meet Rob at STAPLE! on Saturday or visit him at his website: robosborne.net

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