Alex Robinson (born August 8, 1969) is an American

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

writer and artist.

Early life

Alex Robinson grew up in

Yorktown Heights, New York Yorktown Heights is a census-designated place (CDP) in the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Yorktown, New York, Yorktown in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. The popula ...

, and graduated from Yorktown High School in 1987. After a year spent at

SUNY Brockport State University of New York Brockport (also known as SUNY Brockport or Brockport State, and previously The College at Brockport) is a public university in Brockport, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY). History ...

, he went to the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

in New York City, where he studied under

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...

Sal Amendola Sal Amendola (born 1948, in Italy) is an Italian American comics artist and teacher primarily known for his association with DC Comics. Career Sal Amendola graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1969 with the school’s then offered 3-year ...

Gahan Wilson Gahan Allen Wilson (February 18, 1930 – November 21, 2019) was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations. Biography Wilson was born in Evanston, Illinois, and was inspired by th ...

, and

Carmine Infantino Carmine Michael Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editing, editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creat ...

. He graduated with a BFA in cartooning in 1993.

Career

Robinson's first major work was ''

Box Office Poison ''Box Office Poison'' is a series of comic books (originally published by Antarctic Press) by Alex Robinson. It was published in collected form by Top Shelf Productions in 2001. The story concerns the life and trials of a group of young people in ...

'', originally serialized by

Antarctic Press Antarctic Press is a San Antonio-based comic book publishing company which publishes "Amerimanga" style comic books. The company also produces "how-to" and "you can" comics, instructing on areas of comic book creation and craft. Beginning in 1 ...

and then collected into graphic novel form in 2001 by

Top Shelf Productions Top Shelf Productions is an American publishing company founded in 1997, originally owned and operated by Chris Staros and Brett Warnock and a small staff. Now an imprint of IDW Publishing, Top Shelf is based in Marietta, Georgia. Top Shelf pub ...

. ''Box Office Poison'' concerns the life and trials of a group of young people in New York City (the central protagonist works in a bookstore, a job Robinson himself held for seven years.) Robinson's second

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

, '' Tricked'', also published by Top Shelf, was released in August 2005, and both ''Box Office Poison'' and ''Tricked'' have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and German. In October 2007 ''Alex Robinson's Lower Regions'' was released, a 56-page comic about "a sexy barbarian fighting monsters." Two sequels are planned for the coming years. His next graphic novel, ''Too Cool to Be Forgotten'', a time travel/high school story, was published by Top Shelf in July 2008, with ''A Kidnapped Santa Claus'', adapted from a Frank L. Baum story, following in November 2009. Robinson's newest book, ''Our Expanding Universe'', was released in November 2015. Along with Mike Dawson,

Tony Consiglio Antonino Gilligan "Tony" Consiglio (born May 28, 1970, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American cartoonist. He has had two graphic novels, ''More or Less'' and ''110 Percent'', published by Top Shelf Comics. Biography Education Consiglio was b ...

, and a few other cartoonists, Robinson is part of a loosely associated collective called The Ink Panthers. They also have a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

called ''The Ink Panthers Show'' available on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. Robinson also has a podcast with Pete "The Retailer" Bonavita called ''

Star Wars Minute ''Star Wars Minute'' is a daily podcast that analyzes, scrutinizes and celebrates the Star Wars movies in sequential order, with each episode covering a single minute of the movies in the franchise. The podcast is hosted and created by Peter "Pete ...

'' in which they analyze, scrutinize, and celebrate the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' movies one minute at a time.

Awards

''Box Office Poison'' was nominated for 2001

Harvey Harvey, Harveys or Harvey's may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Harvey'' (play), a 1944 play by Mary Chase about a man befriended by an invisible anthropomorphic rabbit * Harvey Awards ("Harveys"), one of the most important awards ...

, Eisners,

Firecracker A firecracker (cracker, noise maker, banger) is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment; any visual effect is incidental t ...

, and

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...

s. Although the book itself didn't win, Robinson won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition. In addition, the French translation of the book (titled ''De Mal en Pis'') won the Prix Du Premier Album at the

Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lu ...

in 2005. ''Tricked'' was nominated for an

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

, and won both the 2006

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...

for Best Original Graphic Novel and the 2006

for Outstanding Graphic Novel. Robinson was also nominated in the Best Writer category for the

. ''Too Cool to be Forgotten'' won the 2009 Harvey Award for Best Original Graphic Album.

Bibliography

* ''

'' (Top Shelf Productions, 2001) * ''BOP! More Box Office Poison'' (Top Shelf Productions, 2003) * '' Tricked'' (Top Shelf Productions, 2005) * ''Alex Robinson's Lower Regions'' (Top Shelf Productions, 2007) ISBN I978-1603090094 * ''Too Cool to be Forgotten'' (Top Shelf Productions, 2008) * ''A Kidnapped Santa Claus'' (Harper Collins, It Books, 2009) * ''Our Expanding Universe'' (Top Shelf Productions, 2015)

References

External links

* *
Alex's catalog at Top Shelf productions

Guest Comic Strip
(Done for

Dork Tower ''Dork Tower'' is an online comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the author's home town of Ma ...

2004) * Lee, Humphrey
"ICN Comics Q&@ with ''Box Office Poisons Alex Robinson!!!"

Ain't It Cool News Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book proje ...

, September 29, 2006
"Talking with Alex Robinson"
Comic Geek Speak, Podcast Episode 535, October 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Alex Alternative cartoonists American graphic novelists Writers from New York City People from Yorktown Heights, New York School of Visual Arts alumni 1969 births Living people American male novelists Novelists from New York (state)