Courtesy of NH Magazine:

Dream Job
by Erica Thoits

New Hampshire was the birthplace of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Can another comic hero rise from the Granite State?

The comic “Atomic Robo” follows the exploits of the witty and charismatic (and non-human) protagonist, Robo. Courtesy of Scott Wegener.

This robot is easy to love — he battles mad scientists, squashes giant insects and annihilates legions of Nazis, all while maintaining a hero’s penchant for witty one liners and flippant remarks designed to irritate the enemy du jour.

The guy who gets to give Robo (the aforementioned Nazi/bug/mad scientist destroyer) form is Scott Wegener, the artist for the comic series “Atomic Robo.”

Wegener, who came to New Hampshire for [Daniel Webster] college back in the ’90s and ended up just staying put in the Granite State, arrived at a career in comics, as he puts it, “totally by accident.”

When working as a flight instructor for Daniel Webster College, a friend turned him onto a project that “started the ball rolling,” he says. After his first taste, he continued to work on art projects and balanced those with the day job.

In the business of small comics, getting published doesn’t necessarily equal profits. In fact, says Wegener, getting published at all can be a long shot.

“It’s a lot of labor of love,” explains Wegener. “I was really lucky when I got a bunch of gigs where the writers were passionate enough to pay me.”

Then came Robo. Or, as Wegener calls it, “the big one.” The writer of “Atomic Robo,” Brian Clevinger, contacted him and from there everything fell into place.

Wegener, he says, was “blown away” by Clevinger’s writing, research and character development for Robo. What resulted from their partnership is a character, as Wegener describes him, that’s “a little like the Rocketeer, a little Iron Giant and a little Indiana Jones. He’s a five-foot tall robot who wears pants.”

The premise behind Robo begins with his creation by scientist Nikola Tesla in the early 1900s. Robo then spends the next eight decades battling all forms of evil, from Nazis to giant bugs — and cracking wise in between.

About two years after Wegener joined up with Clevinger, Robo is a hit. Search around the Internet for a few minutes and you’ll find glowing review after glowing review for Robo.

“We are super excited,” says Wegener. “The overwhelmingly positive response has been way more than we expected.”

“Atomic Robo” allowed Wegener to take the plunge, quit the day job and become a full-time comic artist (he works from home, where he is also in charge of getting his daughter to school and to her numerous after-school activities). Having been told that he’d never make a living as an artist, Wegener never went to art school. Everything he’s learned about drawing comics he’s taught himself.

“The idea of telling a story in pictures was totally alien to me,” says Wegener. While he’s loved to draw since his childhood, drawing Robo and others (like his recent work for Marvel Comics) “is not just like doing a doodle,” explains Wegener. It usually takes 10 hours, more than a working day for most people, to finish just a single page.

Though at times his new job piles on the pressure, at the end of the day, says Wegener, “I get paid to do what I’ve always dreamed of doing.” NH – By Erica Thoits

The first series of “Atomic Robo” is wrapped up. The third issue (out of six total) came out in December. Look for the second series, due to come out around summer time. You can find issues at the following stores and Web sites:

Scott Wegener’s Blog: www.scottwegener.com
Writer Brian Clevinger’s Web site: www.nuklearpower.com
Publisher of “Atomic Robo, Red5 Comics Web site: www.Red5comics.com