Freshly Pressed Interviews : Robert Garibay
In this edition of Freshly Pressed Interviews, we sit down with Robert Garibay, a writer, musician and nurse. He recently published Essential #1 under his own imprint Guango Press.
Q: A Brief background about yourself and how you got into comics?
A: My name is Robert Garibay, I am an overimaginative creative person, currently living in Virginia with my wife and 2 boys. I am a nurse by profession. I have been into comic books since I was a kid and used to walk miles to my local comic book shop. As a kid I used to copy the drawings in the superhero books but wasn’t into the stories very much. I got into actually reading comics as an adult when I discovered Brian K. Vaughan and Jeff Lemire. By then I had already been writing short fiction and when COVID hit, I finally decided to try writing a comic.
Q: What are your favourite comic book characters, Indie and/or mainstream?
A: It might sound corny but I think my favorite characters are the main family in SAGA, Alana, Marko and Hazel. I was really inspired to see such an awesome story about a very believable family in these extraordinary circumstances.
About your Creative Inspirations
Q: What kind of characters excite you in comics?
A: I tend to like misfits, sometimes antiheroes. I enjoy seeing how the character flaw gets challenged and if/how it might change.
Q: What kind of stories should your audience expect from you?
A: I like writing about regular people in extraordinary or absurd circumstances. The intent is to shed light on the absurdities that exist in real life, and call them into question.
Q: What’s the last comic book you read?
A: The last few comics I read were Jeff Lemire’s Minor Arcana and this other book called, Local man. I don’t get to read that much because I am always either busy with my family or spending what little free time I have, doing creative stuff. I am also a musician.
About your recent project
Q: Can you describe your latest project without spoilers?
A: My book, Essential, is about a burned out nurse and father, who has been hiding a superpower his whole life for reasons that will be explained in the series. When a mysterious virus starts killing off the world’s superheroes and his young son and pregnant wife start showing their own super abilities, the main character, Alex, has to figure out how to keep them safe.
Q: How did you develop the concept behind your latest project?
A: I wrote this while working as a nurse on a crazy stepdown unit during COVID. I got this idea after hearing so many stories of nurses and doctors getting sick on the job and the paranoia of potentially bringing the virus home to my family.
Q: Who else other than you collaborated on the project?
A: I created and wrote the whole story and Jorge Peña did all the art.
Q: How was your experience collaborating with the rest of the team?
A: It was so much fun, Jorge is an awesome guy. I couldn’t have gotten luckier, meeting and teaming up with him. He is also a musician so we talked about music together. We would talk a lot about family as well.
Q: What's your next project, any ideas you're working with?
A: Aside from Essential, which I hope to continue depending on funding, I don’t have any other fiction based projects in the works at the moment. I am exploring the idea of writing something more personal, about my experiences as a restaurant cook turned public health researcher and then nurse. I had a blog years ago, as a chef, that called out a lot of the injustices in the food industry and I kind of want to revisit that now that I work on the other end, so to speak, as a diabetes educator. I get to see the effect of food on peoples’ health.
Q: Where can people buy your books?
A: People can get my one and only book (so far) on Comix.one.
Q: Any words for fellow creators?
A: Make a plan and be patient. I say this because I tend to not do these things as I have pretty bad ADHD. I thrive on creative impulses which are great for getting started and propelling myself forward but it makes reaching long term goals very challenging. Also, don’t give up! My kickstarter failed to reach its goal, but I still found a way to make my book.
