Robertson created his first comic book at the age of 17 while still in school and also working as a bill collector. Many small-press black and white books featuring anthropomorphic heroes were seeing sudden critical and commercial success in the wake of
Kevin Eastman and
Peter Laird's
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Robertson had "always loved this idea of stuffed animals fighting [so] they bleed and stuff comes out of them when they die." As a result, he created
Space Beaver, “a cute little beaver…running around shooting people." and introduced Darick to the use of Bristol Board, ink pens, and zip-a-tone. Okamura sent Robertson's pages to Victory Comics, who agreed to publish
Space Beaver, but not to compensate Robertson. Robertson then took the finished pages to
Tibor Sardy, owner of
Peninsula Comics in San Mateo California. After seeing Robertson's work, the comic store owner agreed to pay Robertson and publish
Space Beaver under the name
Ten-Buck Comics. In 2000
Larry Young acquired permission to publish
Space Beaver and
AiT/Planet Lar released two trades collecting the entire run.
DC and Marvel Comics After Robertson launched his career with Space Beaver, he began to regularly attend comic conventions seeking advice and professional connections. As a result, by age 21, Robertson landed his first work for a major publisher illustrating
Justice League Quarterly #4 at
DC Comics. He would then illustrate a run of
Justice League Europe working alongside writer
J. M. DeMatteis and artist/writer
Keith Giffen. Over time Robertson would develop his craft finishing Giffen's panel breakdowns on a JLE/JLA crossover entitled "Breakdowns". Robertson worked on JLE issues 26, and 30–35. Later in his career Robertson would return to the
Justice League to work with
Mark Waid on ''Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare''. After breaking in at DC, Robertson's first work at Marvel was
Wolverine (volume 1) issue #54. Robertson would then have his first extended monthly run working with
Fabian Nicieza on Marvel's
New Warriors. Robertson worked on
New Warriors for two years, from issue 26 until issue 50, collaborating with artist Brandon Mckinney later in the run. He also moved beyond the drawing board, writing for
New Warriors Annual #3 and #4. While at Marvel, Robertson would also have a chance to work on his first iconic character –
Spider-Man. Robertson illustrated
Deadpool #50 and 51, which featured the first appearance of Kid Deadpool (aka Poolboy). Robertson illustrated "Spider-man: the Power of Terror", "Spider-Man: The Final Adventure" and a
Spider-Man story written by
Stan Lee and inked by
George Pérez. This story is found collected in
Best of Marvel 1995. Robertson would also add additional writing credits working on
Spectacular Spider-Man Super Special #1
Malibu and Acclaim Robertson's career continued as a key creator on
Malibu Comics's Ultraverse comic line. It was also his first foray into creating new characters for an existing business. At
Malibu Robertson co-created and designed the character
Nightman, and both wrote and created the character
Ripfire. This brought about some frustration, however, as Malibu promised Robertson the rights in
Nightman only to renege and sell the character to Marvel. Nightman eventually produced toys and a
TV show, and Robertson later described the experience as “a sore spot.” However, while still at Malibu, Robertson met future DC and Wildstorm editor
Hank Kanalz as well as a then obscure British comic writer,
Warren Ellis. While working on a short run of Malibu's
Ultraforce, Kanalz paired Robertson with emerging British comic writer
Warren Ellis. Robertson enjoyed working with Ellis and contacted the writer explaining,''"I had the greatest time working on the [scripts]; they were funny and violent but, interesting… you ever want to work on a monthly project together, I'm all over it."
Ellis agreed. Notable fans of Transmetropolitan'' include
Patrick Stewart,
Robin Williams, and writer/director
Darren Aronofsky. Robertson called working on Transmetropolitan a rewarding experience, citing the critical acclaim, continued popularity of the characters and unique fandom. Robertson expresses fond memories of Ellis's scripts but he has no desire to return to Transmetropolitan. When the book ended he found no longer operating under the book's constant tight deadlines was a great relief. Some controversy emerged during Robertson and Greg Rucka's run in regards to a mandate to replace Wolverine's classic squat design, which Robertson sought to develop and refine, with a design based on the
20th Century Fox X-Men movie franchise look of Wolverine portrayed by
Hugh Jackman. Robertson states the Marvel request made him unhappy, but it was a company-wide choice and did not require his work to mimic the appearance of the actor exactly. Darick Robertson worked on
Wolverine (Volume 3) for 14 issues. Following his work on Wolverine, Darick Robertson moved directly to another high-profile X-Men project. Robertson, a stated lifelong fan of X-Man character
Nightcrawler, was nominated by Marvel editor
C. B. Cebulski, Robertson's collaborator on
X-Men Unlimited, as the artist for the fan-favorite character's first ongoing series. Robertson, who had once dressed as Nightcrawler for Halloween, said at the time, "I never imagined I'd be so lucky as to move onto a Nightcrawler series on the heels of Wolverine, so in some ways it's still a childhood dream manifesting."
The Boys, far from a simple story poking fun at superheroes would be an "allegory about absolute power corrupting absolutely." To promote
The Boys launch, and acting alongside comic store Isotope, Robertson gave away 10 original sketches of
The Boys cast kicking the ass of the winner's choice of superhero. In response to this project
DC/Wildstorm offered Darick an exclusive contract which would also see him working on
Batman and the re-launch of
The Authority. However, after six issues under the DC/Wildstorm imprint the publisher elected to cancel the book despite critical acclaim and fan buzz. Robertson stated "it became obvious that DC was not the right home for The Boys," though he thanked
Scott Dunbier and
Ben Abernathy at Wildstorm for their support.
The Boys did not lack a home long as it was soon after picked up by
Dynamite Entertainment in February 2007. In 2008
The Boys was nominated for an
Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series as well as a
GLAAD Media Award, and is now under development through
Kickstart Entertainment and
Original Film for
Columbia Pictures. Subsequently, Columbia put The Boys into turnaround and it was picked up by
Paramount Pictures Darick left the monthly art chores on
The Boys with issue 43. Darick focused his attention on the six issue origin story
Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker that focused on
The Boys central character
Billy Butcher. The collected 6 issues made the New York Times bestseller list in April 2012. In November 2012, the final issue of The BOYS was released with issue #72. Robertson returned to draw the finale with art assistance from Richard P. Clark.
Conan the Barbarian Robertson wrote and drew
The Weight of the Crown, a
Conan the Barbarian one-shot for
Dark Horse comics, released in January 2010, as well as a 16-page prequel to the story, originally published by
Dark Horse Presents entitled "The Mad King Of Gaul". He also wrote: The CBLDF Presents Liberty Annual 2010 (2010) Annual 2010, The CBLDF Presents: Liberty Comics (2008), Annual 2010 (Conan Variant), Malibu Signature Series (1993) • 2, Mantra (1993) #10 - 'The coming of the inquisitors', Marvel Knights: Millennial Visions (2002)#1, MySpace Dark Horse Presents (2007) TPB vol. 05 - 'Volume Five', #28 The New Warriors (1990) Annual 03 & Annual 04, Power Rangers (1995), Ripfire (1995) #0 - 'Genesis', Rune (1994) #3 - 'The Spoils of War', Space Beaver (1986) #1 - #11, Spider-Man (1990) Super Special 1, Spider-Man Team-Up (1995) #5, Spiderman/New Warriors: Fuerzas de la Oscuridad (1994)#4, - 'La Insoportable Oscuridad del Ser', Ultraverse Premiere (1993).
HAPPY! In 2012
Image Comics released the four issue mini-series
HAPPY! co-created with Eisner Award-winning writer
Grant Morrison. Critically acclaimed and best selling,
HAPPY! marks the first collaboration of Image Comics, Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. The story centered around a beat down New York Detective turned hitman, Nick Sax, who awakes from a heart attack to a conversation with a perpetually upbeat "Unipixisus" (as named by Robertson's son), who calls himself "Happy The Horse" and takes the shape of a little blue flying donkey with a Unicorn horn. The creature is a little girl's imaginary friend and she is in danger. Only Nick Sax can save her as only Nick can see or hear Happy. It's an unusual buddy story and caught the attention of The RZA and Producer Reginald Hudlin who have expressed their desire to adapt the comic into a film. Harry Knowles' "Ain't It Cool News" announced Darick Robertson as one of their BEST ARTIST picks for their 9th Annual AICN COMICS @$$IE AWARDS, citing his work on
HAPPY!.
Ballistic In 2013 Robertson launched the 5-issue series
Ballistic, "a psychedelic, transreal, hard sci-fi adventure" with co-creator and writer
Adam Egypt Mortimer, from
Black Mask Studios. The series was well reviewed but struggled to find an audience on its initial release. A collection is due in 2015. It was co-created with writer
Gary Whitta based on a screenplay he wrote in 2001.
Oliver was published as a four-issue series by
Image Comics in 2015.
No More Heroes III On September 9, 2020,
Grasshopper Manufacture's official Twitter page confirmed that Robertson would contribute to
No More Heroes III's promotional material by providing several illustrations and designed the game's cover art. Robertson is one of the few western guest artists to join the development team of the game.
Space Bastards ] In 2021, Darick Robertson drew the series
Space Bastards written by Eric Peterson and Joe Aubrey with additional art by
Simon Bisley. The series was collected in two volumes ==Personal life==