Shelby Robertson


Shelby Robertson is an American comic book illustrator, known for his distinctive style pinup renditions of attractive fictional female characters. His detailed rendering of heavily muscled figures has been compared to that of Frank Frazetta and Michael Turner. He describes his style as "part Marvel, part DC, and part old school Image".

Early life

Shelby Robertson had no formal art training. His biggest influence is British artist Alan Davis, in particular Davis' work on Excalibur in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Robertson elaborates that it was not Davis' style that he wished to emulate, but that seeing his work inspired him to want to draw for a living. In terms of artists whose work he emulates, he acknowledges that his work appears heavily influenced by Michael Turner, Arthur Adams, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and Frank Frazetta, all of whom he is a fan, and also mentions Travis Charest and Terry Dodson.

Career

Robertson's art career started at the age of 15 when he was hired by the British Aeronautics Magazine as a lead artist and concept illustrator. He was commissioned by Rob Liefeld at the age of 17, and his first submission pin-up became his first published work in the industry. He did Rascal from the Black Flag comic serialized tale and after a few months, was permitted to do his own book, "Crypt and tons of fill in pagework". He also helped out with many "ghost" inks and was often used as a background assistant to seasoned veteran comic book artists.
Since leaving Extreme Studios in 1996, he has worked on a number of different titles for different publishers. He has also done work for the music industry, including layout and pre-press production for Glenn Danzig, Bloodhound Gang, Agent 51 Adeline Records, Box Of Stuff, and Kidd Nasty.
Shelby worked in the VideoGames industry full-time from 2012 - 2014 as a character designer, portrait painter, and asset designer on several online PC games including asset design freelance. In 2016 and part of 2017, Shelby provided ink finished work on the Deadpool trade paperback titled Bad Blood with pencils supplied by Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld. Shelby is also providing artwork for upcoming Extreme relaunch titles, tbd. Shelby is also providing artwork for 2017 installments of 94 and Madam Satan American Dischord properties.

Awards