Noodle Receipts
Reading Time: 13 Mins.
Happy Wednesday! Now, this is a story all about how, my life got flipped-turned upside down, and I like to take a minute and sit with bravado, I’ll tell you how I became the artist known as Robaato.
Corny Fresh Prince bars aside (because Will is the high-priest of cornballs now), I wanted to make an article laying out my experience doing work for individuals in the so-called “industry” to further help aspiring serious professional artists from getting shafted. This is going to be a sorta long one, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy.
A Cautionary Tale
The year was 2011. A fresh, babyfaced young artist named Rob was growing and getting a lot of free exposure for his growing skills. He thought his work wasn’t all that great yet, and was often confused why people were celebrating it so much when it wasn’t up to his standards yet, but it was what it was. Through a genuinely perceived connection with an old internet art friend named Chamba (who I let stay at my place a few times in the early days), Rob eventually got contacted by Jim Zub (who was an editor at UDON at the time) to do a rush gig for Zynga. It was for some mobile game with a monkey in it… Oh yeah, Bubble Safari was the name.
Ex. A: This first gig wasn’t racially motivated (afaik), just so you know. But I do like how it’s parallel to me “chimping out”, as the racists like to say these days.
They needed it done in a week, and I was still working my 9-5 job at the time. Implying: I wasn’t relying at all on art full-time the way I am today. Art was the side hustle. I had a wife and dog to take care of then. They were offering only $170 per these illustrations, which even for that time, was explicably low for the work I did (concepts, sketches, storyboarding, colors, etc.), but I figured, hey, it’ll get my foot in the door if they see how proficient I can actually be with my art.
I perceived Zynga likely paid them very well (considering they are ZYNGA), pocketed the good 80% of it, and gave me the scraps. Which is all good; it’s just business, amirite? I scratch their back, they… scratch mine… barely.
Ex. B: Personal note, that logo was atrocious. What was I thinking?
Ex. C: The exclamatory “YOU ROCK” was prolly the only honest thing any of them ever told me about myself.
2012 was a busy year for me. I was starting out on the early remnants of Cryamore, which was always my plan, as around this time I was doing so much art, it was also the last time I worked a normal 9-5 job. I had quit my last hotel gig as a manager over an overbearing and egotistical boss who encouraged me to mistreat the employees beneath me. Later that year, Bandai-Namco started to do some side things, and one of the most notable ones was ShiftyLook, which was a webcomic series based on characters from their older IPs. The first I’ve done was a Dig Dug page, and it was for $350.
Ex. C: Remember what I said before? No secrets.
Ex. D: If only I could put all the stuff I’ve delivered on during that time, man…
And once again, y’boi delivered, on time. It’s my entire MO. I’ve definitely been late before, but that’s simply because I wanted to be late, and all the times I was on time, I wanted to be on time. “A wizard arrives precisely when he means to”, as the OG Gandalf once spat. I feel like people tend to think that I’m slow on things because I want to be. They’re half-right; outside of life events that I can’t control, whatever else I am in control of is totally on me. Anyway, to the left is that Dig Dug page.
Then a couple months later that year, I drew 13 pages of Wagan Land (an IP almost no American has a clue existed), for the same rate. So on top of that, these were strips where I had to not only layout, draw, and color the comics, but they wanted concept sketches, illustrations, etc. for free in addition to the final rate. I delivered those too. All in the same year!
So, it appears to me that I’m not a “scammer” or “grifter” at all, the more receipts get released and compounded on from me, aye…
In hindsight, WTF kinda name is ”ShiftyLook” anyway? Shit writes itself, lmao. There were other smaller projects I’ve done for that brand that there’s no point to share here, but again, the rate was pretty much the same for all of it, and I delivered on them. Oh yeah, in the middle of that, UDON wanted a short 5 page comic of Poison and Mika, which was my first Capcom-related gig I did for them. I did that too. $275 a page. I was not at all a fan of how it turned out, but hey, again they weren’t paying much for me to care like that, and they loved it, so… yeah:
These events will set the basis for the entirety of this post, as I will articulately detail all the notable times I actually I did, in fact, deliver for UDON Entertainment. Most of the work wasn’t even my best, I mean, they were never paying me the best rate, so why would I go above and beyond for them. Since, to this day, they silently pretend and act like I never existed and delivered any work for them, and swept me under the rug. Why is pride such a hard thing for people to swallow?
How Many Times?
Ex. E: Even after all this, people fail to recognize my gangsta traits.
Yes, how many times, indeed? Y’know, I always found it interesting on the low how many people will worship a faceless brand when not realizing all the unscrupulous things they’re doing behind the scenes, all because they print copies of popular existing work other artists have done and resell it. But, that’s the reality we live in. But carrying on, everyone should know the story by now:
On the surface, most would see me whip up covers and illustrations for UDON and think that was some holy, high-level to reach. But it wasn’t; my online following was much larger than UDON’s by 2015. When I became a full-time freelancer and worked regularly with them, they were never paying me a reasonable rate. On average, it was $300 for a cover, and that’s all me: from sketch to lines to colors. Heck, because they were such a huge fanboy over my color skills, there were times I was hired to even color other artists’ work, like Edwin Huang’s, Tradd Moore’s, Shane Law’s, and Adam Warren’s (he’s one of my GOATs growing up, btw, and still is), which led to me befriending and working with him on Empowered for a few volumes for Dark Horse:
Over time, my own individual art started getting better and better. As someone in their craft naturally does when they’re focused on improving it and working extremely hard to perfect it. I started to become more sought out by everyone. It was like how the girls be in school “ooooh, draw me” but worse. From major studios, to cosplayers and e-girls, celebrities, randos hearing about me and immediately talking shit about me like they know me or I met them, the fanboys like dude in my DMs talking about “WOWWWW you’re Robaato”; like, relax y’all, I’m only one human being, I can’t do it all…
This was also the point where my life took a turn for the worst.
Betrayals and Bitches
If you knew me then, you’d know I would always talk about the people in my life, and NOT in negative ways. That stopped being a thing when I found out the alleged love of my life had been adulterous for most of our marriage. As much as people think I always like to paint myself as a good guy (which I don’t, I clearly rock my villainy nowadays), I was indeed, “the good guy”. I never cheated, or entertained another woman while I was married, or flirted with them, or piped people when my ex wasn’t around, etc. She was doing that. I was busy at work for the focus of the entire relationship. And this isn’t to throw shade, no one’s perfect. I've long since grown from it, accepted the reality of this world, and parsed all of those emotions, and doing much better in life than she is at the moment. Broken bad people break good people. I’m simply stating the truth. And what else is there to love other than labeling truth-speakers “villains”, amirite?
We divorced in 2017, several months away from our ten year anniversary out of a 12 year relationship. It was the absolute worst time of my life. Mutual friends of ours accused me of wrongdoing and/or stopped talking to me, I was left alone and even lost my 5-bedroom home I worked so hard for that she wanted and my favorite dog to her, I began questioning my faith in God heavily, etc. Behind the scenes, I lost so much weight and a couple teeth from depression in the span of a year. Her own mother pretty much disowned her for screwing up the relationship with me; didn’t even attend her wedding right after to the clown she cheated on me with, lmfao. Like, you gotta laugh at that. When a mother-in-law can realize how much her daughter screwed up with a good, genuine, kind-hearted, and hard-working man is pure comedy. 😂 I digress.
So needless to say, I was going through it. I had a lot on my plate: still recovering at that time, constant art business stuff, Kickstarter backers, annoying people on social media dragging me into drama— the works. Meanwhile, Erik comes through at the height of the pandemic trying to gaslight me and make me feel bad that I couldn’t do another <$200 rush job for him.
Many saw the screenshots on my Instagram when I called him out back in 2022. He then tried to be buddy-buddy with me after I called him out, asking me to give another artist a pep talk retweet. I didn’t respond, lmao. Then he felt some type of way about the money he “spotted” me, when he honestly didn’t realize it was I who was “buddy-buddying” him. I got my money worth from my entire time of working with UDON from him. All $11250 of it plus a “tip”. Crazy that all the shit I’ve done for them over a decade only amounted to less than $20,000. Would’ve been less if I didn’t blackmail him for what I was properly owed. That’s almost the same amount of money they tried to give me for writing and illustrating a 120-page “How to Draw Sultry Women Like Robaato” book in 6 months so they can pawn it off to an entire wave of sweaty copycats of mine:
Ex. F: They definitely thought I was THIS dumb, lol. I would never use the word “sultry” on my shit.😆
Yeeup, I was one of the first who called out horrible industry practices the way everyone is doing it today and no one believed me. Matter of fact, I was considered a laughing stock for it. So, I started smoking weed and stopped giving a fuck. I still draw and make money off of it— matter of fact, got several well-paying gigs lined up along with a plethora of merch to drop this moment, but I can never fathom how people love to overlook facts to serve whatever fantasy they already have about me in their head. All the artwork people can see with their own two eyeballs and the first thing they do is say “I went crazy” or “lol that scammer”. I understand even people reading this will still be in disbelief, and that’s cool. I accept that ignorance and stupidity exists.
On top of doing favor spec work for Erik, I also did a lot of stuff I didn’t have to. Like, drawing and promoting their predatory Tribute books they’re too afraid of doing nowadays, or helping set up and break down their booth at conventions like San Diego Comic Con and Anime Expo, or recommending artists for them to contact for work, or suggesting business ideas in his hotel room, or, I don’t know, being a genuine friend. But ultimately, he was no different from the female dog that betrayed me. One instance was me doing a marker video with Chamba for COPIC where I not only had to record myself illustrating it (TWICE because the first recording screwed up), but also EDITING and COMMENTARY on the video and all I was offered were free markers that I already own.
No pay whatsoever!
Ex. G: Like, the guilt was hitting him so hard at that time that he made sure I got my free markers.
And people still going off “before Rob went off the deep end” in those comments. It drives me insane how RETARDED (yeah, I said it) your average human being is nowadays. Legit mental retardation where they can’t think critically even with evidence. Anyway, this is all just an example of the way majority of industry folks behave. I’m like the dude that is watching artists still continue to chase after and get eaten by a wolf that bit him. Thankfully, I still have my solid body of work I “didn’t deliver” on to keep me grounded and was never eaten alive. Thank GOD they’re afraid of me and wiped my work from their archives that they have no real right to using, as I never signed a single contract with them.
So, if anyone still wonders why I’m standoffish and can barely trust a soul now, this article is purely the reason why. And I still have a tiny number of friends that are around for me as a person, not as the “artist known as Robaato”. Matter of fact, we hung out last week and I smoked a joint for the first time in over a year. Ahh, felt like a virgin…But ultimately, life is life for me, all things considered. I still got hella people clocking whatever I’m doing, cursed with hella chicks that look like exes in my rolodex, and hella time in the world until I die.
Ex. H: Clones upon clones upon clones always watching me...
Don’t Make Mistakes I’ve Made
Or, do.
I strongly live by the adage, “one never knows, until they do.” Maybe you need to get really good at an honest craft and become popular for it. Maybe you need to marry someone you thought was for you. Maybe you need to believe strongly in the goodness of others. Maybe you need to befriend people genuinely.
Only then, maybe one will understand why I move the way I do.
By the way, all the allotted Syrup preorders are sold out! I’m going to focus on finishing and getting them shipped now, in addition to a lot of other goodies I got planned for drops. (I know I keep teasing, but I’m really in no rush here, and besides I’ve been busy with the game.)
There will be no printed copies beyond the people who preordered it, like I said and declared numerous times. Should’ve preordered one if you wanted a copy. *Shrug* Better luck next time.
Hey Siri, play The Middle Finger by Wale. A very relatable track. This is from an underrated record, actually.
✨🖕✨
