iFanboy Upstarts: Ruben Rojas

Every comic artist stands on the shoulders of their predecessors. Jack Kirby stood on the shoulders of Milton Caniff and Hal Foster. Neal Adams took on Kirby and others. And Jim Lee on the shoulders of Adams, John Byrne and others. And this week’s iFanboy Upstarts is doing the same, but on much bigger shoulders: Picasso’s.

Born in the Southern Spanish port of Malaga, 30 year old artist Ruben Sanchez Hurtado de Rojas (Ruben Rojas for short) was born in the same town as Pablo Picasso. Undeterred by that pressure, Rujas was an avid comics fan beginning at the tender age of 5. In 2010 he completed a college degree in Illustration, winning several amateur awards along the way. His first professional work was an illustration in the classic Spanish horror comics magazine Cthulhu, and recently had his proper American debut with back-up stories in the Amigo Comics’ title Rogues!.Rojas is currently balancing work on a webcomic called Blue Yonder as well as a prospective print book titled Ruin, so it’ll be excited to see how those develop.

Rojas is extremely new to the professional world of comics, but has copious talent that looks waiting for the chance to shine on his own. Rojas has done two sets of try-out pages for Marvel — one with Uncanny X-Force and one with Daredevil — but has yet to grab the attention of editors. With hints of  Mike Oeming, Rob Gillory and Kristian Donaldson, I could easily see Rojas stepping up and breaking out drawing an upstart Image series should the opportunity present itself.