For over 20 years Tom Roberts has been providing high-quality, creative images for a wide diversity of clients.  His paintings and illustrations have appeared as covers and interiors for hardcover and paperback books, magazines, comic books, young adult paperbacks, textbooks, television storyboards and advertising art.

Born in Murphysboro, Illinois in 1965, Tom’s earliest artistic influences were the cartoons of Warner Bros. and Hanna Barbera.  Newspaper strips such as Alley Oop, The Born Loser, Henry and Nancy were poured over and copied from.  As soon as he could read comic books became a major attraction: titles such as Tarzan and G.I. Combat by Joe Kubert; Superman by Curt Swan, The Flash by Irv Novak, Batman and Green Lantern by Neal Adams; and The Avengers and Conan by John Buscema most notably.  He later came to appreciate the realistic newspaper strips of Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Stan Drake and discovered the great book and magazine illustrators such as N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, J.C. Coll, and Dean Cornwell.

Tom is a 1987 graduate of The Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Arts.

Early in his career Tom worked for several years as an assistant to Tim Hildebrandt (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Marvel Masterpieces), and later assisted legendary comic book and comic strip artist Al Williamson (Secret Agent Corrigan, Star Wars).  The opportunity to work beside, and learn from, such notable artists provided Tom a solid background of invaluable time-gained knowledge.

Tom has instructed classes at Heartland Community College, The McLean County Arts Center and The Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Arts.

Tom appeared on A&E’s Biography, and has been featured in newspaper articles and Internet interviews.  His work has been shown various in exhibits across the country, in addition to appearing as a guest at conventions.

When not painting or designing, Tom writes articles on illustrators of the past. He is the author of the award-winning, Alex Raymond: His Life and Art. He provided an introduction for volume 1 of the series Rip Kirby: The First Modern Detective. Tom is a Contributing Editor for the Rip Kirby reprint set from IDW.

He has written essays on artists such as Walter M. Baumhofer, Tom Lovell, Graves Gladney and George Rozen, and contributed to publications and books including Illustration Magazine, Al Williamson: Hidden Lands, Walter M. Baumhofer: Pulp Art Masters, Belarski: Pulp Art Masters and Rough Stuff among others. He is currently at work on a book about illustrator John Richard Flanagan, best remembered for his elaborate pen and ink drawings that accompanied the serialized Fu Manchu stories of Sax Rohmer during the 1920s and '30s.

2008 saw the release of Tom’s long-awaited Alex Raymond: His Life and Art, a 312-page biography/art book of the legendary creator of Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Secret Agent X-9 and Rip Kirby. The book went on to win the Silver Medal in the Book of the Year competition from the Independent Publishers Book Awards.

 

He lives in Illinois with his wife and family and their two dogs.  He enjoys baseball, old movies, and collecting illustrated books and pulp magazines.