H.L. Roberts
East Anglian Comic Book Writer
H.L. Roberts is a 23 year old comic book writer from the East of England. He has been working in the industry since the start of 2022, and his self-published work consists of various themes and genres, ranging from zombies to knights, satire comedy to fighting games.
"My Time with Fighting Games!" Written by H.L. Roberts, Illustrated and Lettered by Thomas Philipson
My Journey
I started my comic journey back at the start of 2022 after having an abysmal year beforehand, filled with roadblocks, working multiple jobs, and a lack of purpose in life.Previously, I had acquired a college degree in Film and TV at Cambridge Regional College, as I was passionate about writing stories, but because Film and TV is very difficult to get into from a outsider and economic prospective: I decided to delve into comics!Since then, I've worked on multiple projects at my own pace, first starting out with a four page comic that's about the un-official truces of World War 1 that commenced on Christmas Day between the two sides.After that, I decided to go big with a three issued project called INFECTION, which is a zombie story based within the East of England that takes elements from Video Games such as Valve's Left 4 Dead.During that time, I decided to expand my portfolio a bit with both a satire-comedy Halloween comic that was free to read each year, along with a rivalling comic to INFECTION called Sticker Knight, which is about a Knight covered in Stickers.I also partook in events such as Free Comic Book Day 2024 by working with various artists on short comic stories.As of writing this on November 4th 2024, I've self-published twleve comics, five of them being full-fledged comics that can be brought from certain comic book stores (See "Find my Comics" Tab for that)
Work
All work shown below can be read on GlobalComix at the following link below:
H.L. Roberts GlobalComix Account
4 Page World War One Comic (2022)
Starting out my comic journey was a four page comic (Free to Read)Talking with a bunch of creators at comic conventions such as MCM London, I found doing one of these over a small one page comic would be a good step into the right direction.I decided to do something on World War One because personally I feel that this War is shunned out by the exaggeration and publicity of World War Two that we get taught in school. I feel World War One doesn't get the recognition that it should do.For this four page comic, I did research into the truces that happened on Christmas Eve and Day, as well as research into World War One in general.This was also the first project I worked on with Samanta de La Rosa Batllori, who would proceed to do a lot of artwork for me in the future
INFECTION (2022 to 2024)
After the World War One comic, I decided to delve straight into doing a full-fledged comic, and the best place to start was with zombies!I grew up playing a lot of Zombie games. Call of Duty Zombies (World at War, BO1 and 2), Left 4 Dead 2, House of the Dead, etc. It brings back good memories playing split screen with my brother on most of these games listed.I took Samanta up on the offer to do INFECTION, and she immediately accepted!INFECTION took about two to three months to come up and write, since the characters were originally for another project I had in mind when I was doing Chapter Concepts (DLC Concepts) for the hit asymmetrical horror game: Dead by Daylight.The story is about a group of survivors going from Point A to Point B, fighting off hordes of zombies while dealing with other problems along the way. You'll follow a unique and diverse cast of characters who connect and conflict with each other.This project took two years to make, as during the development cycle, different obstacles and events happened. This ranged from working on other projects with Samanta and other people, quitting my job back in August of 2023, and other bits.INFECTION Issue 3 finally came to fruition at the end of 2023, but came to Kickstarter at the start of 2024.Looking back at INFECTION, there are some improvements I would have liked to make. There's always the option to make Issue 4 onwards, and/or to remaster Issues 1 to 3, but for now: I'll leave my first little big project alone :)
BloodyWeen (2022 to Present)
Halloween means a lot to people, both young and old. They appreciate the season where they can dress up and be weird!BloodyWeen came around after I wanted to show off the characters of Bloody England (an unreleased project) to the world before I did Bloody England. Samanta was on board with this project, and from a personal statement: She enjoys doing BloodyWeen because it brings out more colour and taste than INFECTION does (with the grim green and gray colour pallet), which I agree with.BloodyWeen is a bit hard to explain, as each entry into the annual Halloween comic is different.The first year (2022) is about Lola the Witch coming back from a vacation to find her castle that was owned by Oliver Cromwell has been demolished for a theme-park. This specific entry was inspired by the Team Fortress 2 comic called "Doom-Mates".The second year (2023) is different. James is awoken by Roosebrit and Webby to be told that the others have been kidnapped by Lola, on which James snaps a copy of Sonic Heroes for the PlayStation 2 on his knee-cap and they turn into "Bloody Heroes"And then this year's BloodyWeen (2024, as of writing) had multiple scripts scrapped, but ended up to be a homage to the previous two entries while keeping that satire-comedy level to it.I enjoy doing BloodyWeen because it's not only free for everyone to read and have a giggle at, it's that sense of a break from my other projects which are semi-serious, such as killing zombies, and slaying beasts.
Sticker Knight (2023 to Present)
I'm going to start this segment off to say that: Sticker Knight is insanely popular!The idea for this comic came around when Issue 2 of INFECTION was coming out, and I wanted to expand my paid portfolio.
I wanted to do a comic about knights, with an iconic knight that someone would see and go "Oh that's from said title" like Soliare from Dark Souls (FromSoftware), and I thought about decorating the armour to make it iconic, which is when it clicked in my head:"A knight covered in stickers: Sticker Knight"Sticker Knight is illustrated by LEVI, who was someone I had in mind to do the art for INFECTION before Samanta took up the mantle. LEVI also specialises in drawing knights and human anatomy, so he was perfect for the job!As said at the start of this segment: Sticker Knight is a seller!
I honestly don't know what it is, if it's the stickers you get when you buy physical copies of the series, the simple yet compelling concept of "the knight covered in stickers", or that my reader-base wanted something new.As of writing (November 6th 2024): Sticker Knight is currently halfway through its life-cycle as two more issues are on the way!
Free Comic Book Day 2024 (2024)
Back in April of 2024, I had planned myself a break from comics as a lot of things were happening at the time, specifically that because I had quit my job back in August of 2023, and that each passing month after... probably November 2023, I was eating very poorly because of the amount of money I had in my bank account. There was also other problems like mental health, and relations with family was a bit rocky at the time.Days before I went on this planned break, I had CoCo Comic Con 2024 up in Lancaster, and I got to sit down with some comic creators and artists.Steve "Stevesie" Gregson (Ring Cats) was one of the specific people I sat down with and talked to about some things, including this break.
Our little talk was magnificent because one of the main takeaways from it was the whole prospective of "Free Comics Vs. Paid Comics", which, looking back at my portfolio at the time, the only free comic I did was the WW1 Comic, and BloodyWeen.So I decided to put some money aside for this, working with a few clients from CoCo Comic Con.I did three stories:
- "My time with Fighting Games" is a one page comic about growing up with fighting games. This was done with Thomas Philipson (The Stranger, Complicated Young Man) who's one of the head people of CoCo Comics. I enjoyed working with Tom on this as he had some say on the art layout of this comic, and Tom is a very talented young man.
- "The Green Man Returns!" is a two page comic about a fictional character I made from the hit asymmetrical game called Dead by Daylight, this was done with Isabelle Hatherell (Blood!) who I had met at CoCo Comic Con. I had taken interest into her artstyle, specifically with Blood!
- And finally "Me explaining Prime Lockdown gaming to a 2000s Scot, and a Knight covered in Stickers" which is a Satire Comedy One page comic about... well, the title explains itself. This was done with Samanta as a one off funny.The overall reception of this, along with doing some promotional stuff with Close Encounters (Comic Store) in Peterborough, was really good, and I'll be looking to do it next year!
Tournament Tour: Fighter (2025 to present)
(As of writing on the 7th of November 2024) Tournament Tour: Fighter is going to be my next big project, alongside with finishing Sticker Knight.Two of my close friends: Ell and Will, they both run a Local Fighting Game scene in Milton Keynes that includes games such as Smash Bros, Tekken, Street Fighter, and more. This project is made for them, but also it's something I'm delving into that isn't my kind of thing. I did play some fighting games growing up such as Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Sonic the Fighters, but in comparison to their knowledge: my knowledge of fighting games is far less educated than theirs.Tournament Tour: Fighter is looking quite promising, as its building a large range of characters, relationships, world building, etc. I like the bright and vibrant colours of the characters that with my other projects I couldn't really do (INFECTION is very grim with its colour pallet and era, and Sticker Knight is in Black and White), and with writing these characters and them being brought to life by Narklos (Artist of the header above): I've come more connected to these characters.TT:F is going to be doing something unique as going back to that whole "Paid Comics Vs. Free Comics", TT:F will be Free to Read online, with the option of supporting the project via a Physical Run.
Contact
If you wish to contact me about any business enquiries, please fill out the form below and I should get back to you within 72 hours!
Thank you
Cheers!
The Latham Project
Christmas means a lot to kids, and for me growing up: Christmas around Dads was unique and special.On Christmas morning, we would wake up and go into Dads room to unwrap little stocking stuffers, before opening up the big presents. These small items would include small bits and bobs like a pack of Parma-Violets, Lynx Africa Aftershave, those small Lego sets that now cost like £15 each- you get the idea.It didn't seem like much, considering these items at the time were like worth a week's pocket money, but it truly made Christmas special around my dads.
What is The Latham Project?
The Latham Project essentially recaptures that feeling for everyone, not just children.Each Christmas, around December time since 2023: I have been donating comic books to local small charities around Huntingdonshire for those less-fortunate that cannot afford to put presents under Christmas trees.This is a nice way to not only say thank you to those who've supported my comic book journey, but The Latham Project also encourages and educates people to read.Last year in 2023, I managed to gather around 30 comic books to donate to charities such as Papworth Trust and CARESCO, alongside with Hinchingbrooke Hospital (as they took care of both of my parents that year)
How it works
The Latham Project supports indie comic book shops to keep them afloat in these struggling times. "Indie" is the specific word here, as companies like Forbidden Planet can survive over a small loss in comparison to a comic book shop like Close Encounters.Last year (2023), I worked with two indie comic stores, which were:
- Niche Comic Book Shop (Huntingdon, England)
- OK Comics (Leeds, England)
With this year doubling on the amount of support and comics being brought from these indie stores.This year (2024), I'm working with the following indie comic stores:
- Niche Comic Book Shop (Huntingdon, England)
- OK Comics (Leeds, England)
- Close Encounters (Peterborough, England)
- Zine Freak (Lancaster, England)
and as of writing (November 7th 2024), I have managed to double the amount of comics that I'll be giving away.I'm also expanding the amount of charities that I'll be working with from last time, while including those charities this time around.
