Born and raised in Chicago and currently residing in Florida, Rob Schwager is the second child of hard working European immigrant parents. Often left in the care of relatives while his parents worked, Rob’s daily life consisted of an escapist’s steady diet of comic books, cartoons and movies, endless hours spent in arcades, MAD magazine and ABC television Afterschool Specials. Always drawing and doodling to keep himself occupied, subject matter such as superheroes, hot rods, monsters, and submarines, were fodder to his mind and his pencil.
After discovering punk rock during the early 80′s, Rob designed album covers, t-shirts and flyers for various punk bands in Chicago. This led to abundant work as a silkscreen concert poster artist, supplying hand crafted promotional posters to bands and venues across the country.
In the late 80′s / early 90′s, after a 5 year stint as a cabinetmaker, Rob fulfilled a childhood dream and became an artist working on mainstream comic books. He’s spent the last 25+ years of his life working on such classic icons as Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and the X-men. His color work has helped shape comic book pop-culture as we know it today.
Just like the comic book stories that occupied him as a youth, Rob views the shrinking world and the society around him as an ever-growing battle between good and evil. He creates imagery that encompasses his own journey of faith while enabling him to take a break from the turmoil of day-to-day life and reconnect with the dreamer and cartoon & comic book fanatic he was as a child.
