Meet Fabio Ruotolo | Freelance comics book artist and illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fabio Ruotolo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fabio, how do you think about risk?
My career as illustrator and comic book artist started because I took a risk. I’ll explain why. After high school I attended the university for 6 years and my destiny was to became an archaeologist. During my studies I drew illustrations for a magazine delivered for free at university. It was just a hobby that I was quite passionate about. One day the publisher of this amateur magazine told me about a course on comics book taught by a Pro and I decided to attended it. After about a year in this course the teacher who then became my mentor, offered me to help him make his projects. I accepted and since then my life began to change until the turning point when I had to choose between graduating to become an archaeologist or leaving university after years of sacrifice to do what I was born to do (today I can state it) and drawing my first professional comic book. It was about the risk to leave the known for the unknown. Red pill or blue pill? I’ve chosen the red one and now…here we are!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a freelance comic book artist and illustrator. I like to draw since I was kid. Thinking about my past I’ve realized that a number of factors such as luck, the desire to find a suitable way to me to express my emotions, the need to manage my time by myself have allowed me to transform my passion for drawing into a work. With time all of these factors naturally led me down the path where my hobby became my job.

The most important part of my job is creating stories that I sell to publishers. The creation phase can last a while and during this time nobody pays me. I have to live using the earnings I got from the previous project and I integrate them by giving drawing lessons. So, due to the nature of my job I don’t have a regular budget like someone in permanent employment. It’s not better or worse than normal it’s just a different way of proceeding and with time you get used to it and you learn to manage it. I can say with confidence that I’ve never lacked anything to live well. I’ve always had the resources to buy what I need for a healthy lifestyle or for the best tools for my job. Above all, regardless of income, being my own boss, I’ve always had time for myself.

My artistic career started when I was kid.

I was born in Turin, a city in northern Italy. Then, my parents were simple workers and they worked hard to ensure me a smooth life. Due to this I often stayed alone and to keep myself busy I used to invent adventure stories in which I was the main character. I spent a large part of my time doing this. I wanted my story to be believable and I was very attentive to details.

Once with a chair and some boxes I built a car and I became a formula one pilot. My bed often became a raft and I was a castaway who faced storms, enormous sharks, and whales. One time I built a wooden Colt 45 and I became a cowboy. Sometimes I acted the stories I invented, other times I drew them. And when it was the time to stop my activities I was sorry to leave the fantasy world in which I empathized all the way…it was already then a job for me. I’m sure all this has deeply influenced me. I’ve exercised my imagination and I created a kind of indispensable habit that still today makes me feel the need to tell stories.
Later, my childhood led me to the time when I took a risk and I transformed my hobby into my job.

After high school I attended the university for 6 years and my destiny was to became an archaeologist. During my studies I drew illustrations for a magazine delivered for free at university. It was just a hobby that I was quite passionate about. One day the publisher of this amateur magazine told me about a course on comics book taught by a Pro and I decided to attended it. After about a year in this course the teacher who then became my mentor, offered me to help him make his projects. I accepted and since then my life began to change until the turning point when I had to choose between graduating to become an archaeologist or leaving university after years of sacrifice to do what I was born to do (today I can state it) and drawing my first professional comic book. It was about the risk to leave the known for the unknown. Red pill or blue pill? I’ve chosen the red one and now…here we are!

If I take stock after about 20 years of career I can say I’m lucky because I’ve been successful, but I’d like to define what the meaning of the word “success” is for me. It’s not about the fame or income, but it’s about having found a way to express my inner nature and to share it with the community through the stories I draw, being paid to do so! Someone pays me to do what I like best. This is a miracle, this is my success, regardless of the practical aspects.

However, that said, the most important factor behind all this is my continuous effort. I need patience and endurance doing my job. Inventing and drawing stories is a very long job (making a comic book takes at least one year) and it requires many skills. When I invent a story I’m the storyteller, the scriptwriter, the director, the main actor, the supporting actors, the costume designer, the scenographer, the director of photography. And after I built the whole story I must hand-drawing and hand-coloring dozens of pages. The amount of work to handle is large and sometimes can scare you. So without patience and endurance I couldn’t succeed. Besides, being that mine is a difficult job and I have to reserve my energies, over the years I’ve had to learn to make a selection.
At the beginning of my career I often accepted jobs that I was not passionate about, but that allowed me to earn some money. It’s true, I drew and they paid me to do it, but it wasn’t what I really wanted. I often used to complain, I was not happy and I found it difficult to complete the work that had been assigned to me. It was an important and necessary step, but over time I realized that what I wanted was to draw the things I like and that I would get more satisfaction by drawing ideas that make my heart beat faster. So the most important principle for me is to be true to myself.

First of all because my job doesn’t have to be just a matter of money but a combination between the opportunity of earning money and at the same time doing it by having fun.

And then because I must respect my job. I remember, when I was kid, if I was sad, discouraged, or disappointed, if I started drawing, somehow everything got lighter, and over time all this has not changed. It’s always been like this, even now. Drawing has always been of great importance to me especially in difficult times. I’m sure it has given balance to my life. I think it’s important to do a job where you can express your individuality. Based on my personal experience, I can say that doing a job where you can bring out your inner qualities, the peculiar abilities that each of us has since childhood, has a great impact in life as well. Work is an important part in the life of every human being, and if you do something you like, it definitely helps to have a balance at all levels. This doesn’t mean that you will live happily ever after, but that even when you are going through hard times, being in contact with the truest part of yourself can help you to face difficulties with greater self-confidence.

To conclude, my artistic career is my life and my life is my artistic career. They are one and the same. The circumstances that I’ve experienced have plotted together “against” me and have led me over time to be who I am. Between me and life there is some sort of an agreement. The life allowed me to do what I like and, in return, I must commit continuously to keep alive everything it gave to me. I don’t know where I want to be by the end of my life-career, but I know how I’d like to get there: as much as possible without regrets.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would definitely take him in the middle of nature. I live in the mountains, I produce by myself the vegetables I eat, I cut the wood with which I warm myself. Contact with nature has been fundamental in my life. I recommend everyone to live a period in the midst of nature, not just a week but for a few months. It could change everyone’s life. This doesn’t mean rejecting the city. This means getting back to the city facing it with more balanced energies.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
All the persons I’ve met and all the experiences I’ve lived made their part and have contribuited to my story, but I’d like to dedicate my shoutout particularly to a person and to a book.

The person is Massimiliano Frezzato who was my mentor. He is a Pro illustrator and about 20 years ago with patience he led me down the path where my hobby (the passion for drawing) became my job. He literally changed my life.

I’d like to mention also the books that had a deep impact on me when I was young: “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse.

I read it the first time when I was about 14. Siddhartha is a young man who seeks the path most suited to him in life through reasoning and an attempt to understand the deeper reality of things. His search for an authentic and pacified inner dimension has always fascinated me. What I like most is that he doesn’t stop at the teachings of the supreme master Buddha (he meets the master in person), since he thinks each human being must find his own way to wisdom. Siddhartha follows the same path as Buddha, but somehow he overcomes it, because his enlightenment takes place not through the rejection of life, but by violently immersing himself in it, letting himself be involved and then resurrecting with a new maturity. I recommend it because with a simple style Hesse makes understandable important topics.

Instagram: Fabio.Ruotolo (@fabius.ruotolo)

Other: email contact: fabiusruotolo@gmail.com

Image Credits
Images by Stefano Capranico