Bio:
Robert J. (“Bob”) Sodaro is an American born writer, editor,
and digital graphic artist. Sodaro was born in Norwalk, CT and is best known for
writing as a journalist for numerous publications in the comicbook industry press
during the ‘80s & ‘90s. He currently contributes stories to a number of independent
comicbook publishers including, Dark Fire Press, United Comics, Red Anvil Comics, Main Enterprises,
Pronto Comics, Free Lunch Comics, and others, He has also created and written for
the online webcomic publisher Inkbot.com. He currently writes for HubPages.com about
comicbooks, films, and literature. He is the creator of a number of intellectual
properties including Agent Unknown, Wülf Girlz, Girl Skout Wars,
Hot Girl & Totally Hot Girl, and others.
As a Media Studies Major at Sacred Heart University (SHU), Fairfield,
CT, Sodaro studied various forms of modern media including radio, video, film, and
print. Sodaro graduated with a BS in Media Studies and a minor in philosophy. While
attending SHU he acquired his 3rd Class FCC License and began broadcasting
as a DJ on WSHU, the college’s radio station. It was this position that landed him
an internship, and later a job as a copywriter at WICC, the local #1 radio station in the Fairfield
County area. It was while working at another station, WNLK in Norwalk CT, Sodaro met Mike Raub
a DJ at that station.
In 1981, Raub, a renowned comicbook art collector introduced
Sodaro to Mike Catron, then an editor for Fantagraphics Publications’ two magazines,
The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes. Catron purchased
Sodaro’s first published piece — an article about Steve Ditko’s run on Spider-Man
— which set Sodaro off on a publishing run that had his work appearing in virtually
every major comicbook industry magazine over the next three decades. It was during
these formative days of his career that Sodaro initially met and befriended indie
comic publisher, Jim Main (although Sodaro wouldn’t begin contribution stories and/or doing production work for Main’s various publications until 2010).
From his initial piece in
Amazing Heroes, Sodaro
went on to contribute to
The FantiCo Chronicles,
The Comics
Journal,
Comics Buyers’ Guide,
Wizard,
Hero
Illustrated,
Flux,
Combo,
Nonsports Update,
Comics Values Monthly,
Triton,
TwoMorrows, and
numerous other publications. During the ‘80s & ‘90s he also wrote marketing
and promotional material directly for many of the comicbook publishers as well,
including Marvel (
Marvel Age,
Marvel Vision,
Marvel
Year in Review), DC, (
Direct Currents) Image (Extreme), Malibu (
The Malibu Sun),
Dark Horse, Valiant/Acclaim, J.C. Comics, and many others. For a time, he served
as the Senor Title Coordinator and a regular contributor to
SpiderFan.org. Sodaro also briefly worked on an
in-house assignment as a copywriting/consultant for Marvel Comics.
During this same time, in addition to his extensive comicbook
journalism, Sodaro also wrote for numerous non-comics and mainstream magazines and
newspapers. These articles ranged from computers, electronic gaming, and technology
(
Videogaming Illustrated,
Ahoy!,
Compute’s! Gazette,
Run), to local issues (
Stamford Plus,
Norwalk
Plus,
Norwalk Beat,
Local Matters,
The
Fairpress,
The Fairfield County Weekly,
The Hour),
to opinion, pop culture, and music (
Fairfield County Woman,
Relix,
Blues Revue), to comics and collecting (
American Antiquities,
MoneyCard Collector,
Tuff Stuff’s Collect). One of Sodaro’s
other long loves, has been movies, and he has maintained a movie column over the
better part of the last 40 years (
Tunes ‘N’ Times,
Hip,
Mixx/
InterMixx,
The Stamford Times,
More
Sugar, PopThought.com, Examiner.com/Hartford and currently for
Hubpages.com).
In the early ‘80s — while working as the managing editor for Ion
International, Sodaro began the move from journalist to a writer of comics. His first
work of published fiction was for
Videogaming Illustrated (an Ion
International publication) when he took over the writing chores for an ongoing cartoon
strip entitled
Video Victor (illustrated by Gill Fox). In 1986 he went on to create an espionage series for
Deni Lobert’s Renegade Press imprint, entitled
Agent Unknown (Illustrated by Del Barras). In 2006,
Sodaro was invited to join Keith Murphey in The Comicbook Artists Guild (CAG), as well
as become publicist for (and contributor to) Murphey’s publishing house, Guild Works
Productions (
GWP). It was through his association with the Guild and GWP that Sodaro
met and befriended Matt C. Ryan and Steve Kanaras of Free Lunch Comics. It was at
this time that Sodaro returned to his roots, writing fiction. Since that time several
of Sodaro’s short stories have been published by a number of indie publishers including
Guild Works Productions (
Psychosis!), The Comicbook Artists Guild
Anthology (
CAG), Free Lunch Comics (
Beyond the Kuiper Belt,
Only in Whispers), Atlas Unleashed (
Psychosis Today!),
and Main Enterprises (
*PPFZT!,
The Attic,
Main
Enterprises Presents, others), and even created and produced comics for
Pronto Comics (
Hot Girl & Totally Hot Girl,
First in Flight
— the story of Gustave Whitehead, and
Perceptions).
Sodaro’s
Hot Girl
& Totally Hot Girl (IndyPlanet) began life as a gag and wound up
as a stand-alone comic when Sodaro decided to “take the next step” in his evolution
as an author. He assembled a team to produce the art then found a publisher (NY-based
Pronto Comics) to help him move the project through to fruition. For its initial release,
the comic became a full-color, eight-page Print-on-Demand comic from IndyPlanet.com. His other on-going
projects include the web comic
Girl Skout Wars (a group of young girls
fighting off zombies, and other creatures in a post-apocalyptic world); and Wülf Girlz
(A pair of pre-teen girls who are werewülves, and stalk pedophiles and other human
predators). His second Pronto PoD comic was
First in Flight
a brief accounting of Connecticut resident, Gustave Whitehead, who flew two years before
the Wright brothers. A third Pronto Comic is the mythic flight of fancy entitled
Perceptions.
Sodaro has also edited and produced books, magazines and comics for various
publishers, including Main Enterprises, Stone Island Comics, JGM Comics, Red
Anvil Comics, Buffalo Avenue Books, Macrospasm Studios, Hippy Comix, and
others.
Sodaro is also the author of a pair of prose non-fiction books, (
Kiddie
Meal Collectibles (Krause) — a price guide/history about Fast Food toys
and Collectibles — and
Trivia
Mania: Commercials and Ads (Zebra) 1001 questions and answers about
ads and commercials). Working with Alex Malloy and Stuart Wells, he became the features
editor and assisted with the production for the long-running
Comics
Values Annual (1993–2009); a comicbook price guide. In his role as a
comicbook historian he also contributed to the first three volumes of
The
Official Index to the Marvel Universe; which have been spun off into
a number of soft-cover “
Official Index to the Marvel Universe” trades (Sodaro’s
contributions appear in: Spider-Man. Captain America, Thor, and Ghost Rider). Sodaro
contributed to a pair of Dynamite Entertainment’s books,
Stan
Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes, and
Stan
Lee's Master Class.
In addition to his writing two on-going comics for Red Anvil
(Cyberines & Owl Girls) Sodaro also writes short stories for
InDELLible Comics and United Comics. He successfully assembled his Wülf Girls stories into a single volume and is currently available from Dark Fire Press. In addition to the three published short Wülf Girlz illustrated stories, he has also penned a novella of the Girlz’ adventures, and will also be issuing that through Dark Fire as well. His articles have also appeared in We
Love Monsters, RVA
Magazine, Government
Technologies, and elsewhere.
In addition to his writing and editing, Sodaro is also an experienced Graphic Production Artist as well as a prolific magazine and book designer. Below are some of the numerous books, magazines, and comics that he has produced.
Below are a group of books that Sodaro has produced for Will Murray. followed by a high-end graphic novel written by Dr. Alan Domian, PHD, a psychologist with 48 years clinical experience in psychotherapy.
Robert J. Sodaro has two adult children; he currently lives just
outside of New York, in lower Fairfield County with the love of his life; along with a number
of cats, and dogs. He can be found at his computer posting to his social media,
working on freelance writing or graphic production and/or book designing assignments, catching a
film, appearing at a number of comicbook conventions, or simply enjoying life.
Date of Birth: September
23, 1955
Birthplace: Norwalk,
CT
Website:
https://rjsodaro.wixsite.com/freelanceink
Blog:
http://freelanceink.blogspot.com/
HubPages: https://hubpages.com/@robertjsodaro
SlideShare: https://www.slideshare.net/RobertSodaro
Wix (Portfolio): https://rjsodaro.wixsite.com/freelanceink
E-mail:
rjsodaro at gmail dot com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/Funnybook_City
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=700449832
MeWe: https://mewe.com/robertsodaro/posts
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/robertjsodaro/_saved/
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjsodaro/
Universodon: https://universeodon.com/@BobSodaro
Polywork: https://www.polywork.com/robert_sodaro
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@robertsodaro
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rjsodaro.bsky.social
Notes:
Sodaro is also an avid runner and does so whenever his schedule
allows. He also contributes a great deal of his time to a number of local causes
and events and is both active and well-known in his local community where he has
not only worked with several local community organizations, including working at the local polls during elections. He also served as the Deputy
Registrar of Voters in his hometown for some 10 years.
A partial listing of Sodaro’s corporate comicbook work as a Writer:
- 2099 Special: The World of Doom (1995)
- The Adversary (2010)
- Agent Unknown (1987)
- Amazing Heroes (1981)
- The Amazing Spider-Man: Official Index to the Marvel Universe
(2010)
- Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel
Universe (2010)
- Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe (2011)
- Combo (1995)
- Comicbook Artists Guild Anthology (2001)
- Comics Collector (1983)
- Comics Values Monthly (1986)
- Doom 2099 (1993)
- FantaCo's Chronicles Series (1981)
- Ghost Rider: Official Index to the Marvel Universe (2011)
- How to Collect Comics (1994)
- Iconic (2009)
- Malibu Ashcan: UltraForce (1994)
- Marvel Preview 1993 (1993)
- Marvel Vision (1996)
- Marvel: The Year-in-Review (1989)
- Mortal Kombat (1994)
- Official Index to the Marvel Universe (2009)
- Psychosis Today! (2010)
- Psychosis! (2006)
- The Punisher Anniversary Magazine (1994)
- Thor: Official Index to the Marvel Universe (2011)
- Wizard (1991)
- Wizard: The Guide to Comics — 100 Most Collectible Comics (1993)
- Wizard: The Superman Tribute (1993)
- Wolverine, Punisher & Ghost Rider: Official Index to the
Marvel Universe (2011)
A partial listing of Sodaro’s prose Fiction:
- Writers Unite Dimensions of the Old West
- Writers Unite Dimensions of Fantasy
- Writers Unite Dimensions of Romance
- Weird Fiction Quarterly (Jan. 2023-present)
- InDELLiprose
- InDELLiprose 2
- Dark Sister #11
- A Measured Response
- Cat Got Your Tongue
- We Suck at Comics
- When the Legend Becomes Truth
A partial listing of Sodaro’s online prose Fiction:
- Writers Unite
- Bardsy.com
- VocalMedia.com
A partial listing of Sodaro’s work as an Editor:
- Fantagraphics
- The Comics Journal (1977)
- Amazing Heroes (1977)
- Red Anvil Comics
- War of the Independents (2011)
- The Mighty Titan (2013)
- Unit 5 (2017)
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