Everybody has an idea for a comic, a movie or a song. Rob Feldman keeps finishing his.
On this episode of the Bucks Townies Podcast, we sit down with Rob Feldman, a comic book creator, animator and producer from right here in Doylestown, who, somewhere along the way, also became Babyhead Feldmano. Don't ask. Watch the episode.
It's one of the funniest conversations we've had on the show, and somewhere in between the jokes, Rob walks us through what the creative business actually looks like: the deals, the option money, the projects that blow up overnight and the ones that finally make it.
From Pizza to Comics
Rob grew up on the Jersey Shore in Hazlet and has about 26 years of pizza-making in his back pocket. He was also the kid drawing superheroes, which is something you kept quiet about in a New Jersey high school in the 80s.
In his early 20s he had an idea for a movie and decided to make it a comic instead. He self-published four issues in the 90s and they sold out. He admits the drawing and the writing weren't great, but he was determined to make something with his own hands, and that's what got him going.
Dr. Shroud and the Hollywood Roller Coaster
His character Dr. Shroud is a reformed vampire turned plastic surgeon whose daughter is abducted, so he goes back to his vampire form to find her. Fangoria optioned it first. Later, an independent film deal came together that had Rob meeting with Nicolas Cage and with Guillermo del Toro twice, with a $25 million budget and plans to shoot in Korea.
Then it fell apart, basically overnight.
Rob explains what an option really is, why a studio might buy your idea just to keep anyone else from making it, and why "development hell" is a real place. He also tells the story of an earlier studio passing on his project because they had another horror property in the works: The Walking Dead.
Quitting at the Worst Possible Time
In 2008, with a wife, two young kids and a mortgage, Rob quit his day job to start a company built around mobile content deals. Then the economy cratered and the parent company behind those deals went out of business. He didn't go back. He took web design and animation jobs, kept building, and turned it into a living.
Cyko KO and the Napoleon Dynamite Cast
His Saturday-morning-cartoon-style comic Cyko KO follows a rebellious stunt motorcyclist sent to SuperEarth to fight giant monsters. It started on Line Webtoon, went to print and earned Rob a Ringo Award nomination.
Then came the animated pilot, voiced by the cast of Napoleon Dynamite, including Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Jon Gries and Haylie Duff. Rob says they're some of the nicest people he's worked with, and that voice acting takes a lot more real acting than people think.
Warner Bros., Draculaw and Rocketship
Rob also produced Night of the Animated Dead for Warner Bros. (and has a strong opinion about the boards on the windows). He played a lawyer named Klaus in Draculaw, a horror comedy shot in Bucks County that's now streaming. And he's a partner at Rocketship Entertainment, which takes popular webtoons with huge online followings and turns them into physical books.
Right now he's back at the drawing board on a new six-issue Dr. Shroud series, with an audio companion in the works.
Watch the Full Episode
Watch the full conversation with Rob Feldman on the Bucks Townies Podcast on YouTube, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Find Rob at earwormmedia.com.
Bucks Townies features conversations with the entrepreneurs, creators and personalities who make Bucks County such an interesting place to live and work.
The Bucks Townies Podcast is presented by Revival Building Group — We Are Your Builder™.
