Back in October 2012, Brook Lopez told The Brooklyn Game that he and his brother were working on a comic book together, with Brook as the writer and Robin as the illustrator. It was action-adventure, and reportedly on its way.
Every now and then, rumors about their comic book pop up. It’s now over three years since that report, and the Lopez twins are still trying to figure out how to make it into a reality. Per Fred Kerber of the New York Post:
“Robin and I have actually been doing a series of covers right now with some of our characters. That’s pretty much as specific as I can be. It’s all original character stuff so it wouldn’t make any sense anyway,” said Lopez, who took various writing courses at Stanford. “I don’t know when they would be coming out but we’re absolutely working on it.
“At Stanford, [creative writing] was what I was going to major in. I did playwriting, creative writing, short story, novelization. … Now, it’s not all super hero, not all comic book. It’s various genres. Television, movie, short stories. All original.”
It makes perfect sense that Brook wouldn’t want to divulge any classified information, and it would help build suspense for when it actually releases. But the question remains: where is this elusive comic book? Back when the two played in different cities, the delays made some sense, though they’d message each other ideas regularly. But there’s no shortage of time in the offseason to create, and given their status as big-time athletes, you’d think they could at least have a concept off the ground by now.
Now, Robin & Brook both make their home in New York, and people who live here tell me it’s the media capital of the universe. They also grew up not far from Los Angeles, where a couple of creatives hang out. It can’t be an issue of capital or opportunity.
Of course, creativity takes time. Maybe I’m just overly excited to see what form the written and illustrated creativity of two seven-foot Stanford-educated twins takes. And I’d be hard-pressed to think they’d keep up a con this long about something they care about so deeply. No one is arguing that the Lopez twins don’t love their comics. I just want to see this become a reality.
But I’m also worried we may not see it at all. Just look at the end of this interview from December with Deborah Ledford, the single mother and superwoman who raised the Lopez twins — plus two more boys — as a single mother on a schoolteacher’s salary.
It all stems from an appreciation of the artwork. In some ways, the Lopez brothers hope to follow in the footsteps of Walt Disney. When their playing days are over, they hope to get involved in animation, graphic novels and cartoons.
“They want to go into that side of things for their second career,” Ledford said. “But that’s 10 years from now.”
Ten years from now! With this much time off the clock, the pressure’s growing to avoid the comic book version of “Detox.”
