Robert J. Sodaro – ‘Bob Sodaro’

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 for numerous publications in the comicbook industry press during the ‘80s & ‘90s. He is the creator of two intellectual properties, Agent Unknown and Wülf Girlz. Sodaro was the former Vice President of Media Relations for Atlas Unleashed, but has since moved on to pursue freelance writing at several publishers.

A Media Studies Major at Sacred Heart University, CT, Sodaro studied all forms of modern media including radio, video, film, and journalism. 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 at WICC, the local #1 radio station in the area. It was while working at WNLK, Sodaro met Mike Raub a DJ for the station.

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 on 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 two decades.

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. He also wrote marketing and promotional material directly for many of the comicbook publishers themselves, including Marvel (Marvel Age, Marvel Vision, Marvel Year in Review), DC, Image (Extreme), Malibu (The Malibu Sun), Dark Horse, Valiant/Acclaim, J.C. Comics, and many others. Currently he is the Senor Title coordinator and a regular contributor to SpiderFan.org. It was while working in-house as a copywriting/consultant for Marvel Comics, Sodaro met and began his long association with Mark Mazz, then a freelance art director for Marvel.

Sodaro is also the author of two books, (Kiddie Meal Collectibles — a price guide/history about Fast Food toys and Collectibles— and Trivia Mania: Commercials and Ads), as well as the features editor and a production editor for the long-running Comics Values Annual; a price guide for comics. As a comicbook historian he is contributing to The Official Index to the Marvel Universe.

During the late ‘70s, Sodaro created a short-lived espionage series for Deni Lobert’s Renegade Press entitled Agent Unknown. In 2006, Mazz invited Sodaro to join him and Keith Murphey in The Comicbook Artists Guild, as well as publicist for Mazz and Murphey’s publishing house Guild Works Productions. At the urging of Mazz, Sodaro returned to his roots, writing fiction. Since that time a number of Sodaro’s short stories have been published by small-press publishers including Guild Works Productions (Psychosis!), The Comicbook Artists Guild Anthology (CAG), Free Lunch Comics (Beyond the Kuiper Belt, Only in Whispers) and Dime Store Productions (After Hours).

Sodaro has written articles for numerous mainstream magazines and newspapers. These articles have 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 and pop culture articles (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 25 years (Tunes ‘N’ Times, Hip, Mixx/InterMixx, The Stamford Times, More Sugar, and currently PopThought.com).

Robert J. Sodaro lives in Southern Fairfield County with his wife and two children and can be found at his computer finishing freelance assignments as we speak.

Date of Birth: September 23rd, 1955
Birthplace: Norwalk, CT

Website: http://freelanceink.net/
E-mail: rjsodaro at optonline.net
Blog: http://freelanceink.blogspot.com/

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