We recently connected with Rob Lang and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rob, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Around a decade ago, my family was new to Seattle. I was crouched over my desk, scratching out some graphic design work for a heating and air conditioning company. In flutters my daughter, she was about five years old (I don’t think five year olds really walk, they have too much energy to actually touch the ground). I had some doodles of a situational comic that I used to tool around with laying next to my computer. She asked me about the pile of drawings featuring a pig and some other animals with their dialog bubbles. I embarrassingly read them to her, and of course, mainly since I was her dad, she LOVED them. Although I wondered, maybe they aren’t so bad? Maybe I’m not JUST her dad?
That’s the thing with creativity and art and deciding whether or not you should just go for it. How do you get out of your head and realize it’s worth sharing? Even building into a career?
Looking backwards, like, the whole way—I’ve always been a cartoonist. You should see my school notebooks. There are a few phrases that could be considered “notes” scattered amongst all the intrusive doodling.
In college, I decided to major in creative writing. After having many classes where I had to expose myself by writing short stories while a bunch of fellow students criticized it—but seemed to thoroughly enjoy what I had to say—I was hooked. I decided to focus on writing.
But the need to draw was always there too—and then it hit me—I needed to do both. Being a cartoonist was the answer. But how do I convince myself that I could produce content that would be good enough?
Well after falling into the world of web and graphic design for several years (in other words making art for other people’s ideas) I started fooling around with writing and drawing comic strips. I knew they looked professional but didn’t show them off much.
Then this little kid, one of the most important things in my universe, saw them and giggled and couldn’t get enough. It was at that moment when I wondered what else I could possibly do with myself.
Sure since then, I’ve made lots of mistakes along the way. Countless bad decisions but it was then that I decided that making comics wasn’t just a passion project, it was a calling.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Having grown up in suburban Pennsylvania in the 80s and 90s, I spent a lot of time outside. I was fortunate enough to have a ton of open space and a large state park right behind my parents house. When I was a kid, I would always gravitate toward animal books and documentaries (this of course was when I wasn’t doing other normal TV stuff, like attempting to play sports and watching lots kids’ shows).
One thing I remember while watching those animal documentaries was the last ten minutes or so. These parts were always about conservation, and were pretty sad—just before the narrator was about to sign off, they would mention how humans are affecting whatever habitat they explored during the episode. Since then, the emphasis has switched, sadly, which is where I come in.
I try to focus these “sad parts” of how horrible humans treat our natural world into a more palatable pill to swallow. My sugar coating is humor.
I understand that not everyone enjoys dark humor, but I also believe that in order to cope and truly understand what’s happening, you have to be objective about the information—that’s where I try to inspire people to care and spread the word, with humor.
By spreading the word to inspire the love for the natural word, I focused on Instagram—which used to be called “the Internet’s Happy Place.” Amidst the beautiful people, foods and sunsets, you’ll see my illustrations, which I always try to make visually appealing. Once the viewer looks deeper, though, there’s always something to learn, and hopefully, something to learn from.
By selling merchandise in both popup art shows and hopefully a book deal, I will continue to get the word out and inspire people to put the phone down and care about what’s outside their door, making a huge splash into the ocean, creeping between their walls, or descending on a spiderweb, about to land on their head!
Because everything is connected.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

By far the most satisfying thing about being a creative person is helping people see the world differently.

For instance, I made a comic about how it only took 27 years after Europeans discovered the giant Stellar’s sea cow before it went extinct as a result of sea otter hunting. Did the sea cows eat the otters? Nope—the otters ate sea urchins, which feasted on kelp. But since there was no otters to control the urchin population—the urchins ate all the available kelp, thus taking away the food source for the behemoth sea cows. So, in less than three decades, Stellar’s sea cows, which lived from Alaska and southward, went extinct.

Showing the fact that we are all parts of a giant puzzle of life to people in a fun, engaging (and understandable) way is very rewarding.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think it was Kevin Smith who said something like it costs nothing to be encouraging but it could cost a lot to discourage people.

Whether it’s making comments on social media or talking to people in person, being positive and supportive is extremely important. Many creatives, especially the good ones, have a very hard time talking about their own work, or putting it out there at all. With large companies taking up all the bandwidth along with a very confusing and antagonistic algorithm that’s constantly changing, letting people know that what they’re doing, if it makes them feel joyful, is important and worth it.

Discouraging people and making them feel even more self-doubt can only cause pain to the creative person and add negativity to the universe. Chances are, by taking telling someone that their art isn’t worth it will take away not only the creative person’s joy, it’ll also take away joy from people who might be seeking whatever the artist is creating.

Contact Info:

• Website: UnderdoneComics.com
• Instagram: @underdonecomics
• Facebook: @underdonecomics
• Twitter: @underdonecomics