Bored Panda reached out to Dominic to learn more about the origins of Emmy the Robot, his creative process, and what it’s been like watching readers connect with her story.
The artist shared that he's sentimental and tends to personify inanimate objects, which sometimes makes it hard for him to throw things away. "I was fixated on the idea of things outliving their usefulness and being forgotten by the world. This has been part of movies I've grown up with, like Toy Story or The Brave Little Toaster, but in those, the humans aren't aware that these things are sentient. One day, it clicked with me that a story about robots is an obvious way to explore that. And Emmy’s story quickly started coming together in my head."
Emmy has a strong sense of duty, but also a natural curiosity. With that in mind, we asked Dominic how he went about shaping her personality. "I knew the center of the story would have to be about the ideal 'perfect robot' who ends up separated from her duty and home. So her sense of self has to be tied up into her job," the artist shared. "But of course, she is a learning robot, she observes, imitates, and intends, much like a child would. She is a relatively new robot after all. She has surface knowledge, but doesn’t have a lot of lived experience."
Dominic told us that he usually likes to have a clear idea of a character’s personality before finalizing their design—though sometimes, inspiration strikes while he's simply sketching for fun. "I wanted the look of Emmy the Robot to be cartoony and stylish like the retro aesthetic of old UPA shorts or Cartoon Network shows. But I also wanted the characters to be able to portray subtle emotions and nuance like Disney animation can. I'm always looking for somewhere in between."
"I haven't been doing the comic very long, but it's wonderful to see how it's inspired some readers to pursue their own creative outlets, even in fan art or writing. I especially appreciate fan art from kids because drawing the characters from comics I read and cartoons I watched was a huge part of how I learned to draw! And even if they aren't creatives, I appreciate it when people let me know how much they get invested in the story and care about the characters. It’s so motivating to know people are anticipating the next update of Emmy’s adventures!"
