When He’s Not Terrorizing the Low Post, Robin Lopez is a Hoarding Comic Book Fiend
Some NBA fans may already noticed that Robin Lopez is an intense comic book fan and hobbyist. Lopez has a collection in the thousands and is good friends with DC Comics publisher Jim Lee and many more comic book legends.
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For Chicago Bulls fans out there who think they’re too old to be reading comics, you have a grown man on this year’s roster who proves that you’re never too old to be reading comics.
Robin Lopez has been a big comic book fan since he was a kid, growing up as a dedicated collector and reader. When he finally landed his day job as an NBA player, he is now working on making his own comic book with his brother, Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez, whenever they both have down time. The offseason is spent catching up on their favorite brotherly bonding past-time; dreaming up comic books and looking over animation stuff or television pilots that they can possibly develop as show producers.
According to a Wall Street Journal feature on the Lopez brothers, both were raised by their maternal grandmother who had a treasure chest of rare, first-edition books, including the Wizard of Oz series. While their mother would read to them at night, both brothers would dream stuff up and draw different characters, too. Brook eventually took up a creative writing degree at Stanford, where both brothers starred until they both declared for the 2008 NBA Draft.
Robin Lopez enjoys the comic books from DC Comics, a Warner subsidiary based in New York and his favorite superhero is the Wally West version of The Flash. He loves Grant Morrison — a British comic book writer whose dark stories and unusual characters have made Doom Patrol a cult favorite and has done many mainstream DC superhero characters as darker and stranger twists of their previous images. Lopez also loves Mark Waid, who rebooted The Flash as a more dynamic and interesting superhero whose powers came from an entity called the Speed Force.
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The New York Post had a feature on the Lopez brothers, describing both as unusual young adults in their college days who tripped on comics and Disney off the court, but would play like heroes once they had a game on.
College teammate and roommate Drew Shiller noticed how Robin always drew superheroes in notebooks and sometimes sketched characters on his sneakers. The Lopezes were known to disappear from Stanford campus and head out with some friends to Disneyland, then sneak back into their dorms.
But, don’t take Robin’s passion and hobby away from him, nor dissuade him when he watches cartoons or The Simpsons in the locker room right before games because he can lock in and play like a monster once he sets foot on the court.
But just in case, take note of all nearby comic book conventions, superhero movie premiere dates near and around Chicago and give Robin all the leeway to visit them. While Bobby Portis has his own strange way of psyching himself up for each game, Robin Lopez may be the polar opposite –watching cartoons pre-game, yet putting on the same Superman-like performance once he gets called onto the basketball court.
In a New York Times article, David Deckard of Blazer’s Edge, the Blazers team site over at SB Nation, described Robin before his lone season in New York:
“Robin doesn’t need the ball,” Deckard said.
“Robin doesn’t need to score. Robin rebounds, defends and makes smart plays, including finding the open man. Carmelo and him should get along fine. LaMarcus Aldridge loved playing with Robin (with the Blazers). Robin will do the dirty work and let the star have the fun.”
It’s safe to expect the Bulls’ “Three Alphas” to have the best post player on the team on their side doing his job and making it easier for them to get their points, but you have to allow Robin to get his comic book fix and event visits whenever able.