Women In Comics Month: Interview With Roberta Ingranata

In honor of Women in Comics this March, PREVIEWSworld talks with artist Roberta Ingranata!

PREVIEWSworld: Tell us a little bit about yourself! What are you currently working on? 

Roberta Ingranata: Hi!

I'm Roberta Ingranata, I'm an Italian comic artist and at this time I am working on the last issue of Robyn Hood Ongoing.  I'm very sad about this! I started drawing Robyn Hood one year ago and now, with the end of this amazing story created by Pat Shand, I've lost a piece of my heart.

PREVIEWSworld: How long have you been working with sequential art? What titles, companies, and creators have you worked with over your time in comics?

Roberta Ingranata: I started to work with some Italian publishers like Delos Books and Star Comics. After getting my first experience in my country, I started an international collaboration with different studios like N.A.S Studio, Be Amazing Studio, Fractured Entertainment, and I've published my first story for the online project Bizzare New World, by Skipper Martin, and "Utopia Calling", written by Michael Woods, which in 2015 will be translated and published in Italy on the Italian platform's Verticalismi. I've collaborated with Michael Woods on a second project, not yet published, "Pillow Talk". Between 2014 and 2015 I started working for Zenescope Entertainment and became one of the drafters of "Robyn Hood Ongoing.”

PREVIEWSworld: Did you have a mentor or hero in the industry that inspired you to pursue a career in comics?

Roberta Ingranata: My first comics teacher, Silvestro Nicolaci, made me realize that I could do it. I was seventeen. After him so many people who, without knowing it, inspired me to do more and more, they are very simple people, but hard workers.

PREVIEWSworld: In your opinion, how has the comic book industry evolved in terms of gender? 

Roberta Ingranata: There has definitely been an evolution. I think we still have a long way to go, but the best always comes from difficult moments.

PREVIEWSworld: What stereotypes do you see surrounding women in comics? How could people of all genders go about breaking those stereotypes? 

Roberta Ingranata: In recent years, women have changed radically. Today women are not only sweet ladies who need a knight... they're the knight!

PREVIEWSworld: How do you want to see women represented in comic books 10 years from now?

Roberta Ingranata: Like a simple persons who doing their job.

PREVIEWSworld: If you could give advice to any aspiring editors, executives, writers, or artists, what would you tell them?

Roberta Ingranata: Be yourself, simple and always professional. “The women who have changed the world never had any need to show anything other than their intelligence." -- Rita Levi Montalcini.

PREVIEWSworld: And lastly, are there any up-and-coming women creators who you would recommend readers check out? 

Roberta Ingranata: I don't know her personally, but I know her work, she's very young and very talented: She's Giorgia Sposito!

See more Women In Comics Month interviews in our special section on PREVIEWSworld!