Craig Tucker
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Craig has been drawing Rick for going on 11 years. He started the character as an idea for his college paper while at work at Sea World of Ohio in 1998.
Rick didn’t see the press until the fall of 2000 where he was introduced with a new friend, Giles. Giles was a sidekick that was thought to be necessary as the straight man to the drunken antics of Rick. Giles was created from the mascot of a sorority at the college Craig was going to. Many jokes he would write were inspired by his fraternity brothers and a bi-daily comic strip was born known as “Swift Kick”. This was a release from his major, and future career in theatre. Craig hadn’t picked up a paint brush in several years but in the fall of 2006 he created a new character. Inspired by the new vinyl mini figures that he was collecting and the images of graffiti art he created Rabzilla. This painting now hangs in Aubrey’s office not sure if it is for inspiration or if it’s a reminder of Craig while she is writing.
This is Craig’s second publication to see the light of day. Other works are of a short story nature which will be featured on the site as Saturday specials. Works in progress as of right now include another joint venture between Aubrey and Craig. Stemming from his desire to be an illustrator, Craig’s paintings are that of comic book panels in a mixed media.
Craig’s inspirations for his style of drawing of course branch from the Manga style, which growing up can be attributed to “Voltron”, “Manzinger Z”, “Robotech” and other anime cartoons that were making it to American television in 1984. He is also influenced by the great Berkeley Breathed creator of “Opus” and “Bill the Cat”. Other influential artists are Humberto Ramos, Buff Monster, the work of Simone Legno (Tokidoki) and can’t forget Mike Krahulik A.K.A. “Gabe” over at “Penny Arcade”.
Aubrey Fisher
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Aubrey has been writing for the last sixteen years. For the last three years she has been working in collaboration with Craig to realize their dream of making their fresh and quirky world-view available to the public.
Aubrey’s literary efforts won her a variety of awards and local recognition during her school days. She spends most of her spare time working on various side projects including a two act play about the lives of women in history and myth. Her dry sense of humor and penchant for inappropriate sexual jokes stem from long years of befriending men instead of women. Aside from her rather large group of “brothers” she finds herself most inspired by the works of Neil Gaiman, Jerry Holkins, and Jeph Jacques.
Aubrey hates long walks on the beach as she finds the idea of silicon dioxide between her toes incredibly disturbing. She only eats chicken if it’s fried, hates chick flicks and most other things that give her “that warm fuzzy feeling”, and sleeps with one eye open in case the zombie plague hits after three a.m.. She hopes to be able to dedicate most of her time to writing at some point in the near future, and willingly accepts all donations of cash but would prefer your immortal soul instead, gift-wrapped of course.
Dave D’Abate
Originally a native of Cleveland, Ohio, he has since moved west to Utah in pursuit of mountaineering and a career in outdoor education. He has been coding websites since rabzilla.com was launched, so basically since October 6th, 2009.
When not posting for rabzilla.com, he spends most of his time balancing between work, school, and climbing mountains. His one vice in life is music. Whether it’s classic rock, alternative, or everything else, it’s probably on his iPod. Over the past couple of years he has found himself traveling across much of the country in pursuit of climbing. He met Craig and Aubrey under unusual circumstances, but that is a story all in itself. He gets most of his sense of humor from his oldest sister Heather, along with a large influence on his taste in music. Nothing like the days of old hanging out listening to Korn and Incubus late into the night.
Dave has always been relatively well versed in many things computing from the software aspect of things. This led Craig to ask him about developing a site for the rabzilla universe and his other creations. A few months absent in the Rocky Mountains and a single nights hard work gave the public rabzilla.com.
Dave enjoys tackle football on the beach as opposed to long walks, and a little dangerous solo through mountain lion territory is always a thrill for him. His favorite food is barbeque chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen and will challenge you to point him toward a more delicious and tasty pizza.
He would like to leave you with the best piece of knowledge he has garnered from his exploits in the mountains:
“Death is a bad symptom to have out here.”
Nick Hosmer
Nick can’t technically call himself a native of Cleveland although he has lived there most of his life. He was born in Massachusetts nearly 22 years ago. Being a true Clevelander though isn’t about whether you were born here or not, but only counts if you can survive the ever changing northeast Ohio weather.
His days currently revolve around school, work, and the ever changing world of computers. He does computer repair out of his apartment to make a little extra cash on the side. His true love in life though is music, piano to be exact; he has played piano for nearly 14 years. If he does not have a piano to play his only other option is his iPod where he has a vast majority of music anywhere from hip hop to country.
Nick met Craig and Aubrey about 3 years ago while Dave was in Craig’s class at school. He really didn’t know them all that well but became better friends with invites to come over to their house to play Xbox with Dave and Craig, or a party occasionally. As a side note he just wanted to say that he absolutely despises the beach and the idea of a long walk bores him and if he’s watching a movie it must involve blood, guts, and gore.