Rob Rogers

Rob Rogers' parents recognized their son's special talent at an early age. They weren't exactly thrilled. After all, what kind of a career can you make out of sticking Cheerios up your nose? Soon he got bored with breakfast cereals and traded them in for crayons. It became clear that Rob had a passion for drawing and wanted to be an artist. Born in Philadelphia, Rogers took advantage of big city culture. He started copying his favorite characters out of the Philadelphia Inquirer's comics pages and taking Saturday art classes at the museum.

At the age of thirteen, his family threw the mattress on top of the Buick station wagon and moved to Oklahoma. His parents figured if they moved to a state without a decent newspaper or museum he might give up his silly hobby. He continued to draw in high school and became an art major in college. His interest in "political" cartooning was cultivated at Oklahoma State University. He was asked to draw cartoons about student issues for the college paper, and his first cartoon caused a small stir on campus, generating letters on both sides of the issue.

Desperate for a city with decent newspapers and museums, Rob returned to Pennsylvania to attend graduate school at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. After graduating in 1984 with an MFA in painting, Rob was hired by the Pittsburgh Press. When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette bought the Press in January 1993, Rogers joined the new Post-Gazette.

He currently lives in the city with his dog Mojo where he enjoys museums, newspapers and the occasional box of Cheerios.

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