Featured Artists: Interview with Nico and Candy Robertson
Nico and Candy Robertson are a creative duo well-known Down Under for their adorably simple board book series Roobee Roo. But you might not know their work! So I'm thrilled to introduce them to you here.
Hi, Nico and Candy! You’re known for the Roobee Roo board book series in Australia and New Zealand. Could you tell me a bit about Roobee Roo? I know it’s not just books – you’ve created adorable merch, as well! When did it get started, and how is it out in the world now?
Roobee Roo has always been about curiosity, first experiences, and a little bit of magic. She’s a funny, energetic kangaroo with a magical pouch and every morning she wakes up to discover something new inside it. Whatever she finds helps shape her day, whether it’s trying something for the first time, heading out on a small adventure, or working out how she feels.
At its heart, the series captures that familiar childhood excitement of waking up and wondering what the day might hold.
The idea began in 2018 during a time when we were living apart. Nico was away renovating the house where we’d raised our daughter, and before he left, he hid little notes around the house for me to find. Each one was a tiny story about a kangaroo who loved adventures.
I began illustrating those notes and sending the drawings back to him. What started as a way to stay connected became a gentle way of processing a big family transition, and slowly, Roobee Roo took shape.
We self-published the first ten board books and sold out online. Today, there are eleven brand new Roobee Roo board books published by Hachette across Australia and New Zealand, alongside plush toys and colourful Wonder Pouches.
What we love most is seeing Roobee Roo out in the world as birthday cakes, children’s drawings, and even as a kindergarten “take-home friend” who goes on adventures with families. That still feels incredibly magical.
We’re also proud to be continuing our Give With Roobee program, working towards our goal of providing 100,000 meals to families in need. Right now, we’re planning on relaunching Roobee Roo with new merchandise and developing an animated series pitch, so her world can keep growing alongside the children who love her.
The current project we’re pitching to publishers is called CUDDLINGS. Tell me where the idea for it came from, and how it’s evolved.
CUDDLINGS began with something we noticed while spending time with young children. Every child has their own way of showing connection and affection. Some love hugs, others don’t. Some wave, some fist bump, some simply stand close and smile.
What really stayed with us was watching educators recognise and respect those differences instead of trying to correct them. A wave instead of a cuddle. A quiet smile instead of a handshake. That sense of choice made children feel safe, understood, and in control of their own boundaries.
We wanted to create a story that gently says it’s okay to have limits, and that not enjoying what everyone else enjoys doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It simply means that’s who you are.
The earliest versions of CUDDLINGS explored this idea through character interactions, and while the intention was there, the storytelling wasn’t quite landing. A short rhyming refrain near the end stood out, though, and with your encouragement we leaned into that. Expanding the rhyme helped shape the whole book into something rhythmic, playful, and memorable, while still carrying an important emotional message. It became a story that’s joyful to read aloud, and meaningful for both children and adults.
What do you love the most about CUDDLINGS?
There’s a lot to love about CUDDLINGS. For a start, they really are very cuddly, and we adore the name. It’s simple, sweet and says exactly what it needs to.
We also love the characters themselves. They’re inspired by cuttlefish, which are such expressive, fascinating creatures. The story is short and gentle, but it carries a big idea about kindness, belonging, and how communities can care for one another.
What matters most to us is that the community never tries to “fix” the main character. Instead, they listen, adapt, and offer support. The problem is resolved through understanding and care, not correction. That’s something we’ve wanted to explore for a long time in a children’s book.
Creatively, we loved the challenge of holding a meaningful message while still making the story genuinely enjoyable to read aloud. We wanted to create a brave main character you immediately care about, alongside a group of supporting characters who recognise the problem and become part of the solution. Visually, it was also exciting to design a character that feels instantly recognisable and to experiment with colour and texture in new ways to bring that emotional warmth to life.
You both have endless imaginations – you have other projects waiting in the wings, as well.
We’re always working on a few different ideas at once. At the moment, that includes very simple concept and milestone board books with a strong art and design focus, picture books that explore family, community and bigger ideas in gentle ways, as well as funny early readers and graphic novels centered on family dynamics. We’re also developing a handful of animation pitches.
Alongside that, we’ve been spending more time in underwater worlds, building stories that could sit naturally alongside CUDDLINGS and expand that emotional territory.
We tend to let projects grow at their own pace rather than rushing them, which means there’s almost always something quietly taking shape in the background, ready to surface when the time feels right.
What are some of your favorite reactions you’ve gotten from people who read your work? (Either messages you’ve received, or interactions with kids at schools, libraries, or festivals…?)
We’ve been incredibly lucky to receive thoughtful messages from families, teachers, and librarians over the years, and sometimes from unexpected places too. We’ve heard from speech therapists, and even from university students who had our Archie and Reddie books on their required reading lists, which was a surprise and a real honour.
One story, though, has stayed with us more than any other. A little girl who owns all the Roobee Roo books also has a fluffy Wonder Pouch. She has regular hospital visits and needs to wear a heart monitor every day, which can be a lot for such a young child.
Her mum had the idea to place the heart monitor inside Roobee’s pouch, and suddenly everything shifted. The little girl wore Roobee everywhere, even to sleep, with her monitor tucked safely inside. Roobee became a source of comfort and courage during a really challenging time.
When we heard that story, we both cried straight away. Knowing that something we created could help a child feel safer, braver, or less alone in the world is incredibly powerful, and it’s something we carry with us in everything we make.
I associate three things with you: 1) strong (and very cute) visual storytelling for young children; 2) a deep love for nature, animals, and the environment; and 3) a wonderfully tactile creativity (you don’t just make stories; you make toys, plushies, accessories, and more). Is that accurate? If so, how do you incorporate those three strands in your life and work now?
That’s a really thoughtful way of describing our work, and yes, it feels very accurate. We almost never think of ideas as just one thing. A story might begin as a book, but it could just as easily become an animation concept, a toy, a song, or something a child can actually hold and play with. That cross-pollination is part of the fun for us.
Nature sits at the centre of everything we do. It’s part of our everyday life, from spending time in the garden to valuing unstructured, imaginative play outdoors. Because of that, the worlds we create are often filled with trees, flowers, and animals. They feel lived-in rather than designed.
That’s also why our characters tend to be makers and explorers. They’re collecting things, helping animals, building, and imagining. We’re never consciously trying to “add” nature or tactility into a story. It simply emerges from how we live, how we play, and how we think about childhood.
You have a beautiful home and garden. What aspects of your home are most important to you? What does your workspace/studio look like?
We live in a house that’s gradually been taken over by books, plants, and small treasures we’ve collected over the years. Books are everywhere, mostly children’s picture books alongside art, design, and comics, and they’re mixed in with toys, artworks, and natural finds like shells and pinecones.
The garden is the heart of our home. We’ve been collecting and sharing plants for decades, and many of them have followed us from house to house. It’s a place of calm, creativity, and connection, and it feeds directly into the worlds we create.
Our workspace spills across the house, but we do have a light-filled studio that looks out over the forest, and a downstairs art space that’s very much a work in progress. It’s messy, bright, and forgiving, which makes it perfect for making things.
You’ve also mentioned to me that the area where you live is special because of how much support there is for the arts. Could you tell me a bit more about that?
We live in Ballarat, a regional city in Australia that was named a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts in 2019, which feels very fitting. There’s a strong culture of making here, with skills passed from one generation to the next through traditional crafts, storytelling, and hands-on creative work. It’s about keeping knowledge alive while also making space for new ideas and new voices.
There’s always something happening, from the photo biennale and regional gallery to living history spaces and places like the Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades, where you can watch endangered skills being practised in real time. That mix of history, making, and creativity is deeply inspiring and feeds directly into how we think about storytelling.
Although both of you live in Australia now, neither of you is originally from there, right? Where did you grow up, and how did you end up meeting each other and starting to work together? Did you get married first, and then start your creative collaborations, or vice versa?
That’s right. Candy grew up in Hong Kong, and Nico is from New Zealand. We met in high school art class, in Sydney, Australia, in the year 2000, which felt like the distant future at the time. Nico used to annoy Candy by drawing candy canes on her artworks, which somehow turned into the beginning of a lifelong creative partnership.
We’ve been making things together for more than 25 years now. What really bonded us was a shared love of children’s books and imaginative worlds. While many people in their early twenties were going to clubs and pubs and trying to feel grown-up, we were happily doing the opposite, creating our own characters, stories, and universes together. Candy was introduced to the wonderful world of children’s books through Nico reading them out loud to her.
In the mid-2000s, we started a designer toy company called Noferin, which took us to the US regularly for gallery exhibitions and conventions. Collaboration has always been at the heart of our relationship. Making things together is how we connect, how we think, and how we build our lives. We actually got married shortly after we made our baby, which feels very on-brand for us.
Where can people connect with you and find out more about your work?
You can find us at nicocandy.com, and we are also on Instagram @nicoandcandy, which is where we tend to share more behind the scenes of our work.
Want to find out more?
Email me if you'd like to hear more about Nico and Candy's available projects!
- Learn more about the Roobee Roo series here.
- Connect with Nico and Candy on their website.
- Connect with Nico and Candy on their Instagram.
Interview with Briana Lawrence, author of The Essential Manga Guide
Today is publication day for Briana Lawrence's The Essential Manga Guide, a "must-have guide" on the history and legacy of manga. It's an entertaining and personal look at the impact of fifty outstanding manga titles and their creators, as well as great recommendations of what to read next.
I recently interviewed Briana about the process of writing the book. It was such a fun conversation!
My first question is, how did Running Press come to tap you to write this book? How did they know you were an expert, and what made them reach out to you?
[Briana] They were working on the Essential Anime Guide with two writers, Patrick Mattias and Samuel Sattin, and I was writing for The Mary Sue at the time. I wrote daily, and whenever I could write about anime, I would. I don’t know which article gained their attention, but I wrote quite a few about anime. My guess is it was an article about Kiki’s Delivery Service and burnout. I got an email from one of the writers of the book, asking if I wanted to write some essays about anime. I said yes, as that was basically my everyday job. I wrote two essays and assumed that would be it. But then Brittany [the editor] messaged me and asked if I wanted to write a whole book about manga.
Manga gives you more options than anime, so I was excited. I asked if they would provide a list, but they said I could pick whatever books I wanted to talk about. It was perfect.
Having a book called "The Essential Guide to Manga" is sort of like making "The Essential Guide to Books." A pretty tall order! Manga is such a huge category with so many genres and titles. How did you narrow it down? What was your process to pick which titles you'd focus on?
My brain immediately started setting some limits. There are some creators I love who have multiple works, so I had to pick one from each. You need something from Akira Toriyama, something from CLAMP, and other well-known creators like that. I wanted to include popular titles like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto, but I also realized I needed to pick by genre. You should have something horror-related, slice of life, comedy, etc. For example, if someone wants a psychological thriller, I’d recommend Death Note, not Dragon Ball. This helped narrow it down.
I also didn’t include manga I hadn’t read, like Attack on Titan, because I didn’t have time to read it. It had to be something I was familiar with. I also wanted to include short series and some hidden gems. I asked my wife for help, too. CLAMP has so many works, and I had to pick one. I chose Inuyasha for Rumiko Takahashi because it meant the most to me. I reminded myself that I couldn’t cover everything; it’s impossible. I wanted to show people that manga is worth exploring and can cater to any preference.
Did you feel like it was easy to write, or were there any sections that bogged you down?
It was hard because I had to write 50 consecutive essays. For some manga, I could think of five different things to say about them, but I had to narrow it down to one main point. I remember one of the editorial notes for Dragon Ball was that it was the longest essay... because I had so much to say. That was my first manga and anime that I became familiar with as a kid, so it's not surprising I had a lot to say.
For each essay, I wanted to explain why people like it, or why it meant something to me. Sometimes it was easy, like with Demon Slayer, which is about a protective brother. I had an older brother who was very protective of me before he passed away.
Other times, it was hard, like writing about Chainsaw Man, where there are ten different angles I could approach, but I only had so many words. It was also hard to go back to manga I read as a child and see it with adult eyes. For example, I appreciate Sailor Moon more now as an adult because I understand her struggles better.
What are your predictions about the future of manga?
I think it's just going to grow more from here. I hope people won't be so surprised that others are into it. Some people still don’t get it, but it’s just another form of entertainment. I hope people realize it’s a worthy form of entertainment. It’s both extremely popular and niche, which is weird. There are pop culture sites that cover everything except anime and manga. Or sites that talk about the big names but not the hidden gems.
There’s so much queer content in manga now. People say there’s no queer content in mainstream media, but it’s all over manga.
I hope we reach a point where people recognize its value. I think we will, because fans of anime and manga are now creating their own content. Shows like "My Adventures with Superman" are inspired by shojo anime. Steven Universe's creator loves Revolutionary Girl Utena. Our generation is telling stories heavily influenced by manga and anime. Coming from the 90s generation, we had no idea it would blow up like this. We were just watching cartoons, but now, we see its massive impact. I feel like there’s no choice but for it to grow and be as great as I've always known it to be.
Connect with Briana on her website.
Learn more about The Essential Guide to Manga.