If I had it my way whenever anyone clicked the “About Me” link they would immediately lose consciousness and would wake up a few minutes later in a small Mexican restaurant down the street from my house. The first thing they would see is me staring at them from across the table with a burrito in one hand and a large horchata in the other. “You clicked the link, didn’t you?” I’d ask. With no better opportunity than the present we would hang out until I sent you back from where you spawned. Unfortunately I have neither the means nor the methods to pull this off. It’s a shame, you’re missing out on some long winded, paranoid Peak Oil chatter and an opportunity to make a Super Mario joke at my expense (always funny!). While I can’t offer instantaneous one click teleportation I can offer hugs and high fives to anyone passing through by their own means, I’m chill like that!

Now for the introduction: My name is Mario Garza and I make artwork for people. Mostly CD packages, tee shirts, posters and books. And mostly for bands. But I’ve done everything from skate decks to wine packaging to retail catalogs. I’ve even put out a few books (more on that in a bit). I started Robot Plague back in 2003, about a year after I graduated from High School. At the time I was doing a lot of artwork for friends and acquaintances around the punk, hardcore and metal scene in my hometown, Fresno, Ca. By the end of 2004 I had began freelancing full time while attending Fresno State University. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of clients from around the globe (a partial client list can be seen below).

In the middle of 2005, on a whim, I started a gag site called Stuff On My Cat . What began as a “wouldn’t it be funny!?” project quickly turned into something bigger. In fact, it would largely consume the following four years of my life. Almost instantaneously the site received millions of visitors and press inquiries soon followed suit. During my time running the site it was a Technorati Top 100 Blog, Bloggie Award nominee, Yahoo!’s Top Sites of the Year, spoofed it on the Daily Show, mentioned on Late Night, visited regularly by Steve Martin (!) and it was covered by the likes of People Magazine, Business Week, ABC News, Maxim, GQ, Washington Post, etc.  Early on I partnered with Chronicle Books for publishing support and we blasted retail stores with several successful book releases. Good times!

In 2007 I was bitten by the screen printing bug and opened up Robot Plague Studio, a one stop graphic design and screen printing shop in Fresno. It was also the central hub for all things Stuff On My Cat including merchandise printing and order fulfillment. We worked with a ton of great bands and businesses but two fun, hectic years later I decided it was time to shake things up. And shake things up I did: I closed up shop, sold Stuff On My Cat and moved up to the Northwest to pursue my interest in film. Which brings me to today; I’m currently polishing my cinematic chops at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, OR and am accepting new work! If you’re in need of artwork don’t hesitate to get in touch, I’m always interested in working with new clients and would love to hear what you have on the horizon.

CONTACT:

mario (at) robotplague.com

twitter.com/robotplague

559.907.7539

CLIENTS:

The Used, New Found Glory, The Black Dahlia Murder, Earache Records, Underoath, Century Media Records, Hawthorne Heights, POD, All Time Low, Saosin, Emery, Pluto Records, Trapt, Suicide Silence, Through The Eyes of the Dead, University of Arizona Press, California State University Fresno, Ephraim Clothing, Verona Records, Light This City, Our Last Night, The Academy Is, Third Degree Records, He Is Legend, Aphasia, Creator Destructor Records, Thousand Foot Krutch, Debello Recordings, Prosthetic Records, Abacus Recordings, Tribunal Records, etc.