"The Man Who Loved Breasts" on sale now

A moment of clarity has come upon Stanley, the main character in Robert Goodin’s new comic book, “The Man Who Loved Breasts”: the secret to a fulfilled life is doing what you love.

“Unfortunately,” Goodin told CBR, “Stanley’s never really been into anything. But then it dawns on him that since age 12, he’s been into tits.”

And so begins “The Man Who Loved Breasts,” written and illustrated by Goodin, in comic stores now from Top Shelf. “The Man Who Loved Breasts” is the lead story of the three tales included in the book, which took Goodin almost two years to complete. The story, set in the 1960s, follows a man who becomes disenchanted with his work as a typist and sets out to make a fortune as a specialty bra manufacturer.

The 32-page black and white book also includes stories “George Olavatia: Amputee Fetishist,” about a man who goes into a reproductive clinic for a semen analysis and tries to find a discreet way to ask for porn “more to his taste;” and “A 21st Century Cartoonist in King Arthur’s Court,” a spoof of Mark Twain’s novel “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” “It’s me thinking about how useless I’d be in that era. I can’t even milk a cow, I surely can’t figure out electricity,” Goodin laughed.

Pages from "The Man Who Loved Breasts"

All three stories are decidedly unique. “Humorous and quirky,” Goodin said. “They’re a little strange. Hopefully a little funny. Quirky — in the spirit of Russ Meyer movies.”

Goodin hopes both men and women can pick up “The Man Who Loved Breasts” and get a laugh out of it. “When I first had the germ of the idea, I was falling asleep — I told my wife about it. She wasn’t into it, which is understandable. But she came around,” Goodin said. “I wanted to make something that was male-focused, but that a woman could also read it and laugh, and say, ‘yeah, that’s how men are.’”

Goodin — a self-proclaimed “boob man” — says he didn’t do much outside research on breasts for the comic, but instead relied on his own memories of his favorite part of the female body. “It’s actually tough to draw that many boobs and make them all look unique,” Goodin laughed. “You definitely get your money’s worth in tits.”

The cartoonist’s first published work came ten years ago, in a book called “Hot Mexican Love Comics.” Since then, Goodin’s released books with Fantagraphics as well as some self-published with his own company, Robot Publishing. Based in Los Angeles, Goodin, 37, is a storyboard revisionist on the Fox animated series “American Dad.” A storyboard revisionist makes changes to the regular storyboard artist’s work as dictated by the director, but Goodin, who has been both a storyboard artist and a storyboard revisionist, describes his job as a “notch below a regular storyboard artist.” However, he said there is a definite perk: “I get paid less, but it is strictly eight hours a day, so I can come home and draw my own stuff.”

Pages from "The Man Who Loved Breasts"

During the recent Writers Strike, Goodin was able to get a lot of work done on “The Man Who Loved Breasts.” “It was great; the money got a little tight, but that’s my dream — to draw comics all-day long,” he said.

Art being Goodin’s passion, he pined over each and every panel of “The Man Who Loved Breasts.” It takes him about a week to finish one page of comic book art — from thumbnail sketches to the finished page. “Getting the drawings to the point I was happy with them [was the hardest part of making this comic],” Goodin explained. “There was a lot of re-drawing. I still look at it and think there would be things I might change, but I can’t drive myself totally crazy.”

Goodin was excited to see “The Man Who Loved Breasts” hit the shelves and wasn’t concerned that the title of the book might turn some fans off. “I’m excited I finally thought of something that has sex in it — maybe I’ll actually sell a few copies,” Goodin laughed. “I like the title because the main story is set in the 1960s, and the title goes with other works of that time, like ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ and ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.’”

Page from "The Man Who Loved Breasts"

With another comic published, Goodin sets his focus on his next project, one that he actually started working on before “The Man Who Loved Breasts.” He has 20 pages complete on an as yet untitled project he describes as “a little incident that happened as a child to Carl Jung.” He’s also preparing a series of kids’ comics as well as an art showcase at Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles in February.

“I dream of eventually making a living in comic books,” Goodin revealed. “It’s hard. Most of the comics I do are quirky, and there’s not a huge audience for them. But I am optimistic that I will eventually find a bigger audience. I think [‘The Man Who Loved Breasts’] will help me with that.”