Rob Saucedo, On the Intersection of Stories and Storytelling
“Stories help us find empathy with the past, with other cultures, and with other countries. It’s my hope that we all find something that helps us make the world a tiny bit better. It’s important to provide mental workouts that the audience can take with them for the rest of their lives.“
Rob Saucedo, Creator of the graphic novel, Where Wolf, and Artistic Director at the Houston’s Historic River Oaks Theatre.
Whether it’s at a convention or at Houston’s historic River Oaks Theatre, sparking up a conversation with Rob Saucedo is equally enjoyable as it is insightful. Armed with deep appreciation and knowledge of films and an independent comic book creator himself, Saucedo’s love of stories keeps him busy.
By day (and sometimes evenings for special programs), Saucedo is the Artistic Director at Houston’s best place for cult classic films, deep cuts, and even major releases. When he isn’t planning the next carefully curated set of films for the following month at River Oaks Theatre, Saucedo works on writing his sequel to the acclaimed series, Where Wolf, a graphic novel about a Werewolf that crashes a Furry Convention in rural Texas.
Seth Adrian Romo: Rob, thanks for taking time to talk. Let’s kick things off with your personal connection to storytelling. How did that come about?
Rob Saucedo: I’ve always been interested in telling stories. In elementary school I would take on any written assignment I could where it involved writing a story. Over the years my writing shifted to non-fiction when I wrote as a film critic. When lockdown hit during the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began working on a werewolf story first as a novel, then as an audio drama, but opted for comics as the medium is my first love since I grew up reading comics.
Your graphic novel blends different genres, what can readers expect from the series and what were some influences?
I tell people Where Wolf is a horror-comedy because of its plot, but there is still drama and intense moments. I liken my comic book influences to writers like Brian K. Vaughan or David Lapham. Another influence is Alex Robinson’s Box Office Poison. It’s a series I re-read often because I love the intentionality with every character role—big or small. When it comes to Where Wolf, I wanted a graphic novel that was messy and hard to classify because I’m kind of a messy person. And I think I achieved that. If you look up reviews such as on Storygraph, Where Wolf is right down the middle of the different categories like swiftness of the plot, likability of characters, and so on.
With Where Wolf available for readers, how is it looking back on its release?
Books had a big impact on me as a kid. I would find weird little books in corners of the library—and these books weren’t on the New York Times Bestseller List or the Scholastic Book Fair order sheet—but these stories changed the wiring in my brain. My hope is that at least one person finds my comic and after discovering it, they change a little for the better and how they see the world. For me, that is what makes investing time and energy worth it when I do my part to make the world a little bit better through my writing.
Switching to film. You wrote as a film critic, how did that background contribute to your work programming at the River Oaks Theatre?
I was a freshman in high school in 1999 when films like The Matrix, Being John Malkovich, The Iron Giant, American Beauty, and The Blair Witch Project were released. At the time the internet was becoming a major resource and I became obsessed with movies. I wrote as a film critic but realized I enjoyed writing more as a film champion where I could write about a film in a way that celebrated what made it a good movie. I guess I’m a film cheerleader (chuckles). As I got older, I worked at the Alamo Draft House and fell in love with the program and worked there for 13 years. These roads led me to the River Oaks Theatre. The [River Oaks] Theatre had contacted me but the timing wasn’t right. But at the end of 2024 I moved closer to The River Oaks Theatre and would walk by it all the time. I found myself considering how the opportunity to coordinate programming could be something really special for Houston. So I reached out and the rest is history.
Cultivating a program for a historic movie theatre in the 4th largest city in the United States doesn’t sound like an easy task. What does it entail?
Everything is a balance. We show smaller films that I don’t feel like people talked about enough, but then we will also show Lawrence of Arabia and have audiences members who have never seen it on the big screen. I believe movie theatres help us free ourselves from our phones and distractions and are an important part of experience movies. It’s not the same as watching a film on your iPad and getting distracted by a notification. I want people to fall in love with like the experience of going to the movies again.
You’re quite the busy person. How do you manage it all?
[Laughs] It’s hard. I’ll admit my creative output has shrunk a little bit, but luckily the Where Wolf scripts were written prior to me starting. But there is more to come from the series—I have more stories to tell in the universe. But I am always writing. I have a young adult novel I’m working on, a couple of screenplays I want to take a shot at. But like everybody, fighting for time is hard.
Where Wolf can be found through major book sellers.
Stories either in comics or films can have huge impacts. Before we wrap up, what’s your philosophy on the importances of storytelling?
I feel like as a culture we’ve lost our ability to have empathy for other people. People a meaner—more bitter. So whether it’s in my Where Wolf title or my programming at The River Oaks Theatre, I think it’s important to provide mental workouts that the audience can take with them for the rest of their lives. Stories help us find empathy with the past, with other cultures, and with other countries. It’s my hope that we all find something that helps us make the world a tiny bit better.
For more on Rob Saucedo and to get your copy of Where Wolf, visit https://www.wherewolfcomic.com. Where Wolf is a graphic novel written by Rob Saucedo and illustrated by Debora Lancianese with letters by Jack Morelli. Stay tuned for the sequel, The Curt’s of the Where Wolf. Readers can connect with Rob on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/robsauce2500 or on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/robsaucedo.bsky.social
This interview was written by Seth Adrian Romo. All quotes were edited for clarity.