Bots, babes and Barbara Mandrell. They’re all part of the Billy Martinez story.

Let’s take that in reverse order.

Oceanside artist Billy Martinez.

^{Courtesy photo}

When the Oceanside-born Martinez was only seven years old, his dad, a professional drummer, took a job with country-western star Barbara Mandrell. Also in the band was a steel guitar player named Mike Jones.

“He had a huge collection of DC Comics,” said Martinez, cutting-edge illustrator and owner of Neko Press Comics. “I received the collection from him – he was going to throw them out. He knew I liked to draw. I started reading them and getting into them. Then I started drawing. It was kind of an escape for me.”

Fifteen years went by, during which Martinez played rock ‘n’ roll in a band that at one point opened for Guns ‘N Roses, before he returned to drawing. Though “really rusty” when he started drawing again, it took Martinez only five years or so before he secured a contract with comics publisher Sirius Entertainment in New York, for whom he turned out seven books.

From there, Martinez began drawing, publishing and teaching, while attracting an ever-increasing number of devotees to his combination of “American and Japanese” comics illustration. (Martinez appeared in July at Comic-Con.) Now 40, the avid Rolling Stones fan says he’s “feeling like Keith Richards, one of those guys who’s been around awhile. It’s a labor of love.”

As to the babes, Martinez cites as one of his inspirations Alberto Vargas, whose pinup images were a staple for years of Playboy. Martinez’s goal is to create 1,000 illustrations of women, each one different. Different colors, different types. But none without clothing or in bad taste.

“I try to leave a lot to the imagination,” said Martinez. “I’m an old-fashioned guy.”

Which brings us to “Bots & Babes,” an exhibition that opened August 21 at the San Diego Art Department in North Park. A collaborative show between Martinez and two of his students, Alex Chiu and Dan Bois, it will feature “a lot of eclectic things with robots and women, but nothing nasty,” Martinez stressed. “It’s going to be a nostalgic thing, and a visual treat for the eyes.”

While Chiu and Bois will be responsible for having created the robots in the exhibition, Martinez said the connection is not a stretch for him. “As a child, I was always fascinated by the science-fiction element of the future,” he said. The notion of the robot is “almost like a façade, an element of what we can be if we could be perfect.”

Prints and paintings on exhibit will be available for purchase. “Bots & Babes” is a people’s show, not just for teen males, but not for everyone, either.

“If anybody’s an art snob,” Martinez said with a chuckle, “I don’t recommend they come to this.”