DÆRICK GRÖSS SR

Dærick Gröss Sr worked as an illustrator, cartoonist, instructor, and art director for over 50 years. He passed away in December of 2023, a great and terrible loss for all of us here at Studio G.

As an illustrator in the comic book industry, he painted, drew, wrote, and edited comics for Studio G, Marvel, DC, Image, Malibu, Heroic, Revolutionary, Chaos, Innovation, Charlton Neo, InDELLible, AK Comics, and numerous other companies. In 1991 he was the recipient of the Russ Manning Award. Outside of comics, one of his best-known works is with the best-selling sex book The Guide To Getting It On from Goofyfoot Press.

He founded Studio G in 1989 as an evolution of the former Dærick Gröss Studios. Art displayed on this page is merely a small sample of the work he's produced over the decades for so many clients across many industries.

Although Dærick Sr is no longer with us, we have kept the social spaces active where he would share his artwork for people to view.

This is a copy of the memorial that was printed in the San Diego ComiCon 2024 guest booklet.

Image of the memorial text from the San Diego ComiCon 2024 guest booklet. It says 'He loved you all. He loved comics his entire life; he loved everything about the medium and he loved everything you do. So many of you knew Dærick Gröss Sr. You knew him as an artist, a creative director, advisor, teacher, mentor, collaborator, creator, cheerleader, and
friend. For my mother, my sister and me, our children, and our grandchildren, he was a hero, a model, a guide, an example. He was “Pop” (for Papa). And he is missed. Terribly. A few of you knew of him before and outside of his professional run in comics. He was nearly 20 years into a career as a commercial illustrator, cartoonist, instructor, creative director, and caricaturist before he entered into the world of creating comics. He was in his early forties when he started working with a martial arts magazine publisher of all things to work on a line of martial arts–themed comic serials. Sure enough, as he got more involved, he brought in the superheroes. This is where Murciélaga (She-Bat) was born, alongside Sifu and the Reiki Warriors, way back in 1988. As the 1990s dawned, what followed was a whirlwind for him. Beginning with Innovation Comics’ Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, Dærick stormed into the mainstream industry and gained notoriety for his fully painted interiors. These included more painted comic adaptations, including Forbidden Planet and Necroscope, and
ultimately led to working with DC on the Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice two-parter with Joe Staton and Mike W. Barr. It was during this period he was awarded the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award in 1991. This was also when he formed Studio G and started publishing his own characters, initially with Heroic Publishing and eventually independently. To this day Heroic has maintained a decades-long friendship and still carries back issues of Murciélaga She-Bat. Dærick eventually landed several projects with Marvel in the mid-late 90s, including some work on Excalibur, Captain Marvel, and a story in an X-Force/Cable Annual. All this led to him becoming one of the primary artists working on Marvel’s CyberComics, an early foray into quasi-animated online comics. While the result was clunky by today’s standards, it was an innovative approach to comics at the time, and he was at the forefront of it providing pencils (there were no inks for this) for Spider-Man, Iron Man and Captain America, Daredevil, The X-Men, etc. Over his career, Dærick worked with a large number of comic publishers including Heroic, Image, Malibu, Chaos!, DC, Marvel, AK Comics, Charlton Neo, and InDELLible. He worked with so many of you and loved all of your projects and creations. He was a supporter of small press and indie publishers. He was an ardent advocate for LGBTQ+ stories and characters and publications. He attended comic conventions all over, as a guest, exhibitor, panelist, artist, and just as a fan walking the floor and geeking out over everything. I fondly remember growing up reading his insanely extensive comic collection: his nearly perfect Justice League, X-Men, and Daredevil collections; his solid DC and Marvel collections that could have filled a Silver Age museum. At one point in the 1980s he even owned his own short-lived comic shop in Chatsworth, CA. As with many of you, I pursued a career as a professional artist because of him. As with many of you, I would not have had the career I’ve had without his guidance, support, and prodding to keep going. We worked together on so many projects, both within and outside of comics. It is a bittersweet honor to take all that he has created and believed in and carry that torch forward. Dærick has left us, but Studio G and his characters will all live on with us. He has left us a legacy that we, his family, are so proud of. Art, illustration, and specifically comics are a lifelong passion that he has passed on to us. He loved comics. He loved you all.'

Below are just some samples from across his comics career.

Clicking the images below will take you to the full-sized raw image file. Please respect copyrights and rights of ownership, please credit Dærick Gröss Sr as the artist and copyright owners appropriately. Thank you.

Forbidden Planet, Innovation