Richard Gröss Event occurs at 1:13-8:35. (January 28, 1947 – December 8, 2023), known professionally as Dærick Gröss Sr., was an American illustrator, writer, editor, and art director. Gröss worked at comic book companies

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

Chaos! Comics Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1993 until 2002, mostly focusing on horror comics. Their titles included ''Lady Death'', ''Purgatori'', '' Evil Ernie'', ''Chastity'', ''Jade'', '' Bad Kitty'', and ''Lady Demon''. Chaos! ...

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

, and

Innovation Publishing Innovation Publishing (also known as Innovation Books and the Innovative Corporation) was an American comic book company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was co-founded by David Campiti in 1988 after writing a business proposal and raising ...

, primarily in the 1990s, and afterwards at his own company, Studio G, with his son, Dærick Gröss. He was the visual editor at inDELible Comics, and the art director a
ACP Comics
.

Early life and education

Gröss was born in the Dayton suburb of

Kettering, Ohio Kettering is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. It is an inner suburb of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton. The city had a population of 57,862 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populous suburb in the Dayton metr ...

, on January 27, 1947, and was a comic book fan from childhood. He later attended

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

from 1965 to 1967 studying art and theatre. He was a member of the

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

, Phi Kappa Theta. Dissatisfied with the art instruction at the university, he went to th
Central Academy of Commercial Art
in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, Ohio in 1969.

Career

Early career

After graduation, Gröss worked at

WCPO-TV WCPO-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based E. W. Scripps Company, which has owned the station since its inception. WCPO-TV's ...

, Ohio as a live set designer and created art for on-camera graphics for 3 years. Gröss joined ''

The Cincinnati Post ''The Cincinnati Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. In Northern Kentucky, it was Product bundling, bundled inside a local edition called ''The Kentucky Post''. The ''Post'' was a founding publi ...

'' as a staff artist and cartoonist, eventually becoming the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

as illustrator and page designer.

Murciélaga She-Bat

Gröss answered a CFW Magazine ad which started his career in comics. In 1988, he created the Latina mutant Murciélaga She-Bat, part of the REIKI team in ''Robo Warriors.'' In the early 1990s, two issues of ''Murciélaga She-Bat'' were published by Heroic Publishing, and issue #3 by Revolutionary Comics. In 2000, two comics featuring Murciélaga were released as a bilingual flipbook in both Spanish and English. Heroic Publishing later reprinted the original eight issues of the series.

Innovation Comics

Dærick Gröss painted interior art for 12 issues of an adaptation of the

Anne Rice Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing ''The Vampire Chronicles''. She later adapted t ...

Vampire Lestat Series published by

Innovation Comics Innovation Publishing (also known as Innovation Books and the Innovative Corporation) was an American comic book company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was co-founded by David Campiti in 1988 after writing a business proposal and raising U ...

. He won

Comicon A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention emphasizing comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events hosted at conv ...

's Russ Manning Award for most promising newcomer. In 1992, Gröss also painted cover art for ''

Forbidden Planet ''Forbidden Planet'' is a 1956 American science fiction action film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack and directed by Fred M. Wilcox (director), Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on a film story by ...

'' issues #1-4, also published by Innovation.

Marvel and DC

Gröss pencilled issues #84 and #88 of

Excalibur Excalibur is the mythical sword of King Arthur that may possess magical powers or be associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Its first reliably datable appearance is found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. E ...

for

in 1995. He pencilled part 7 of the short-lived CyberComics initiative from Marvel featuring Spiderman in 1996. He also penciled a portion of ''X Force/Cable Annual'' #1 in 1995, and ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963). Although initial ...

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

'' issue #1 in 1997. At

, Gröss penciled ''Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice'' issues #1 and #2 in 1993.

Other work

Gröss made caricatures of celebrities starring in shows for the

Kenley Players The Kenley Players was an Actors' Equity Association, Equity summer stock theatre company which presented hundreds of productions featuring Broadway theatre, Broadway, film, and television stars in Midwestern cities between 1940 and 1995. ''Variet ...

from the 60s to the 80s, which appeared on the front covers of the programs. At adult comic book publisher

Carnal Comics Carnal Comics is an American adult comics imprint established in 1992. Carnal Comics' flagship title is ''Carnal Comics: True Stories Of Adult Film Stars'', which features autobiographies co-created with porn stars. Since the line’s inception, ...

, Gröss drew several projects in the 90s. Gröss illustrated '' The Guide to Getting it On'', an educational sexual manual written by psychoanalyst and author Paul Joannides. It was published in 1996 b
Goofy Foot Press
and won a 1997

Firecracker Alternative Book Award The Firecracker Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards focusing on small-press publishing. Previously known as the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards (FABs), in the current form they are known as the CLMP Firecracker Awards for Independ ...

. As penciler and inker he also worked on '' Gay Comics'' issue #24 (1997). Gröss contributed to the Marvel trading card game

OverPower OverPower is a collectible card game originally produced by Fleer Corporation featuring characters from Marvel Comics and later from DC Comics and Image Comics. The rights to the game were acquired by Lazarus Rising Games, and is relaunching ...

and

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

cards for

Fantasy Flight Games Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing game, role-playing, board game, board, card game, card, and dice game, dice games. As of 2014, it is a division of ...

. His production company Dærick Gröss Studios, was founded in 1989, then rename
Studio G
in 1990. His son Dærick Gröss worked with him, and took over the running of Studio G following his death. In 2001, a fire destroyed most of his studio. Gröss produced T-shirt designs, prints, and other products featuring his work. Gröss turned to political cartooning in 2019 with the satirical comic ''Trumpy''.

Personal life and death

From 2008 until his death, he lived in

Simi Valley, California Simi Valley (; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in Simi Valley (valley), the valley of the same name in southeastern Ventura County, California, United States. It is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater ...

. He died on December 8, 2023, at the age of 76.

Awards

* 1991 '' Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award'' * 1997 (with author Paul Joannides)

for Sex for ''The Guide to Getting it On''

Bibliography

Contributions

Innovation Comics Innovation Publishing (also known as Innovation Books and the Innovative Corporation) was an American comic book company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was co-founded by David Campiti in 1988 after writing a business proposal and raising U ...

* ''Anne Rice's

The Vampire Lestat ''The Vampire Lestat'' (1985) is a Vampire literature, vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the second in her ''The Vampire Chronicles, Vampire Chronicles'', following ''Interview with the Vampire'' (1976). The story is told from the poin ...

'' issues #1-12 (1990–91) * ''Anne Rice's

Interview With the Vampire ''Interview with the Vampire'' is a gothic horror and vampire novel by American author Anne Rice, published in 1976. It was her debut novel. Based on a short story Rice wrote around 1968, the novel centers on vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac ...

'' issue #2 (1991) * ''Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned'' issue #2 (1991) * ''The Vampire Companion'' issues #1-2 (1991) * ''Forbidden Planet'' issues #1-4 (1992) * Forbidden Planet: The Saga of the Krell issue #1 (1993) * '' Hero Alliance'' issue #17 (1991) * ''The Colour of Magic'' issues #1-4 (1991) * ''The Shadow of the Torturer'' issues #2-3 (1991) * Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown vol.1 (1992)

Heroic Publishing

* ''Murciélaga: She-Bat'' issues #1, 2, 8-16, 18, 19 (1993, 2010-11, 2014-17, 2020-21) * ''Reiki Warriors Special'' issue #1 (2013) * ''Tigress'' issue #3 (1992) * ''Lady Arcane'' issues #1-2 (1992) * ''League of Champions'' issue #9 (1990) * ''Champions Classics'' issue #4 (1992) * ''The Adventures of Chrissie Claus'' issue #3 (1991) * ''

Sparkplug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...

'' issue #1 (1993) * ''

Flare A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala, bengalo in several European countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illuminatio ...

'' vol. 2 issue #11 (1993), vol. 3 issues #1, 5, 30, 34 (2004–06) * ''Flare Adventures'' issues #3, 6 (1992–93) * ''Flare: The New Adventures'' vol. 6 issue #1 (2006) * ''Liberty Girl'' issue #0 (2006) * ''Liberty Girl: The Return'' trade paperback (2007) * ''Tales Of The Champions'' issue #3 (2006) * ''WitchGirls Inc''. issue #10 (2011) * ''The Infinites'' issue #1 (2011)

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

* ''

Bloodwulf Bloodwulf was an American superhero comics title and character created by Rob Liefeld. The character first appeared in the one-shot '' Darker Image' Darker Image'' #1 (1993) in March 1993, published by Image Comics. The character later appear ...

'' issues #1-4 (1995)

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

issue #84 #88 (1994–95) * ''Excalibur Annual'' issue #2 (1994) * Excalibur Visionaries: Warren Ellis issue #1 (2010) * ''

Midnight Sons The Midnight Sons are a team of supernatural superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Including Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze, Blade, and Morbius, the original team first formed as part of the ''R ...

'' issue #7 (1994) * '' Captain Marvel'' issue #5 (1996) * ''Cable'' issue #10 (1996) * ''

X-Force X-Force is a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. Conceived by writer/illustrator Rob Liefeld, the team first appeared in ''New Mutants'' #100 (April 1991 ...

/ Cable '95'' issue #5 (1995) * ''Cosmic Powers Unlimited'' issue #3 (1995) * X-Men: Domino issue #1 (2018) * ''

Cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

: Onslaught Rising'' (2018)

Malibu Comics Malibu Comics Entertainment, Inc. (launched as Malibu Graphics) was an American comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. Notable titles published by Malibu included ''Th ...

* ''Neuroscope'' issues #1-5 (1992–93) * ''Solution'' issue #16 (1995)

Chaos! Comics Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1993 until 2002, mostly focusing on horror comics. Their titles included ''Lady Death'', ''Purgatori'', '' Evil Ernie'', ''Chastity'', ''Jade'', '' Bad Kitty'', and ''Lady Demon''. Chaos! ...

* ''

Evil Ernie Evil Ernie, an undead psychotic killer, is a fictional supervillain created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes in 1991 and originally published by Eternity Comics. The imprint shifted hands in 1993 to Chaos! Comics and then Devil's ...

: The Resurrection'' issue #1 (1994) * ''

Purgatori Purgatori is a fictional comic book character, created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes. A crimson-skinned, winged vampire goddess, she first appeared in ''Evil Ernie: Revenge'' #1 (October 1994), published by Chaos! Comics. She ...

'' issue #1 (1998) * ''Purgatori vs. Vampirella'' issue #1 (2000) * ''

Lady Death Lady Death is a fictional goddess appearing in American comic books published by Coffin Comics. Created by Brian Pulido, Lady Death first appeared in Eternity Comics' '' Evil Ernie'' #1 in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the '' ...

: Last Rites'' issue #2 (2001) * ''

: Retribution'' issue #1 (1998) * ''Lady Death vs. Vampirella II'' issue #1 (2000) * ''Lady Death/Bedlam'' issue #1 (2002) * ''Jade: Redemption'' issue #2 (2002) * ''The Undead'' issue #1 (2002)

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

* ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

: Two-Face Strikes Twice'' issues #1.2 #2.2 (1993)

AK Comics

* ''Shred Comics'' issues #1-2 #8 (1989) * ''Jalia'' issues #1-3 (2006)

Sicilian Dragon Publishing

* ''Anne Rice's Tale of the Body Thief'' issues #1-4 (1999)

Revolutionary Publishing

* ''Heavy Metal Monsters'' issues #1-3 (1992–93)

CFW Enterprises

* ''Tales of the Kung-Fu Warriors'' issue #12 (1989) * ''Robo Warriors'' issues #2 #4-8 (1988)

Carnal Comics Carnal Comics is an American adult comics imprint established in 1992. Carnal Comics' flagship title is ''Carnal Comics: True Stories Of Adult Film Stars'', which features autobiographies co-created with porn stars. Since the line’s inception, ...

* ''Rebecca Bardoux'' issue #1 (1994) * '' Brittany O'Connell'' issue #1 (1996) * ''Porn Star Fantasies'' issue #6 (1996) * ''Sahara Sands'' issue #1 (1997) * ''Women of Porn: A Cartoon History'' issue #1 (1999)

Kitchen Sink Press

* ''Gay Comix'' issue #24 (1996)

Sky Comics

* ''Blood & Roses: Search for the Time Stone'' issue #1 (1994)

Bishop Press

* ''Rose 'n' Gunn'' issue #2-3 (1995)

Knight Press

* ''Blood & Roses Adventures'' issue #1 (1995)

Marz Publishing

* ''Jinn Warriors'' issue #1 (2012)

inDELLible Comics

* InDELLiprose issue #1 (2018)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Daerick Sr. 1947 births 2023 deaths American fantasy artists 20th-century American illustrators People from Simi Valley, California 21st-century American illustrators 20th-century American male artists 21st-century American male artists People from Kettering, Ohio Artists from California Artists from Ohio