Legendary Comic Artist Tom Grummett - Part 1
This interview was conducted by Chris Doucher, Editor-in-Chief, Writer and Comic Panel Moderator for GeekNerdNet. (Image credits to: Tom Grummett and GeekNerdNet)
Artist Tom Grummett at Calgary Expo 2022 (image credit: Chris Doucher/GeekNerdNet)
At the 15th anniversary of the Calgary Expo (2022), I was more than pleased and ridiculously excited to sit down with Canadian comic legend, artist Tom Grummett. His work with DC Comics over the years is nothing short of SUPER! His art has not only astonished, but been an inspiration to those that work with him, and the fans that will stop everything they’re doing to meet him. That last part is pretty much the lane I fall into. One of my favourite works of Grummett’s is one that stopped me in my tracks walking into my local comic shop (in the early ‘90s), looking on the shelf and seeing his reimagined version of the modern-day SUPERBOY following the seismic event that was the DEATH OF SUPERMAN. Everything about his new take on the character exuded an air of cool and fun. I bought three copies. And, a character which he initially designed on an airline cocktail napkin. Clearly, it was meant to fly.
The first hero he drew (that he remembers) was POPEYE—from the Popeye cartoons at the time. And one of his earliest memories as a kid is of how excited he was to see a Superman comic on a spinner rack at the grocery store. He recalls sitting in the basement trying to recreate what he saw on the pages of the first comics (Superman and Felix The Cat) his Mom bought him. And there it was, the spark of an incredible career. Grummett talks about how comic shops (to him) are a relatively new phenomenon. And he talks about the start of his career in comics. There was no pitching, but as he puts it: “A lightning strike of good fortune,” which gave him his in with DC Comics. You see, he did a convention in Toronto and a small press (he was working for) was to be doing a pre-launch, but when he got to the show the company had folded. He managed to still set up table space and that’s where he met Ty Templeton. That’s where Templeton told him: “I’m going to send copies of your work to Mark Waid at DC.” And, as Grummett recalls, upon his return to Saskatoon from Toronto, Waid called him up and offered him work on SECRET ORIGINS OF ANIMAL MAN. His first professional—paying—gig in comics. After nine months of doing fill-in work for DC, he received a call from Mike Carlin, and it was then that Grummett stepped in to work on NEW TITANS due to George Perez being in a car accident. After Perez came back he moved into ACTION COMICS, so Grummett continued on and eventually pencilled almost 50 issues of NEW TITANS.
Grummett shares that the first time he met Carlin (years prior) face-to-face, he said to Carlin: “I only have to do one Superman story just once in my life.” Well, later in his career, he ended up working on Superman for almost a decade.
There’s just so much here to write about, but I’d rather you enjoy listening to the interview yourself. Hit play on the link below and listen to the Tom Grummett talk about his career. And stay tuned for part two, where Grummett and I meet up at Edmonton Expo and talk about his early days at conventions with the likes of Jack Kirby and more, PLUS, the heartwarming DEATH OF SUPERMAN story centred around the deadly and devastating Hurricane Andrew at the time, and the impact of Superman from comic pages to real life.