Riley Rossmo

Personal life

Originally from Saskatoon, SK, Rossmo now lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Career

Rossmo is a graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design. His first professional work was producing illustrations for publications such as Avenue, Calgary Inc, WestJet magazine and Scratch.

His first comic book work was a collaboration with writer Alex Grecian on Seven Sons, a graphic novel based on a Chinese folk legend. In 2007, he started work on Proof, also with Alex Grecian. Later, he collaborated with writer A.J. Lieberman on Cowboy Ninja Viking (2008–2011). Despite featuring a violent action story about an assassin with multiple personalities, Disney purchased film rights to the story, assigning writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to write a screenplay.

In March, 2011, Rossmo's first issue of Green Wake, with writer Kurtis J. Wiebe, was released. For Green Wake Rossmo adopted a limited palette, using different colors to indicate different times or states of reality in the narrative. Despite critical success, sales flagged after the second issue leading Rossmo and Wiebe to end the series early. They have since announced that they are working together again on a mini-series titled Debris to be published in July, 2012.

Rebel Blood is a horror comic about an infectious disease outbreak that affects both humans and animals. Published in March, 2012, this was the first comic that credited Rossmo as a writer. Co-written with Alex Link, the remote wilderness setting in the story was influenced by Rossmo's experiences canoeing at Waskesui.

Rossmo and Alex Link are collaborating again on Drumhellar (originally titled Strangeways), released by Image Comics' Shadowline, with issue 1 released in November 2013.

Rossmo and writer Ales Kot are working on Wild Children, a graphic novella about students rebelling against their teachers.

Rossmo has cited Bill Sienkiewicz's illustrations for The New Mutants comic books as a major early influence on his art style.