Word on the Street festival welcomes celebrated artist

Riley Rossmo never imagined speaking to crowds about his day-to-day life in his hometown of Saskatoon when he was a student at Walter Murray Collegiate.

On Sunday, that was the exact situation he found himself in as a guest speaker at the Word on the Street Festival.

The ninth annual festival shuts down a few blocks of Broadway Avenue every year to celebrate literacy and local authors with a variety of workshops and speeches.

Rossmo, who is now known among comic book fans for illustrating famous characters like Batman and Wonder Woman, took a long journey through school and menial jobs before landing at the career he feels he was born to do.

“I always drew — on everything, all the time,” he said of his early years as a student at Grovesnor Park School. “Not that I’m super smart or anything, but I’d be sitting through math class like, ‘I do not relate to this, but I’ll draw dragons all over this thing.'”

Rossmo was on his way to becoming a chef when a friend in Calgary toured him around the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Suddenly, for the first time in his life, Rossmo believed he could pursue art as a career and not just a hobby.

“I always had a deep love of comics, but at the time, I still hadn’t put together that I (was going) to make comics. I was going to go to school and maybe find some way to make a living doing storyboards or commercial art or something,” Rossmo said.

Jobs in construction, in kitchens or grocers passed Rossmo by before he was able to formalize his new career.

“I’d just be staring at the clock just waiting for it to end,” Rossmo said of his past careers. “During all that, I was drawing all the time anyways. So maybe I’ll see if I can do this and get paid.”

The crowd gathered at Word on the Street Festival congratulates Riley Rossmo after his talk on June 9, 2019. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

Rossmo finally made the full-time jump into art after he and his wife had the opportunity to return to Saskatoon after living in Calgary for a number of years.

His first release was a series called Proof. Since then, his artwork has been featured in major comic books from Marvel and D.C. Comics, where he works now.

Rossmo feels the need to snap him back to his senses when he complains about his long work days.

“I’ll complain, like ‘Ugh, I don’t know how to figure out this fight scene. Martian Manhunter is fighting Superman and I don’t know how to draw the punch,'” he said. “She’ll be like: ‘Listen to what you’re saying. Think 15 years ago, you’d be so mad at yourself.'”

Thinking back on how his life has changed and where his illustrations have led him over the last 15 years never ceases to amaze Rossmo.

That amazement turns into exceptional pride when he walks into a bookstore or gets into in-depth conversations with fans at festivals like Word on the Street.

“To walk into a bookstore and say, ‘I drew that, and I drew that,'” he said. “That’s pretty cool. I get taken back.”

Being back home in Saskatoon to talk about his own career and work is still a little bit uncomfortable for Rossmo, but he welcomes the visits all the same.

“Saskatoon really does stuff like this well. It makes me happy to come back and see how organized it is and how many people come out to talk about books,” Rossmo said. “That’s rad. Where else is that going to happen?”