Derek Hess' vibrant, darkly comic style established him among the foremost artists in contemporary rock art -- in an era dominated by computer-generated images, he remained a true classicist, rendering intricate line drawings suffused with razor-keen commentary on the cultural identity of his generation. Born in 1964, he was the son of Roy Hess, a onetime chairman of the industrial design department at the Cleveland Institute of Art; his interest in drawing blossomed at an early age, initially manifesting itself via fake stage diagrams for bands like Kiss and Aerosmith, and while in high school he attended Saturday art classes at the CIA, claiming as his primary influence the legendary comic book penciler Gil Kane (-Green Lantern, -The Atom).

After graduation, Hess studied graphic design at the CIA before relocating to Detroit; there, while attending the city's Center for Creative Studies, his creative focus moved to printmaking. Upon returning to Cleveland, he studied lithography while also working as a booking agent for the underground rock club the Euclid Tavern. An appearance by Helmet was celebrated by the first in a series of Hess flyers that were soon plastered on bulletin boards and telephone poles across the area, ultimately catching the eye of local art dealer William Busta, who soon made room for the posters in his gallery. Upon making the move to color graphics, Hess also received an enormous boost from Newsweek magazine, which featured him in a 1994 story on the new generation of poster artists.

Features in Spin and the Dutch art magazine Affiche followed, and soon Hess was among the hottest talents on the contemporary poster scene, winning great acclaim not only for his distinctive drawing style but also for his blackly imaginative incorporation of twentysomething cultural touchstones into designs for the Jesus Lizard, Rancid, Shudder to Think, and countless others. (His depiction of kiddie fave Barney as a Kurt Cobain-like suicide victim almost led to criminal arrest.) Hess' fame ultimately swelled to the point that no less than the Louvre requested his portfolio for their permanent poster-art collection; in addition to posters for superstars including Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd, he also created artwork for both the grand opening of the Rock Roll Hall of Fame and its Three Decades of Heavy Metal exhibit. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi