Dean Griffiths was born and raised in Duncan, on Vancouver Island. His mother claims that when Dean was a toddler he wouldn’t eat his meals until she read him a story. During his elementary school years he was more interested in drama thandrawing. That all changed when, at the age of 12, he bought a copy of Ironman # 135. Halfway through the comic book, he knew that he wanted to be
a comic book artist. For the next few years Dean spent every spare minute drawing, creating his own comics and filling them with his own characters.
He credits the book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John
Buscema as his main instruction in life drawing during this time.
Dean struggled in school and even failed art in grade ten. Thankfully,
during his last two years of high school Dean found a mentor in his
principal, Jerry Brewer. Mr. Brewer was an accomplished artist himself, and
he encouraged Dean to keep drawing.
In 1986 Dean moved to Vancouver where he worked for a computer graphics company for two years before finding himself back on Vancouver Island. In 1995 Dean dropped off some samples of his work at Orca Book Publishers in Victoria. He was immediately called back and soon after signed on to illustrate his first children's book, The Patchwork House, written by Sally Fitz-Gibbon. He has been happily illustrating children’s books ever since.
