Who woulda thought that all the time Ed McGuinness spent doodling in school would now be paying off big for him?

The Brewer resident is fulfilling the dream of a lifetime – drawing Superman for DC Comics’ monthly comic book of the same title. Wizard, the leading magazine covering the comic-book industry, recently named McGuinness its Best Artist for 2000. He’s part of a team that’s been credited with reviving the comics’ mainstay.

Despite drawing perhaps comics’ most recognizable icon, McGuinness, 26, remains remarkably grounded about his meteoric rise.

“I’m not into the hype of it,” McGuinness said. “I’m so separated from it. I work at home and I don’t have a computer. I’m just having a good time. It’s not like I’m curing cancer.”

Jeph Loeb, a veteran film and comic writer who is the writer on the Superman title, said that McGuinness’ youthfulness shines through in his big, bold interpretation of Superman.

“He’s six degrees away from being a kid himself, and that helps tremendously,” said Loeb from his California office. “His images are derived from video games, anime, recent comics and from his own sensibilities as he looks at the world. All of that goes into his pencil.”

The Wizard honor tops a busy six months for McGuinness. During the summer, with two children and another on the way, he and wife Michelle looked around their Quincy, Mass., apartment and realized they needed a bigger place.

“We had heard that it was cheap to live up here, so that Michelle would be able to stay home with the kids,” he said.

Members of a Calvary Chapel church in the Boston area, they were put in touch with Ken Graves, pastor at the Calvary Chapel church in Bangor. He recommended a real estate agent to them, and they bought the second house they toured. Ed and Michelle packed up Kyle, now 6, and Breanna, now 2, and moved in early August. John was born two months ago.

Early each morning, McGuinness descends into his basement workspace. It’s paradise compared to the attic room he used as a studio in Quincy. A large standee of Superman, from the Warner Bros. animated series, dominates the room. One set of shelves is filled with superhero action figures, another set holds oversize paperbacks collecting comic series. Boxes of comics are clustered around the space. All are used for research. Pepsi is his fuel of choice, with empties scattered about.

He will draw from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with only a brief lunch break. If necessary, he returns after his children have gone to bed. The devout Christian takes Sundays off. He averages a page every day to day and a half.

“Getting the structure and the schedule down pat is the hardest part,” he said.

Unlike many artists in the industry, he’s got a pretty good track record of meeting deadlines. He’s had only one fill-in book during his 13-issue run, and has drawn all but one cover during that time.

“I’ve gotten faster the more I do it,” he said. “It becomes instinctive.”

McGuinness credits Michelle for much of his success.

“Without her, I’d have been fired a long time ago,” he said. “She keeps me going when I get burned out or lazy.”

McGuinness said that Loeb has helped to contribute to his success by writing to the artist’s strengths. Loeb agreed that that’s how he works.

“With my background in film, I would tailor my material to a director or an actor,” Loeb said. “It never made sense to me that I would write a [comic] script, then editorial would find an artist to draw it. To me, that’s like writing a script for Arnold Schwarzenegger, only to find out that Whoopi Goldberg is doing the role. So because we have a history and we are friends, and I know there are things he draws well, I tend to tailor stories to his strengths. We have an understanding that if he can find a different way to draw something I’ve described, have at it, bro, make it cool.”

McGuinness said his influences include the original Siegel & Shuster Superman, Max Fleischer’s cartoon version, Warren resident Jon Bogdanove’s early work on “Superman: Man of Steel,” the WB animated show and current fan favorite Alex Ross.

He has always wanted to be a comic-book artist, from the time he was reading his older cousins’ comics as a youth.

At age 19, he began drawing for underground comics. He moved on to Vampirella for Harris Comics in 1995, then moved to Marvel in 1996, drawing the Deadpool series and the Wolverine Annual.

On the Wolverine job, he formed a partnership with Loeb that would eventually lead to the Superman assignment.

“[Artist] Joe Madureira showed me some of Ed’s samples, and I just flipped,” Loeb recalled. “They were so full of energy, so imaginative. I showed them to the editor, Ralph Macchio, and he said let’s give him a try.”

While serving as publisher at Awesome Entertainment, Loeb brought in McGuinness, who drew the Fighting American: Rules of the Game series, aborted when the company folded.

In 1999, McGuinness was working on Mr. Majestic, a Superman-like character, for Wildstorm Comics. But Loeb, remembering an earlier conversation, was working on his behalf at DC. After the success of his “Superman: For All Seasons” graphic novel, Loeb had been asked to take over the monthly book, and he had only one choice for his artist.

“I knew that ever since he was a little kid, Ed wanted to draw Superman,” Loeb said. “I remember he told me that if I ever took over Superman, that he would love to have that opportunity.”

Loeb showed McGuinness’ Mr. Majestic pages to Superman senior editor Eddie Berganza, who then took them to the higher-ups at DC. Everyone wanted him, but McGuinness still had a three-issue commitment to Mr. Majestic.

“It was a tough decision to make,” McGuinness recalled. “I decided to finish my commitment to Wildstorm and give up my dream job. Eddie said, ‘Let me call you back.’ Three hours later, he called back and said, ‘We’ll wait.'”

Why wait for an unknown artist to take over such a visible title?

“Ed’s art was definitely different,” explained Berganza. “We were trying to revamp Superman, to make him fresh, new and accessible to young readers. Ed’s art mirrored both the Fleischer and the new Superman cartoons, and the energy he brought to it was really exciting.”

Turning McGuinness loose on Superman was a statement by DC, Loeb said.

“The younger artists weren’t looking at Superman as something to draw,” he said. “Ed was the first to make that leap, and when you’re the first, you get to break a lot of ground. Now there’s not an artist out there who doesn’t want to draw Superman, because DC has shown it’s open to a new style, a new interpretation to a character that has looked the same way for a long, long time. In comics, you look for the buzz, and Ed on Superman is the buzz.”

It didn’t take McGuinness long to get used to being the Superman artist.

“I was totally intimidated the first three months,” he said. “But I’ve gotten over that hump, and know what I want to do with the character. They’ve given me freedom because they like the product I’m giving them.”

McGuinness’ contract is soon up for renewal. He wants to prove himself by staying on Superman for a long run.

“A lot of guys don’t have the staying power,” he said. “They bounce around, and don’t stay on a book for any length of time.”

DC wants to keep McGuinness right where he is.

“Since we’ve started, there’s been such a development in his art style,” Berganza said. “It’s nice to see someone grow like that. His best on Superman is yet to come.”

Loeb expects the energy that McGuinness projects on the comic page will continue to attract new fans.

“It’s his boyish enthusiasm coming through,” Loeb said. “It’s the power of ‘Gee!’ You can’t fake that, you can’t find that. It just happens.”