Eric Bradbury

[fústar]

Hey folks. Just been flicking through some of the late Eric Bradbury's work and remembering what a master of shade, shadow and texture he was. A great horror artist - particularly when capturing grotesque everyday horror.

Anyway, just trying to recall the various stories he worked on - beyond the obvious, like Doomlord. He did the Dracula story for Scream!, no?

Any others? Any scans?

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Did he do Nipper? It has a very Bradbury-like feel to it. Dirty and dark!

[Raven]

Nipper was drawn by Francesco Solano Lopez.

My favourite continuing character strip of Eric Bradbury's is probably Valiant's Danny Doom.

[fústar]

Nipper was drawn by Francesco Solano Lopez.

Ah yes. I see he's moved into the lucrative "erotic art" market in recent years. What would little Nipper think?!

Love his stuff too. He had a great Dickensian touch. All crumbling old warehouses, grotesque faces, and smog-infected towns. You could write a pretty interesting piece on South American artists' representations of Britain.

P.S: Always thought John Ridgway's work had a slight Bradbury-like quality to it.

[philcom55]

Oddly enough Denis Gifford attributed Nipper to Bradbury as well: an easy mistake to make as there are certain superficial similarities in their styles (you're right about The Dracula Files in Scream! though). During the 1960s I'd say that Eric's best remembered series would be Mytek the Mighty, House of Dolmann and Jason Hyde in Valiant, Return of the Stormtroopers in Champion and Maxwell Hawke in Buster - but that's just scratching the surface of his total output (and unlike Solano Lopez he never used assistants as far as I'm aware). I'll try to scan in some examples if I get chance.

Oh, and of course let's not forget the Mighty Tharg and his ongoing battle with the Dictators of Zrag in 2000AD (er, then again maybe we should...! ).

- Phil Rushton

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Phil,

John Wagner & Alan Grant (name dropping - *cough* *cough*) both recently described him to me as a real old-school pro. Totally dependable etc. It's astonishing that guys like Bradbury could churn out stuff of such quality, under such tight deadlines, week in week out. There's one small Doomlord moment that sticks in my head where a security guard shines a torch into the inky black of a laboratory and picks out Doomlord's skull-like face gazing back at him. It's just glorious. And something you'd really struggle to capture in glossy full-colour art. Talk about atmosphere.

Oh and scans would be great, if you can find the time. Ta!

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Oh, and of course let's not forget the Mighty Tharg and his ongoing battle with the Dictators of Zrag in 2000AD (er, then again maybe we should...! ).

- Phil Rushton

Er, yes. Let's. Please.

Even as a young fella (who'd devour absolutely anything that had panels & speech bubbles) I'd save those Tharg stories for times when I was stupefyingly bored. Even then they weren't much fun.

[philcom55]

To be going on with here's my all-time favourite Bradbury piece - the fabulously atmospheric title block that introduced every single episode of Barrington J. Bayley's text stories featuring 'The Astounding Jason Hyde' (the Man with X-Ray Eyes).



Jason Hyde was a remarkable cross between Doc Savage, Professor Challenger and Sherlock Holmes, who also happened to have super powers, his own personal jet and a hollow walking stick that made Batman's utility belt seem like a junior penknife! He starred in Valiant from 1965 to 1968, during which time he encountered everything from giant spiders to time-dreadnoughts - all of them portrayed in dramatic spot illustrations by the inspired brush of Mr. Bradbury.

Bayley might not have been the world's greatest prose stylist but anyone who's read his SF novels such as The Fall of Chronopolis will know that he had one of the most fertile imaginations in the business. With Bradbury's talent as a visual storyteller it was a marriage made in heaven: I can still remember how long the week's wait always seemed whenever I finished devouring their latest collaboration!

- Phil Rushton

[fústar]

To be going on with here's my all-time favourite Bradbury piece - the fabulously atmospheric title block that introduced every single episode of Barrington J. Bayley's text stories featuring 'The Astounding Jason Hyde':



- Phil Rushton

That is wonderful. Leering faces emerging out of a deep blackness that would put the blackness of Spinal Tap's "Smell the Glove" to shame! Classic Bradbury. Atmosphere dripping off the page.

More please.

[philcom55]

Incidentally, you may also be interested in Steve Holland's collected edition of Bradbury's 'Cursitor Doom' strip from Smash! Here's a link to his blog with a scan of the first episode:
http://bearalley.blogspot.com/search?q=cursitor+doom

- Phil Rushton

[fústar]

Incidentally, you may also be interested in Steve Holland's collected edition of Bradbury's 'Cursitor Doom' strip from Smash! Here's a link to his blog with a scan of the first episode:
http://bearalley.blogspot.com/search?q=cursitor+doom

- Phil Rushton

Sweet. I shall get on to Steve and source myself a copy. Ta.

[Brendan McGuire]

Fustar, this may be of interest to you; if I can get it to scan. attachment=2]Freddie1 001.jpg[/attachment]

[Lew Stringer]

40 years ago Eric Bradbury was also drawing the Simon Test strip in Smash! and providing the covers for most issues of the comic.

Lew

[fústar]

Cheers Brendan & Lew.

Still think Bradbury's best work was at the more macabre/horrific end of the spectrum. Capturing dread & horror in comic art is a rare-ish gift - evidenced by the fact that most horror art is cack & pedestrian (see current, massively over-rated, fan-boy fave "The Walking Dead" for details). When it's good, it's great however. And Bradbury had the magic (and freaky) touch.

[Kashgar]

For me Eric Bradbury was never better than when he was drawing Maxwell Hawke in Buster 1960-1965. The storylines may have been a little basic at times but his artwork was fantastic, particularly as Buster was a tabloid-sized publication in those years and showed off his style at its dark and spooky best.
I should imagine that that heading block illustration from Jason Hyde is an iconic image to any of us who read Valiant in the years 1965 to 1968. Like its sister paper June and School Friend the addition of a longish text story each week was obviously a relatively cheap way to fill up half of the additional 8 pages that both papers were granted in 1965 but with Jason Hyde the Valiant editor really came up with a winner.
BTW Bradbury/Bayley were responsible for another collaboration at this time, the story 'Bartok and His Brothers' in all 15 issues of the revived Champion. Dr Hans Bartok being a 21st century scientist who creates four clones of himself in order to establish the crimefighting team the Bartok Brotherhood who do battle with the worldwide criminal organisation the Sons of Ying led by the Master Dragon.