Roger Brand (January 5, 1943 – November 23, 1985) was an
American cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...
who created stories for both mainstream and
underground comic books
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
. His work showed a fascination with
horror and
eroticism
Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...
, often combining the two.
Biography
Early life and education
Born in
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, Brand grand grew up in
El Sobrante, California, where he was friends with cartoonist
Joel Beck. Brand and Beck were classmates at
De Anza High School, and they remained lifelong friends.
Comics
Some of Brand's earliest comics work appeared in the early 1960s in the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
's ''
California Pelican
The ''California Pelican'' was a college humor magazine founded in 1903 by Earle C. Anthony at the University of California, Berkeley. Lasting eighty years, it was the first successful student humor magazine in UC Berkeley, though it was precede ...
'' humor magazine, alongside drawings by Beck.
In 1966, Brand and his wife
Michele
Michele () is an Italian male given name, akin to the English male name Michael.
Michele (usually pronounced ), is also an English female given name that is derived from the French Michèle. It is a variant spelling of the more common (and iden ...
moved from
Oakland, California
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
, to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, specifically to break into the comics business. Brand began as an assistant to
Gil Kane
Gil Kane (; born Eli Katz , ; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character.
Kane co-created the modern-day vers ...
and
Wally Wood
Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as ''Weird Science (comic), Weird Science'', ''Weird Fantasy'', an ...
, contributing to Wood's ''
witzend
''witzend'', published on an irregular schedule spanning decades, is an underground comix, underground comic showcasing contributions by comic book professionals, leading illustrators and new artists. ''witzend'' was launched in 1966 by the wri ...
'' and moving on to such publications as ''
Creepy
Creepiness is the state of being creepy, or causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease to someone and/or something. Certain traits or hobbies may make people seem creepy to others; interest in horror or the macabre might come across as 'c ...
'', ''
Eerie
Eerie may refer to:
* Feeling of creepiness
* Eerie (magazine), ''Eerie'' (magazine), an American horror comic first published in 1966
* Eerie (Avon), ''Eerie'' (Avon), a 1947 horror comic
* Eerie (film), ''Eerie'' (film), a 2018 Filipino horror fi ...
'', ''
Jungle Jim
Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began on January 7, 1934, as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle ...
'' and ''Web of Horror''.
[Lambiek: Roger Brand]
/ref>[
, who also had been Wally Wood's assistant, remembered working with Brand:
]
Underground comics
By the late 1960s Roger and Michele were back in the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
.
Entering the underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
field, Brand initially did comics for the tabloid ''Gothic Blimp Works
''Gothic Blimp Works'', an all-comics tabloid published in 1969 by Peter Leggieri and the '' East Village Other'', was billed as "the first Sunday underground comic paper". During its eight-issue run, the publication displayed comics in both col ...
'', and later for such titles as ''Banzai!'', ''Candid Press'', ''Insect Fear'', ''Tales of the Leather Nun'', '' Yellow Dog'', and '' Young Lust''.[Grand Comics Database: Roger Brand]
/ref>
Brand edited and contributed to ''Tales of Sex and Death'' (two issues, 1971–1975) and '' Real Pulp Comics'' (two issues, 1971–1973). ''Real Pulp'' became a springboard for cartoonist Bill Griffith
William Henry Jackson Griffith (born January 20, 1944) is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal daily comic strip '' Zippy''. The catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?" is credited t ...
's ''Zippy the Pinhead
Zippy the Pinhead is a fictional character who is the protagonist of ''Zippy'', an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. Zippy's most famous quotation, "Are we having fun yet?", appears in ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' and became a ...
''. As Griffith recalled, "In San Francisco in 1970, I was asked to contribute a few pages to ''Real Pulp Comics'' #1, edited by cartoonist Roger Brand. His only guideline was to say, 'Maybe do some kind of love story, but with really weird people.' I never imagined I'd still be putting words into Zippy's fast-moving mouth some 38 years later."
In late 1976, while renting a room in Gary Arlington
Gary Edson Arlington (October 7, 1938 – January 16, 2014) was an American retailer, artist, editor, and publisher, who became a key figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s.Yardley, William"Gary Arlington, a Force in Unde ...
's house in the Mission District
The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as the Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name ...
, Brand began working at Robert Beerbohm's comic book store
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of:
* three major comic distributors:
** Luna ...
''Best of Two Worlds'', located at 1709 Haight Street in San Francisco. When Beerbohm opened a second location at 2512 Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in May 1977, Brand began working in that location as well, alongside Kim Deitch
Kim Deitch (born May 21, 1944 in Los Angeles, California) is an American cartoonist who was an important figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s, remaining active in the decades that followed with a variety of books and comics, somet ...
, Bruce Simon, and others. By then Brand had developed a severe alcohol problem coupled with the overuse of "speed
In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...
".
Personal life and death
Brand's wife Michele
Michele () is an Italian male given name, akin to the English male name Michael.
Michele (usually pronounced ), is also an English female given name that is derived from the French Michèle. It is a variant spelling of the more common (and iden ...
(1941–2015) was also involved in underground comix, contributing stories to such publications as ''It Ain't Me, Babe
"It Ain't Me Babe" is a song by Bob Dylan that originally appeared on his fourth album '' Another Side of Bob Dylan'', which was released in 1964 by Columbia Records. According to music critic Oliver Trager, this song, along with others on the al ...
'', '' Wimmen's Comix'', and ''Arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game
** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware
** Arcad ...
''. Brand and Michele divorced . She later married comics artist Bernie Wrightson
Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017) was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein, adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his other ho ...
[MacDonald, Heidi]
"RIP Michele Wrightson,"
The Beat (June 1, 2015). and continued for many years working behind the scenes in the comics industry.
Brand died of liver failure
Liver failure is the inability of the liver to perform its normal synthetic and metabolic functions as part of normal physiology. Two forms are recognised, acute and chronic (cirrhosis). Recently, a third form of liver failure known as acute- ...
at age 42, on November 23, 1985, in San Francisco, at Joel Beck's house, where he had been living for some time.
Exhibitions
''Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix, 1963-1990'', Chazen Museum of Art (Madison, Wisconsin), May 2 to July 12, 2009.
References
Notes
Sources
* Deitch, Kim
"A Lousy Week For Woods (Remembering Roger Brand)"
''The Comics Journal'' (OCT 12, 2011).
* Geerdes, Clay. "The Erotic Cartoon Art of Roger Brand", ''Knight'', July, 1971.
External links
''Graphic Story World'' Interview with Roger Brand
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brand, Roger
1943 births
1985 deaths
Artists from San Francisco
Underground cartoonists
People from El Sobrante, Contra Costa County, California
De Anza High School alumni