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Maurice Bramley

There are plenty of twists and turns on the road of comic books and their history, many of which are both unusual and fascinating. For instance take Maurice Bramley, a name I suspect few recognize. His involvement drawing Marvel characters is largely unknown because he worked for an Australian company, Horwitz, in the 1950s and 1960s, pencilling many covers based on the originals by artists like John Severin and Jack Kirby. Horvitz reprinted stories of Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Ringo Kid and Apache Kid, as well as war and superhero stories, and reprinted other companies work as well. For a more detailed history of Howvitz, accompanied by examples of many Bramley covers, please go to this wonderful site:

         http://www.ausreprints.com/content/?skin=14685

While Bramley was often reworking the original covers, unlike artists that copy the styles of those artists, he brings a personality of his own to the artwork. Bramley's work has a distinct charm and he reinterpets many cover scenes with a decided flair. Bramley was not a young kid breaking into comics, indeed, he had worked in commerical art and magazine illustration for years before he drew any comic books. To learn more about Bramley, go here:

    http://www.ausreprints.com/content/?skin=14685

Horwitz appears to have ended publication in 1965, so many of the later Marvel Super Hero stories were not printed there, but they did reprint early issues of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Human Torch, Daredevil and Ant-Man. Its interesting to see Bramley's interpretations of the characters. There is an old world charm to his art and it fits well with the odd conglomeration of heroes.



Maurice Bramley's cover for Daredevil # 1, Horwitz, 1965. Based on the original by Jack Kirby and Bill Everett. While closely resembling the Kirby/Everett DD figure there are enough touches to make this one interesting on its own, including the boxing scene added in the lower left hand corner.

Not only did Branley draw covers for Horvitz, he also pencilled new stories as fillers in the interior. Unfortunately none featured Marvel characters, although I would have liked to see him working on a Human Torch or Ant-Man tale.



Maurice Bramley's cover to Two-Gun Kid # 40, Horwitz, signed in the lower right hand corner.


 In researching Bramley and Horwitz publishing, I discovered Danny Best wrote about him in detail on his blog some years ago, so I bow to his greater knowledge in this area and point you to those posts:


A talented artist who did exciting work outside of comics, Bramley transitioned into the business, bringing an unusual style and quality to his work. Bramley is another fascinating piece of the comic book puzzle, one that continues to unearth new areas of exploration.     

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More Kirby War: Battle

For my 50th post (I never thought I'd make it this far!) I will examine the 10 stories Jack Kirby produced for Battle , an Atlas comic that originated in 1951 and ceased publication in 1960.   In 1959, concurrent with his output on monster, western and romance stories, Kirby was assigned a number of compelling war stories. Based on a thorough reading it appears that Kirby scripted as well as drew many of the pre-1960 stories (an examination of possible scripts in other genre stories will appear at a later date). There are many similarities in style, tone, emphasis of words, phrases, use of quotation marks and sound effects that point to Kirby’s input. I will focus on these patterns as I go through each story.     "Action on Quemoy!" Battle # 64, June 1959, Jack Kirby story ? Kirby pencils; Christopher Rule inks, Job # T-266. The opening narration is similar to the style Kirby often employed; a long paragraph of exposition (which would be seen...

The OTHER Kirby Rawhide Kid cover

Following up on my last post I've found  another alternate Jack Kirby western cover, this time featuring the Rawhide Kid. Kirby and Lee created a new Rawhide Kid when  the title was revived with issue 17, August 1960. Aided greatly by the original Rawhide Kid's artist, Dick Ayers, on inks, the new Kid was a success - a veritable James Cagney tough-guy in the west. Kirby worked on the strip for 16 issues, pulled away once he became more important on the super-heroes. He was followed by Jack Davis, Dick Ayers, Jack Keller and, for the longest run, Larry Lieber, who wrote and drew the strip continuously (with occasional fill-in stories by Dick Ayers, Werner Roth, and Paul Reinman) from # 42, October 1964, until # 115, April 1973 when it went all-reprint. Rawhide Kid finally rode into the sunset with issue # 151, May 1979. Rawhide Kid # 20, Feb 1961, Kirby pencils; Dick Ayers inks Issue #20 ...

Just a short note:

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