Richard Briefer (January 9, 1915 – December 1980)Richard Briefer (Social Security number 093-22-5722) at the United States Social Security Death Index, via GenealogyBank.com; and via FamilySearch.org, citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing. Retrieved on 21 February 2013. Neither gives specific day of death. First cite archived from the original on 21 February 2013. Second cite archived from the original on July 18, 2015. was an American comic-book artist best known for his various adaptations, including humorous ones, of the Frankenstein monster. Under the pseudonym Dick Hamilton, he also created the superhero team the Target and the Targeteers for Novelty Press.
Biography
Early life and career Dick Briefer studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan, New York City, and debuted in comic books in 1936 with work in Wow, What A Magazine!, one of the era's proto-comics "Comic books": tabloid-sized collections of comic strip reprints in color, which would later include occasional new comic strip-like material. Wow was edited by Jerry Iger, and when the comic ceased publication with issue #4 (cover-dated Nov. 1936), Briefer freelanced for the newly formed Eisner & Iger,Dick Briefer at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Archived March 9, 2010. one of the earliest "packagers" that produced complete comics on demand for publishers entering the fledgling medium.
Briefer's earliest recorded credit is as writer and artist of a five-page story beginning an adaptation of the 1831 Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, in Jumbo Comics #1-8 & 10 (Sept. 1938 - July 1939 & Nov. 1939), for the Eisner-Iger client Fiction House.Dick Briefer at the Grand Comics Database Other seminal work includes drawing and possibly writing the science-fiction adventure feature "Rex Dexter of Mars", which ran in several issues of Fox Comics' Mystery Men Comics; "Dynamo" in Fox's Science Comics; "Biff Bannon" in Harvey Comics' Speed Comics; "Storm Curtis" in Prize Comics' Prize Comics; and "Crash Parker" in Fiction House's Planet Comics. For Timely Comics, the precursor of Marvel Comics during the 1930s to 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books, Briefer created or co-created (writer credit unknown) the single-appearance superhero the Human Top in Red Raven #1 (Aug. 1940).Red Raven #1 (Aug. 1940) at the Grand Comics Database
Also during this time he also drew the comic strip Pinky Rankin, about a Nazi-fighter, for the American Communist Party newspaper The Daily Worker.
Target and the Targeteers
Briefer, using the pen name Dick Hamilton, created the superhero team the Target and the Targeteers for Novelty Press in 1940.Target & the Targeteers at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. October 25, 2011. The Target first appeared in Target Comics #10 (Nov. 1940), and the Targeteers the following issue. The team starred in Target Comics through issue #95 / vol. 9, #5 (July 1948). Target itself ran 10 more issues.Target Comics (1940 series) at the Grand Comics Database
Frankenstein
In Prize Comics #7 (Dec. 1940), writer-artist Briefer (using the pseudonym "Frank N. Stein" in the latter role) introduced the eight-page feature "New Adventures of Frankenstein", an updated version of the much-adapted Frankenstein monster created by Mary Shelley in her 1818 novel Frankenstein.Prize Comics #7 (Dec. 1940) at the Grand Comics Database Considered by comics historians to be "America's first ongoing comic book series to fall squarely within the horror genre",Frankenstein (1940) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. October 25, 2011.Watt-Evans, Lawrence: "The Other Guys", The Scream Factory #19 (Summer 1997), reprinted at Watt-Evans.com: "The Other Guys" . In this history of pre-Comics Code horror comics, the author notes, "...there were no horror comics as such in the earliest days. The first real horror series seems to have been the 'Frankenstein' series by Dick Briefer, in Prize Comics ... [which was] a superhero title, featuring the Black Owl, the Green Lama, and the like, except for this one aberration". the feature, set in New York City circa 1930, starred a guttural, rampaging creature actually dubbed "Frankenstein" (unlike Shelley's nameless original monster).
Briefer's better-known version of the Frankenstein monster, however, developed upon the monster's return from the war, in Frankenstein #1 (undated, 1945),Frankenstein Comics at the Grand Comics Database. Note: Series title per its postal indicia and all covers except that of #1 is simply Frankenstein Frankenstein settled into small-town life, becoming a genial neighbor who "began having delightful adventures with Dracula, the Wolfman and other horrific creatures. Briefer, with his trademark "loose and smooth ink and brush skills" began telling stories that would "straddle some amorphous line between pure children's humor and adventure and an adult sensibility about the world".
In his book Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900-1969, author Dan Nadel described Briefer as
Briefer's humorous Frankenstein ran through Prize Comics #68 (March 1948), and his humorous Frankenstein ran through issue #17 (Feb. 1949). Three years later, Briefer revived the series with his original, horrific Frankenstein from #18-33 (March 1952 - Nov. 1954).
Later life and career Following the cancellation of Frankenstein during an era that put much pressure on horror comics and other violent comic books, leading to the creation of the Comics Code,Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008) , . Briefer left the comic industry for commercial advertising art.
At the time of his death, Briefer was living in the Hollywood / Pembroke Pines area of Broward County, Florida.
Reprint collections Briefer, Dick. The Monster of Frankenstein (Idea Men Productions, 2006) , Briefer, Dick. Dick Briefer's Frankenstein (Library of Horror Comics' Masters, IDW/Yoe Books, 2010)
References
External links Frankenstein #32 (vol. 5, #4 per indicia): "The Battle of the Monsters" (dead link; (reprinted story) Dick Briefer's Frankenstein (fan site) WebCitation archive.