Nationality American Name Bob Brown Education University of Hartford | Area(s) Penciller Role Writer | |
Born William Robert Brown
August 22, 1915 ( 1915-08-22 ) Notable works Avengers, Challengers of the Unknown
Daredevil, Detective Comics, "Space Ranger", Superboy, Tomahawk Died January 29, 1977, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States Similar People Arnold Drake, Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema, Dick Giordano, Jim Mooney | ||
William Robert "Bob" Brown (August 22, 1915 – January 1977) was an American comic book artist with an extensive career from the early 1940s through the 1970s. With writers Edmond Hamilton and Gardner Fox, Brown co-created the DC Comics hero Space Ranger, drawing the character's complete run from his debut in the try-out comic Showcase No. 15 (Aug. 1958) through Mystery in Space No. 103 (July 1965).
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Brown also penciled the DC title Challengers of the Unknown, taking over from Jack Kirby, from 1959 to 1968.
Early life
Bob Brown attended the Hartford Art School and the Rhode Island School of Design. He began his career in comics began during the 1940s, with his earliest known credit as both writer and artist of the "Criss Cross" backup feature in Fox Comics' teen-humor title Meet Corliss Archer. After some early work on titles from Marvel Comics precursor Timely Comics as it was transitioning into the 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, he became regular artist of the feature "Vigilante" in DC Comics' Action Comics, drawing it in issues #152–185 (cover-dated Jan. 1951 – Oct. 1953).
Career
In addition to his work on DC Comics' "Vigilante" feature during this time, Brown drew sporadic stories for Atlas Comics at St. John Publications, as well as for such DC supernatural titles as House of Mystery and The Phantom Stranger. He began working exclusively for Atlas sometime in 1954, with the supernatural story "The Time Is Now" in Mystery Tales No. 25 (Jan. 1955), signed W. R. Brown, the first of many he would draw in genres including Westerns and jungle adventures. With an unknown writer, tentatively identified as Atlas editor-in-chief Stan Lee, Brown produced the first version of the Rawhide Kid (related in name only to the more long-running character Lee and artist Jack Kirby created in 1960) in Rawhide Kid No. 1 (March 1955). Because another artist, Joe Maneely, drew the cover, often done before a comic's interior art, it is unclear whether Brown or Maneely created the character design. Brown continued on the title through issue No. 7 (March 1956), then freelanced for both Atlas and DC before becoming regular artist on the latter's American Revolutionary War series Tomahawk with issues No. 39 (March 1956). He would continue on that title, also doing other work for DC, through No. 52 (Dec. 1959).
With plotter Gardner Fox and scripter Edmond Hamilton, Brown co-created the feature "Space Ranger" in Showcase No. 15 (Aug. 1958). He would continue drawing that science-fiction adventure after it became a feature in Tales of the Unexpected and Mystery in Space, through issue No. 103 (July 1965) of the latter. He took over Challengers of the Unknown from that adventuring team's co-creator, artist Jack Kirby, beginning with issue No. 9 (Sept. 1959). He would continue on it through No. 63 (Sept. 1968), with the comic becoming his best-known, signature work. He and writer Arnold Drake created the Beast Boy character in Doom Patrol No. 99 (Nov. 1965). Brown drew stories as well for DC's The Brave and the Bold, House of Secrets, and World's Finest Comics. He drew a run of Superboy adventures. With writer Dennis O'Neil, he crafted Batman's first encounter with the League of Assassins in Detective Comics No. 405 (Nov. 1970) and co-created the character Talia al Ghul in Detective Comics No. 411 (May 1971) as a recurring romantic interest for Batman.
Brown first drew for the modern Marvel Comics as co-penciler of the feature "The Beast" in Amazing Adventures vol. 2, No. 16 (Jan. 1973). After a little more work for DC, he penciled issues #6–8 (June–Oct. 1973) of the short-lived superhero title Warlock, and became regular penciler of long-running superhero-team series The Avengers, penciling most issues between #113–126 (July 1973 – Aug. 1974). He and Sal Buscema drew the "Avengers-Defenders Clash" storyline in 1973. Brown's last few years were devoted to a run on Marvel Comics' Daredevil from 1974–77. New adversaries for the title character introduced during his tenure include the Silver Samurai in issue No. 111 (July 1974) and Bullseye in No. 131 (March 1976). His series collaborator, writer Tony Isabella, said "was very much underappreciated" by comic-book fans, In addition, comics historian Mark Evanier recounted that by this point, Brown
...found his work regarded as "old-fashioned". It wasn't so much that Brown couldn't take a more modern approach to his work as that he just plain didn't understand what that meant. Editors kept showing him the work of new artists, he told me. They'd say, "This is what we want now," but Brown couldn't grasp just what it was he was supposed to learn from the examples, which often struck him as displaying weak anatomy, poor perspective and other fundamental errors. It was almost like they were telling him that, "Kids relate to crude artwork," and he knew it wasn't that.
One of Brown's last published pieces, a fill-in story written by Bill Mantlo and drawn a couple of years earlier, was published posthumously in Uncanny X-Men No. 106 (Aug. 1977).
Death
Brown was living in Manhattan at the time of his death in 1977 at age 61 from leukemia following a long illness. He had just signed on as the new artist on Wonder Woman with No. 231 but completed only a single issue, released two weeks after his death. He was eulogized in August 1977 cover dated issues of Marvel titles, with special mention given to his fostering ". . . better communication between American and European cartoonists."