Roger Brand (January 5, 1943 – November 23, 1985) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

who created stories for both mainstream and underground

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

. 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, ...

, often combining the two.

Biography

Early life and education

Born in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

, Brand grand grew up in El Sobrante, California, where he was friends with cartoonist

Joel Beck Joel Beck (May 7, 1943 – September 14, 1999) was a San Francisco Bay Area artist and cartoonist. His comic book, ''Lenny of Laredo'', one of the earliest underground comic books of the 1960s, was the first underground comic book published ...

. Brand and Beck were classmates at

De Anza High School De Anza High School is a secondary school located in Richmond, California, United States, named after Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. It is part of the West Contra Costa Unified School District and serves northeast Richmond, the unincorp ...

, 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 land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

's '' California Pelican'' 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 (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 identically ...

moved from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, specifically to break into the comics business. Brand began as an assistant to Gil Kane 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'', '' Weird Fantasy'', and ''MAD Magazine'' fr ...

, contributing to Wood's ''

witzend ''witzend'', published on an irregular schedule spanning decades, is an underground comic showcasing contributions by comic book professionals, leading illustrators and new artists. ''witzend'' was launched in 1966 by the writer-artist Wallace Wo ...

'' and moving on to such publications as '' Creepy'', '' Eerie'', '' Jungle Jim'' and ''Web of Horror''.Lambiek: Roger Brand
/ref> Dan Adkins, 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, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

. 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'', 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 to ...

'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'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 is ...

, 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: * four major comic distributors: ** Lunar D ...

''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, Bruce Simon, and others. By then Brand had developed a severe alcohol problem coupled with the overuse of "

speed In everyday use and 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 scalar quant ...

Personal life and death

Brand's wife

(1941–2015) was also involved in underground comix, contributing stories to such publications as '' It Ain't Me, Babe'', ''

Wimmen's Comix ''Wimmen's Comix'', later titled ''Wimmin's Comix'', is an influential all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992. Though it covered a wide range of genres and subject matters, ''Wimmen's Comix'' focused more than other an ...

'', and '' Arcade''. Brand and Michele divorced . She later married comics artist

Bernie Wrightson Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017), sometimes credited as Bernie Wrightson, was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his o ...

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 at age 42, on November 23, 1985, in San Francisco, at

'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