Dick Briefer studied at the Art Students League[3] 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,[3] one of the earliest "packagers" that produced complete comics on demand for publishers entering the fledgling medium.
Briefer, using the pen nameDick Hamilton, created the superhero team the Target and the Targeteers for Novelty Press in 1940.[6] 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.[7]
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.[8] Considered by comics historians to be "America's first ongoing comic book series to fall squarely within the horror genre",[9][10] 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),[11] 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".[12]
In his book Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900-1969, author Dan Nadel described Briefer as
...one of the few guys in the 1940s who had that loose, gestural art style that's funny. The drawing is inherently funny. Which is really unusual for humor comics of the time ... [in that] it's tight drawing. It's self-contained and beautiful. But Briefer is all over the place. When he does these swooping pratfalls that Frankenstein takes, the lines actually reflect the gag. It's nice. [...] And they're funny as comics. They read well and are beautifully drawn; they're full of unforgettable images, like the wizard eating Frankenstein on a hot dog. You'll never forget it, for better or for worse.[13]
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,[14] Briefer left the comic industry for commercial advertising art.[3]
^ abRichard 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.
^Watt-Evans, Lawrence: "The Other Guys", The Scream Factory #19 (Summer 1997), reprinted at Watt-Evans.com: "The Other Guys"Archived 2009-04-22 at the Wayback Machine. 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".
^Frankenstein Comics at the Grand Comics Database. Note: Series title per its postal indicia and all covers except that of #1 is simply Frankenstein
