Maurice Bramley Scientific Thriller Covers

I've been posting New Zealand/Australian cartoonist/illustrator Maurice Bramley's painted Scientific Thriller covers on Te Pikitia tumblr. Here's a selection for folk that may have missed them.

Maurice Bramley covers for Scientific Thriller novels circa 1948-1949. As with other illustration work , Bramley often used his own photos as well as photos of actors and celebrities as reference for characters in his illustrations.

Te Pikitia Tumblr

Painted Maurice Bramley cover from the Scientific Thriller series.

I haven't been too active on the blog of late, been busy with research/pre-press/cartooning/word crunching etc. I'm aiming to post a series of interviews on Te Pikitia Blog over the rest of May, maybe squeeze in some Paper Trails if I can find the time.

One thing I have made time for in recent weeks is Te Pikitia tumblr. I'm mainly using it to share art by New Zealand and Australian cartoonists. I'll keep lengthy word pieces for Te Pikitia blog.

Check out the Pikitia Press tumblr archive.

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Maurice Bramley

One of Bramley's prolific output of covers for the Horwitz publishing company.

New Zealand born cartoonist Maurice Bramley's childhood residence in Devonport has been listed with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust with report on the property filed by Joan Mckenzie last year. The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a crown entity and national agency entrusted with identifying heritage places and ensuring they survive for appreciation by current and future generations as well as fostering this appreciation through the recording and sharing their stories.

I previously wrote about Maurice Bramley's work here and here.

Daniel Best recently wrote about Bramley's work for Horwitz comics here.

The following excerpt is from Joan Mckenzie's report on 14 Glen Road for The New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Read the report in full here.

Harriet Pegler sold the property to Margaret Eliza Bramley (1876-1914) in 1903. The absence of a recorded mortgage suggests that Margaret may have had financial resources of her own.

Margaret, her husband William Harry Bramley (1875-1948) and their two young sons became the new occupiers. By this time, the number of households in Glen Road had doubled to eight, the breadwinners predominantly in blue-collar occupations - mariner, shipwright, coach fitter, line-engineer. Although the Bramley family occupied the property for two decades, little is known of their life in Auckland. Harry, who gave his occupation as ‘gentleman’ or ‘settler’, became a member of the Auckland Kennel Club, and was elected to the executive of the Stanley Bay Ratepayers’ Association in 1921.

From New Plymouth, the family were part of Taranaki’s Pakeha-settler social network. The couple had married in 1897 at Margaret’s parents’ farm at Tikorangi, an outlying rural settlement founded in 1865 by militia families led by Margaret’s father Captain John Henry Armstrong (c.1834-1915). Armstrong was the son of a Church of Ireland minister and from a family with a long military tradition. A number of Margaret’s uncles were captains in the Taranaki Militia.
 
Harry Bramley had moved to Taranaki in the 1880s after the 1876 death of his father, a Rangiora farmer. Harry’s two sisters had married into prosperous families. Annie (1867?-1956) was a daughter-in-law of a late Superintendent of the Taranaki Province, Henry Robert Richmond (1829-90) of the influential Richmond-Atkinson family. Amy (1869-1947) was a daughter-in-law of a late Australian Premier and Colonial Secretary, Sir Charles Cowper (1807-75).

Retaining the Glen Road home on one-and-a-half lots, Margaret Bramley sold Lot 132 fronting Russell Street in 1906. Margaret died prematurely, in 1914 three years after the birth of the couple’s third child.

Staying on at Glen Road, Harry married Grace Eveline Sallabank (1874-1976) in 1917. Margaret and Harry’s three sons, including the eldest - Maurice (1898-1975), still lived at the house in 1918. Moving to Australia in the mid-1920s.

Gallery of Maurice Bramley Horwitz war comic covers courtesy the Adelaide Comics Centre.

Paper Trail

Karl Wills's Princess Seppuku is now available in a Japanese edition from The Comic Book Factory. Wills reports number one has sold out of it's first print run and he is several pages into number two. First New Zealand comic produced entirely in Japanese? Possibly...

Princess Seppuku and the Hunt for Robot-X Japanese edition available here.

 Copyright 2012 Karl Wills

  Copyright 2012 Andy Conlan

Andy Conlan presents his children's book Mr Gloomingdale's Downpour in audio visual form.

 

Mike Alexander writes about artist and sometime cartoonist Elliot Francis Stewart for Stuff.co.nz

 Copyright 2012 Elliot Francis Stewart

To celebrate the creation of 600+ pages of comics over two years Sarah Laing is offering some hand compiled yearly volumes for some lucky readers. Read her latest post for details.

Copyright 2012 Sarah Laing

Smaller Comics are presenting a second year of MINICOMIC OF THE MONTH. 24 dollars for twelve mini comics from some of Australia's finest cartoonists. Sign up here.

 

Have a look at: Jackie Ryan's Burger Force

Copyright 2012 Jackie Ryan

Ryan featured on a panel covering writing for cross platforms from The 2012 Melbourne Emerging Writers Festival. View here.

Oslo Davis interviewed by Gather and Fold here.

Copyright 2012 Oslo Davis

Good Ok Bad reviews Pat Grant's Blue

Copyright 2012 Pat Grant

Paul Mason recaps his experiences at the Melbourne Oz Comic-con here.

Paul Mason and Doug Holgate

Dick Sargeson cartoonist Graeme Kirk is one of the contributing artists to Fracked a combined exhibition of Taranaki artists held at The Village Gallery in Eltham 30 September - 19 October.

Copyright 2012 Graeme Kirk

Australian Cartoonist Association President and Ginger Meggs cartoonist Jason Chatfield features on ABC's Insiders here. Chatfield discusses comics on Radio National here.

Today's Paper Trail is brought to you by two Maurice Bramley covers featuring his take on Marvel's Nick Fury character.

Bit and Pieces

Comicbook Factory Chief Karl Wills has recently released a new comic Princess Seppuku Book One. 32 pages, black and white with a colour center spread and in the style of his Jessica of the Schoolyard Tijuana bibles. For those unfamiliar with Wills work visit The Comicbook Factory.

Wills is one of New Zealand's finest cartoonists I heartily recommend you buy a copy from here.

I have been researching a piece on Anti-Maori propaganda in cartoons. Cartoon below by Garland William Woon is from the Taranaki Punch produced during the 1860's.

ARC2002-538 Taranaki Punch, Collection of Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, New Zealand

New Zealand born cartoonist Colin Wilson talks about his career on the latest episode of Melbourne comics podcast NonCanonical.

Cover of Prophet #29 by Australian cartoonist Fil Barlow (Image Comics).

Issue #22 of Prophet featured a four page back up by Barlow and series writer Brandon Graham has been very effusive in his appreciation of Barlow stating in an interview with Gavin Lees, "There’s this artist named Fil Barlow who, when I was 10, I got a hold of this six-issue series he did called Zooniverse. It changed my comicbook life, you know? It was so exciting, and he put so much work into these six issues that I’ve memorized the things pretty much." 

Barlow has been blogging in recent times over here.

Prolific Melbourne cartoonist Frank Candiloro has released a new 40 page horror comic available from his Etsy store as well as his past works over here.

Recent interviews with New Zealand cartoonists. Roger Langridge at the Washington Post here and with the Orbiting Pod here. Dylan Horrocks answers 15 questions with Sequential Highway here.

Congratulations to Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson for more than doubling their Kickstarter goal to raise funds for a 110 page deluxe hardcover collecting the first three years of their Tiny Kitten Teeth webcomic.

Gorgeous Stanley Pitt cover for a pulp western from Australian publisher Horwitz Publications 1958.

New Zealand born Maurice Bramley single page of a western comic digest undated from Australian publishers Page Publications. Apart from this page the entirety of the comic is made up of reprinted american material.