Bramley's Last Gunfighter

Maurice Bramley remains an enigmatic figure in the history of Australian comics. Although his work can be found in countless magazines, pulp fiction novellettes and comic books spanning nearly 40 years, little is known about this artist whose work has steadily gained recognition, and appreciation, amongst collectors in Australia and overseas.

Bramley was apparently born in New Zealand, possibly around 1910 - but it is unclear when he crossed the Tasman Sea to find work as an artist in Australia. His first published works appear to have been for weekly news magazines, such as The World's News, where he contributed cover artwork and interior illustrations, possibly as far back as the early-to-mid 1930s - if not earlier.

The 1940s wartime 'boom' in local paperback/pulp novel publishing, created by an embargo on imported magazines, created opportunities for Australian writers and artists alike. Local publishers were handed a captive audience starved of cheap, escapist reading and, paper ration quotas permitting, kept their printing presses rolling to meet readers' deamands.

Bramley emerges in this period as a prolific and sought-after cover artist for these flimsy, sixpence pamphlets, lending his work (most of which was unsigned) to countless thriller, Western and science-fiction 'pulp' novellettes. He alternated between traditional pen & ink renderings, and more glossy, full-colour paintings - especially for the sci-fi titles, some of which were reprinted in the UK after the war.

(For an excellent overview of Britain's own postwar pulp fiction industry, check out Steve Holland's book, The Mushroom Jungle: A History of Postwar Paperback Publishing.)

Some of Bramley's pulp covers have been reproduced in Pulp: A Collectors Book of Australian Pulp Fiction Covers, written by Queensland academic, Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, which was published by the National Library of Australia (You can also read a review of the book here)

Much of Bramley's work from the 1940s era was for the Transport Publishing Company, which was the precursor to the Horwitz Publishing Company.

Founded by Stanley Horwitz after he returned from military service in 1945, Horwitz Publishing dominated the postwar paperback fiction market, with such bestselling authors as 'Carter Brown' (the pen name of expatriate English author, Alan Yates) and J.E. Macdonnell.

Horwitz Publications began releasing its own line of comic books sometime during the mid-to-late 1950s, a time when the homegrown industry was reeling from the advent of broadcast television (which began in 1956) and the resumption of imported American comic books, which recommenced in 1959.

Undeterred by this gloomy commercial environment, Horwitz Publications launched a wide range of war, Western and crime comic books, which were mainly comprised of reprints from American publishers, most notably Atlas Comics (the precursor to Marvel Comics). Many of Horwitz's reprint titles also included 'filler' stories by local comic artists, such as John Dixon and the mysterious 'REG'.

Maurice Bramley was the principal cover artist for most of Horwitz's comic book titles, producing many striking and colourful designs. Bramley was arguably the first Australian artist to draw the 'new wave' of Marvel Comics superheroes, such as Iron Man, Thor and The Incredible Hulk, when he drew covers for Horwitz's Marvel reprint titles during the mid-1960s.

One of the last major Australian comics published by Horwitz (and, in many respects, the last Australian comic of the postwar era), was The Phantom Commando . Created and drawn by John Dixon, the title was handed over to Bramley, who wrote and drew the comic until it ceased publication in the mid-1960s.

When Horwitz ceased publishing comic books sometime in 1966, it would seem that Bramley's own career in Australian comics also came to end. There has been little to suggest otherwise, until we examine the contents of a little-known Western comic, The Fast Gun, which dates from the early 1970s.

The Fast Gun was published by Page Publications Pty Ltd, a Sydney company that appeared to specialise in issuing one-off reprints of defunct Australian comic books, which could have been distributed through showbags, which were sold at fairs and carnivals held in rural and metropolitan areas around Australia.

Not only did Page Publication reissue Australian reprints of overseas comics, but they also reprinted locally drawn titles dating from the 1950s, such as Catman (drawn by John Dixon) and Flynn of the FBI (drawn by Arthur Mather).

At first glance, The Fast Gun looks like yet another run-of-the-mill Australian reprint comic, featuring a random selection of American stories, most of which appear to be taken from 1950s-era Atlas Comics inventory.

Yet not only does The Fast Gun (TFG) feature cover illustrations by Maurice Bramley, but several issues contain previously unseen (by this author, at any rate) Bramley comic stories. All my copies of TFG (Nos. 43, 44, 49 & 50) have 15-cent cover prices, which dates them from the early 1970s.

TFG No.43 has an illustrated text-page by Bramley, titled 'Hot-Headed Helen'; TFG No.44 has a self-contained Western drama by Bramley, titled 'Utah Kid'; and TFG No.50 features a further two Bramley stories, 'Shoot Him on Sight' and an unusual horse-wrangling tale, 'Black Cyclone', which marks a novel departure from the usual 'horse opera' cowboy stories found in such comics.

The real highlight of this series is a recurring character known as 'Sudden' - the nickname given to Jim Sedden, a 'fast-draw' gunfighter who works as an undercover marshal for Governor Phil Harrison of Houston, Texas. 'Sudden' first appears in his self-titled debut story, published in TFG No.44, whose back cover advertisement is dated May 1970. It's followed by another 'Sudden' adventure, titled 'Close Shave', which appears in this same issue. 'Sudden' returns in TFG No.50, in a story titled 'Junior Deputy', which was published around 1972.

If we're to assume that these stories were never published by Horwitz Publications during the 1950s and 60s, then how did they wind up in this Page Publications title - which appeared at least 4-5 years after Bramley last worked for Horwitz?

It would seem unlikely that Page Publications would commission all-new stories and artwork from Bramley, given the company's focus on producing low-cost reprint comics for the newsagency-bookstall and/or showbag markets.

One possible explanation is that Page Publications may have inadvertently acquired this material as unpublished Horwitz inventory, which could have been scheduled for release prior to Horwitz's departure from the local comics market in 1996 - but perhaps remained unused until Page Publications began issuing this title around 1970?

No doubt this will remain yet another 'unsolved mystery' in the history of Australian comics publishing. But for fans of Maurice Bramley, these issues of The Fast Gun will make a welcome 'coda' to this artist's long and varied career.