Eric Bradbury

Who was Eric Bradbury?

Eric Bradbury was a British comic artist who primarily worked for Amalgamated Press/IPC from the late 1940s to the 1990s.

He studied at Beckenham art school from 1936, and served in the RAF as a rear gunner on bombers during the Second World War. After the war he worked for Gaumont-British Animation, alongside future comic creators Mike Western, Ron Smith, Bill Holroyd, Harry Hargreaves and Ron "Nobby" Clark. When the studio folded in 1949, Bradbury and Clarke took samples to Amalgamated Press, and were offered work at Knock-Out, edited by Leonard Matthews - Clarke writing, Bradbury drawing. He started out on humour strips like "Blossom" and "Our Ernie", but soon specialised in adventure strips, particularly westerns like "Lucky Logan", on which he alternated with former G-B colleague Mike Western, and "Buffalo Bill", both in The Comet. For the same title, he drew an adaptation of the 1955 film The King's Thief.

From the 1960s on he developed a dark style similar to Francisco Solano López, and drew strips like "Mytek the Mighty", "The House of Dolmann" and "The Black Crow" for Valiant, "Phantom Force 5", "The Leopard from Lime Street" and "Maxwell Hawke" for Buster, "Von Hoffman's Invasion" for Jet, and "Cursitor Doom" for Smash!. In 1973 he was the artist on an abortive IPC superhero comic, Captain Britain. He joined Battle Picture Weekly in 1976 when Valiant was folded into it, taking "The Black Crow" with it. Other strips he drew for Battle included "Joe Two Beans", "Coward's Brand on Bradley", "Crazy Keller", "Death Squad", "The Fists of Jimmy Chang" and "Invasion 1984". He also drew "Hook Jaw" for Action.