Brick Bradford is a science fiction comic strip created by writer William Ritt, a journalist based in Cleveland, Ohio, and artist Clarence Gray. It was first distributed on August 21, 1933 by Central Press Association, a subsidiary of King Features Syndicate which specialized in producing material for small-town newspapers.Ron Goulart, "The 30s – Boomtime for SF Heroes". Starlog magazine, January 1981 (pp. 31–35). The strip ended in 1987.
Brick Bradford achieved its greatest popularity outside the United States. The series was carried by both newspapers and comic books in Australia and New Zealand. In France the strip was known as Luc Bradefer ("Luke Ironarm") and was published in many newspapers."Brick Bradford", in I Grandi Eroi del Fumetto, by Franco Fossati. Rome : Gremese Editore, 1990 (pp 59–60). The strip was also widely published in Italy where it was known variously as Giorgio Ventura and Marco Spada and in Greece in the newspaper Ethnos (as Princess Palona) during the 1960s. In Sweden it was known as "Tom Trick". In Yugoslavia the strip was published in a dozen different magazines since 1935.
Publication history Ritt grew tired of Brick Bradford in the mid-1940s, and by 1948 he had turned over first the daily and then the Sunday to Gray, who produced the strip alone until his health problems increased. In 1952, Paul Norris, who had been working on King's Jungle Jim, took over the daily. When Gray died in 1956, Norris took over the Sunday strip. Norris retired in 1987, and the strip was retired as well, with the daily ending April 25, 1987, and the Sunday strips two weeks later.
Characters and story Brick Bradford was an athletic and adventurous redheaded (later blond) aviator from KentuckyJeff Rovin, Adventure Heroes: Legendary Characters from Odysseus to James Bond New York, N.Y. : Facts On File, Inc., 1994 (p. 25) who continually encountered fantastic situations. Initially, the strip was focused on Earth-bound, aviation-focused adventures, in a similar manner to Lester J. Maitland and Dick Calkins' Skyroads. However, as the strip developed, Brick Bradford increasingly featured fantastic elements in the manner of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Ritt was an admirer of science fiction writers H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Abraham Merritt, and drew on some of their ideas when writing Brick Bradford. Brick Bradford then became more of a space opera/adventure story, with its tales of dinosaurs, lost civilizations, intergalactic villains, robots and subatomic worlds.
By 1935, Brick Bradford'''s popularity had greatly increased, and it arrived in the Sunday comics sections of major newspapers in 1933, followed by a weekend edition that began November 24, 1934. In the daily strips Brick kept company with his friend Sandy Sanderson, balding and bearded scientist Kalla Kopak, and June Salisbury, Brick's girlfriend and daughter of his ally Professor Van Atta Salisbury. The Sunday strips featured completely different characters and plots. Here Brick was often accompanied on his adventures by Professor Horatio Southern and his daughter April, who was Brick's love interest . Later characters included Brick's pugnacious sidekick Bucko O'Brien and the beautiful, black-haired bad girl Saturn Sadie who reformed and in the end married the stalwart hero.
Brick's enemies included Dr. Franz Ego, a spy; Avil Blue, inventor of a giant robot; and the "Assassins", descendants of the Middle Eastern sect of the same name.
On April 20, 1935, the strip added a large top-shaped time machine invented by Professor Southern called, fittingly, the Time Top which could travel to both past and future and off into the depths of space, presaging Doc Wonmug's device in Alley Oop four years later and the TARDIS on Doctor Who by almost three decades.
Daily strips by Clarence Gray and William Ritt D001 In the City Beneath the Sea (08/21/1933 – 06/30/1934) 270 strips D002 With Brocco the Buccaneer (07/02/1934 – 05/18/1935) 276 strips D003 On the Isles Beyond the Ice (05/20/1935 – 04/11/1936) 282 strips D004 Brick Bradford and the Lord of Doom (04/13/1936 – 02/06/1937) 258 strips D005 Adrift in an Atom [aka Voyage in a Coin] (02/08/1937 – 01/08/1938) 288 strips D006 In the Fortress of Fear (01/10/1938 – 02/11/1939) 342 strips D007 Brick Bradford and the Metal Monster (02/13/1939 – 03/16/1940) 342 strips D008 Brick Bradford Seeks the Diamond Doll (03/18/1940 – 12/28/1940) 246 strips D009 On the Throne of Titania (12/30/1940 – 06/12/1943) 768 strips D010 Beyond the Crystal Door (06/14/1943 – 10/21/1944) 462 strips D011 The Queen of the Night (10/28/1944 – 06/01/1946) 468 strips D012 The Witch Doctor of Wanchi (06/03/1946 – 12/07/1946) 162 strips D013 The Strange Case of Captain Boldd (12/09/1946 – 07/19/1947) 192 strips D014 Lost Train In Tunnel #10 (07/21/1947 – 05/01/1948) 246 strips D015 The Prophet of Thorn (05/03/1948 – 03/19/1949) 276 strips D016 The Colossal Fossil (03/21/1949 – 07/02/1949) 90 strips D017 The Island of the Eye (07/04/1949 – 12/24/1949) 150 strips D018 Smokeballs (12/26/1949 – 03/25/1950) 60 strips D019 The Howling Face (03/27/1950 – 06/17/1950) 90 strips D020 The Legacy of Low Lake (06/19/1950 – 10/07/1950) 96 strips D021 Detour of Doubt (10/09/1950 – 12/30/1950) 60 strips D022 Frame-Up (01/01/1951 – 03/31/1951) 90 strips D023 Mesa Macabre (04/02/1951 – 08/11/1951) 114 strips D024 Moon Maiden (08/13/1951 – 10/06/1951) 48 strips D025 Shadow in the Sky (10/08/1951 – 02/16/1952) 102 strips D026 The Six Seeds of Sibed (02/18/1952 – 05/10/1952) 96 strips D027 Mr. Distance (05/12/1952 – 10/18/1952) 138 strips
Daily strips by Paul Norris
D028 Condor Corridor (10/20/1952 – 04/04/1953) 144 strips D029 Operation Back Burner (04/06/1953 – 07/04/1953) 78 strips D030 Oroto Otoro (07/06/1953 – 10/24/1953) 96 strips D031 Poet and Present (10/26/1953 – 01/02/1954) 60 strips D032 Deadline Dilemma (01/04/1954 – 05/01/1954) 102 strips D033 Frogman's Folly (05/03/1954 – 07/24/1954) 72 strips D034 Poet's Revenge (07/26/1954 – 10/09/1954) 66 strips D035 Honey’n’Holly (10/11/1954 – 12/04/1954) 48 strips D036 Temperamental Tessie (12/06/1954 – 01/29/1955) 48 strips D037 Found and Profound (01/31/1955 – 04/30/1955) 78 strips D038 Bauble's Belle (05/02/1955 – 06/25/1955) 48 strips D039 Silent Partners! (06/27/1955 – 10/08/1955) 90 strips D040 The Case of the Vicious Vines (10/10/1955 – 12/31/1955) 72 strips D041 Stowaway (01/02/1956 – 05/12/1956) 114 strips D042 Something Borrowed, Something Blue (05/14/1956 – 08/04/1956) 72 strips D043 Astral Assignment (08/06/1956 – 10/20/1956) 66 strips D044 Return of Paul Bunyan (10/22/1956 – 01/26/1957) 84 strips D045 The Search For Kris Kreg (01/28/1957 – 04/20/1957) 72 strips D046 Time-Top Trials! (04/22/1957 – 09/14/1957) 126 strips D047 Eye of the Needle (09/16/1957 – 11/16/1957) 54 strips D048 Return to Pura (11/18/1957 – 02/22/1958) 84 strips D049 Deep Danger (02/24/1958 – 06/07/1958) 90 strips D050 X-S-S-16 (06/09/1958 – 09/13/1958) 84 strips D051 The Search for Doctor Eastland (09/15/1958 – 01/24/1959) 114 strips D052 Man on the Moon (01/26/1959 – 06/06/1959) 114 strips D053 The Sound (06/08/1959 – 09/19/1959) 90 strips D054 Mission to Maga (09/21/1959 – 01/23/1960) 108 strips D055 Steppingstone (01/25/1960 – 09/24/1960) 210 strips D056 Tattletale Tiros (09/26/1960 – 03/04/1961) 138 strips D057 Silent Search (03/06/1961 – 10/07/1961) 186 strips D058 Bradford's Bondage (10/09/1961 – 11/25/1961) 42 strips D059 Botanical Warfare (11/27/1961 – 04/28/1962) 132 strips D060 Adventure in the Aqua-Mole (04/30/1962 – 09/15/1962) 120 strips D061 The Proxima Centauri Run (09/17/1962 – 02/16/1963) 132 strips D062 Lady Loot (02/18/1963 – 05/18/1963) 78 strips D063 Adventure in Andromeda (05/20/1963 – 10/19/1963) 132 strips D064 Operation Chaos (10/21/1963 – 12/28/1963) 60 strips D065 Return to Panola (12/30/1963 – 05/16/1964) 120 strips D066 Cold Caper (05/18/1964 – 10/24/1964) 138 strips D067 Journey to Procyon (10/26/1964 – 01/23/1965) 78 strips D068 Saturn Sadie's Side Trip (01/25/1965 – 07/03/1965) 138 strips D069 Silverslinger (07/05/1965 – 10/23/1965) 96 strips D070 The Treasure of Toolee Tooee (10/25/1965 – 04/30/1966) 162 strips D071 The Agrarians (05/02/1966 – 08/27/1966) 102 strips D072 Strange Sargasso (08/29/1966 – 03/25/1967) 180 strips D073 Search for a Samaritan (03/27/1967 – 08/12/1967) 120 strips D074 Destination Laza (08/14/1967 – 09/23/1967) 36 strips D075 The Radiant Ruins of Ramdan (09/25/1967 – 05/04/1968) 192 strips D076 Ardun's Ark (05/06/1968 – 07/06/1968) 54 strips D077 Flight of Fantasy (07/08/1968 – 09/28/1968) 72 strips D078 Solitary Journey (09/30/1968 – 12/07/1968) 60 strips D079 Gathering on Gwaymus (12/09/1968 – 03/01/1969) 72 strips D080 The Evil Enkar (03/03/1969 – 05/03/1969) 54 strips D081 Galileo's Ghost (05/05/1969 – 07/26/1969) 72 strips D082 Revenge (07/28/1969 – 10/04/1969) 60 strips D083 Tabby's Tantrums (10/06/1969 – 12/13/1969) 60 strips D084 Return to Gwaymus (12/15/1969 – 03/14/1970) 78 strips D085 The Treasure of Tarabagara (03/16/1970 – 05/23/1970) 60 strips D086 Purple Pintar (05/25/1970 – 08/29/1970) 84 strips D087 Search for Urubu (08/31/1970 – 10/31/1970) 54 strips D088 Time and Trouble (11/02/1970 – 01/30/1971) 78 strips D089 Tenacious Tempo (02/01/1971 – 04/03/1971) 54 strips D090 Hoppy's Re-Migration (04/05/1971 – 06/12/1971) 60 strips D091 Tardy Tempo (06/14/1971 – 09/04/1971) 72 strips D092 Double Trouble (09/06/1971 – 11/13/1971) 60 strips D093 Stranded (11/15/1971 – 01/08/1972) 48 strips D094 Phoenix Fever (01/10/1972 – 04/08/1972) 78 strips D095 Going Home (04/10/1972 – 07/08/1972) 78 strips D096 Then There Were Two (07/10/1972 – 09/23/1972) 66 strips D097 Trail of the Tonabera (09/25/1972 – 12/02/1972) 60 strips D098 Polar Poltergeist (12/04/1972 – 03/03/1973) 78 strips D099 Long Way Home (03/05/1973 – 06/23/1973) 96 strips D100 A Change of Plans (06/25/1973 – 10/20/1973) 102 strips D101 A Flight of Ghosts (10/22/1973 – 12/08/1973) 42 strips D102 Old Masters (12/10/1973 – 02/16/1974) 60 strips D103 Cygnus Two (02/18/1974 – 04/27/1974) 60 strips D104 Lore (04/29/1974 – 08/03/1974) 84 strips D105 Search for Succor (08/05/1974 – 10/05/1974) 54 strips D106 Rescue (10/07/1974 – 12/28/1974) 72 strips D107 Stronger Force (12/30/1974 – 02/22/1975) 48 strips D108 Holiday on Hokuku! (02/24/1975 – 05/31/1975) 84 strips D109 Sea of Secrets (06/02/1975 – 08/16/1975) 66 strips D110 The Folly of Petro Leur (08/18/1975 – 12/27/1975) 114 strips D111 Lore Revisited (12/29/1975 – 02/14/1976) 42 strips D112 Beyond Bucala (02/16/1976 – 05/29/1976) 90 strips D113 The Way Home (05/31/1976 – 10/09/1976) 114 strips D114 Eye Spy (10/11/1976 – 01/29/1977) 96 strips D115 Rescue (01/31/1977 – 04/23/1977) 72 strips D116 Dead End (04/25/1977 – 08/27/1977) 108 strips D117 Lost (08/29/1977 – 01/07/1978) 114 strips D118 Dolphins of Dahgara (01/09/1978 – 04/22/1978) 90 strips D119 Wild Wet World (04/24/1978 – 08/05/1978) 90 strips D120 Space Trace (08/07/1978 – 12/16/1978) 114 strips D121 Emigres’ Reversion (12/18/1978 – 04/07/1979) 96 strips D122 Web of Life (04/09/1979 – 09/22/1979) 144 strips D123 Two, Too Many (09/24/1979 – 01/19/1980) 102 strips D124 Runagate (01/21/1980 – 06/07/1980) 120 strips D125 Loose Ends (06/09/1980 – 10/25/1980) 120 strips D126 Iona Incursion (10/27/1980 – 01/17/1981) 72 strips D127 Solar Power Play (01/19/1981 – 04/18/1981) 78 strips D128 Time Trials (04/20/1981 – 07/25/1981) 84 strips D129 The Realm of Ram (07/27/1981 – 01/02/1982) 138 strips D130 Jeopardy (01/04/1982 – 04/17/1982) 90 strips D131 Search for Saturn Sadie (04/19/1982 – 09/18/1982) 132 strips D132 Prekarius Plot (09/20/1982 – 04/16/1983) 180 strips D133 Topaz (04/18/1983 – 09/17/1983) 132 strips D134 Beyond the Limits (09/19/1983 – 12/31/1983) 90 strips