Brick Bradford

Brick Bradford was a science fiction comic strip created by writer William Ritt, a journalist based in Cleveland, and artist Clarence Gray. It was first distributed in 1933 by Central Press Association, a subsidiary of King Features Syndicate which specialized in producing material for small-town newspapers.

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 did the strip by himself 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 Sundays two weeks later.

"Brick Bradford" achieved its greatest popularity outside the United States. "Brick Bradford" 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. The strip was also widely published in Italy.

The titular hero, Brick, was a redheaded aviator who continually encountered fantastic situations. Initially, the strip was focused on Earth-bound, aviation-focused adventures, in a similar manner to 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 now 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, scientist Kalla Kopak, and June Salisbury, Brick's girlfriend and daughter of his ally, 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 . 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.

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