Brian Bram

Brian Bram, born May 9, 1955 in Chicago and raised in Deerfield, Illinois, played a minor role in the underground comix movement with his contributions to "American Splendor", the comic book series written and published by Harvey Pekar and, in 2003, made into an award-winning motion picture starring Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis. American Splendor 1-10 is #61 of "The Comics Journal" Top 100 Comics.

Bram's first paid illustration job was a logo for a local rock band. At 17 he began contributing to "Triad", a Chicago-based alternative magazine that published work by Skip Williamson and others. At 18 Bram served briefly as art director for the magazine.

Bram moved to Cleveland in 1975 to major in design and illustration at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Underground cartoonist Jay Lynch introduced him to Pekar who hired him to illustrate stories in the first issue of "American Splendor". Bram contributed to the first two issues of "American Splendor", along with artists Gary Dumm, Gregg Budgett, and Robert Crumb.

In 1983 Bram produced and hosted an all-night movie program on WUHF (Channel 31; then an independent station; now part of the Fox network). In addition to movies, the program was a forum for local bands including Personal Effects, The Degrads, and Cousin Al and the Relatives.

Since 1987 Bram has been living in Boston, Massachusetts and working in the interactive industry as Director of Creative Services at Last Panda Creative Media.

Further reading

* "Comic Books as History", Joseph Witek, 1989, University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0-87805-405-7
* "Diners of New England", Randy Garbin, 2005, Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-81173-141-3
* "R. Crumb Checklist", Don Fiene, 1981, Bookpeople. ISBN 0-96066-541-2

ee also

* "American Splendor"
* Harvey Pekar
* Deerfield, Illinois
* WUHF
* Fire on High

External links

* [http://www.lambiek.net/artists/index.htm The Comiclopedia]
* [http://www.lastpanda.com Last Panda Creative Media]
* [http://www.tcj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=74&Itemid=70 The Comics Journal list of the Top 100 Comics of the Century]
* [http://joshcomix.home.mindspring.com/and/pekar_artists/index.html Complete list of Harvey Pekar's artists]
* [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/brian/bram Bram at Linked In]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFjU_ojm6M Bram interviewing Rochester band The Degrads on his TV show, WUHF-TV31, Rochester, NY 1983]