Glenn Bray

Glenn Bray
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Born	April 1, 1948 Van Nuys, California
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States of America
Occupation	Art collector Curator Publisher Author

Glenn Bray (born April 1, 1948) is an American art collector, curator, publisher and author best-known for his championing of the controversial Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski. He has also written about and published the works of cartoonists Harvey Kurtzman, Basil Wolverton and Art Young. His 2017 book “To Laugh That We May Not Weep: The Life and Times of Art Young”, published by Fantagraphics Books, was nominated for the Will Eisner Award.

Biography

Early Life

Bray was born in Van Nuys, California on April 1, 1948. His father Gene Bray owned Sylmar Builders Supply, a hardware store that began business in 1959.

Bray was introduced to “Mad (magazine)” magazine, originally a comic book edited by Harvey Kurtzman, in 1957. Another seminal influence was “New Yorker” cartoonist Charles Addams’ 1959 book “Dear Dead Days.”

His discovery of the Cherokee Book Store on Hollywood Blvd. in 1960 gave him deeper exposure to comics, including the E.C. titles, which the store sold for 25 cents per book.

That same year, Bray first attended professional wrestling matches in Los Angeles’ Olympic Auditorium. He often went to these events with his childhood friend Martin Margulies, who shared his interest in comic books, movie posters, phonograph records and other popular culture. Margulies would be better-known as rockabilly performer and wrestling promoter Johnny Legend in the 1980s.

Bray’s interest in wrestling extended to meeting and socializing with its stars. He had George Raymond Wagner, known professionally as Gorgeous George, over for dinner at his home in 1962; the next year, Bray was pictured in the March 1963 issue of “Wrestling World” magazine as he watched Mitsuhiro Momota, known professionally as Rikidōzan, in the wrestling ring.

Bray also met wrestler/actor Tor Johnson, who lived in the Sylmar area. Johnson mentioned that Bray might get a role in an unmade film by Edward D. Wood, Jr., but the project was never launched. On his own, and with Margulies, Bray made some 8mm movies, including “Puke: The Saliva Demon” (c. 1967), which underground cartoonist Don Dohler reviewed in the third issue of his “Cinemagic” magazine (Fall/Winter 1973 issue).

Bray began to work at his father’s hardware store in 1968, where he would work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week till he retired 42 years later. By this time, he had begun to seek out the cartoonists whose work impressed him. He began a correspondence with Chicago-based underground cartoonist Jay Lynch that year. Around this time, he chanced upon a copy of Robert Crumb’s “Zap Comix” #1 at a Hollywood newsstand. This introduced him to the world of underground comics.

Meeting Artists and Commissioning New Work

In 1968, Bray discovered the work of Stanislav Szukalski, via a copy of the 1923 book “The Work of Szukalski.” He attempted to track down the artist to no avail. Comic book artists such as Carl Barks and Basil Wolverton proved easier to find. Prior to meeting Wolverton in 1970, Bray collaborated with Bill Spicer on a special issue of Spicer’s “Graphic Story Magazine” devoted to the artist. Bray began to purchase Wolverton’s older original artwork and soon commissioned new pieces from the cartoonist.

In 1971, Bray met Carl Barks, the writer-artist of the “Donald Duck” and “Uncle Scrooge” comic books published by Dell. Bray suggested that the semi-retired Barks consider doing oil paintings of the Disney characters he had produced for comic books since 1942, instead of the landscapes he had been painting. Bray bought Barks’ first effort, “A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By,” that year. He commissioned a second oil canvas, “Bombie the Zombie,” the next year. In 1971, Bray also commissioned a series of end-of-the-world drawings from Basil Wolverton, as the epic culmination of a biblical series commissioned by Worldwide Church of God/Ambassador College.

That year, Bray met underground cartoonists Rick Griffin and Robert Williams through San Francisco comics retailer Gary Arlington. In 1972, Bray met S. Clay Wilson and Justin Green as the latter worked on his ground-breaking autobiographical comic book, “Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary," which was published by Last Gasp in 1973.

Publishing

Bray became a publisher in 1973 with “Gjdrkzlxcbwq Comics,” a collection of old and new work by Basil Wolverton, followed by 1975’s “Foopgoop Frolic,” a large-sized portfolio of Wolverton art, and an unauthorized reprint of Boris Artzybasheff’s World War II-era “Axis in Agony!”

An admirer of the art and writing of Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman, Bray published “The Illustrated Harvey Kurtzman Checklist” in 1976. Kurtzman drew a cover image for the book.

Bray branched into record producing with a one-shot single release by pro wrestler Fred Blassie. With Margulies, Jeff Walton and Terry Brodt, Bray co-produced a four-track 7” EP that featured the song “Pencil Neck Geek.” Reissued by Rhino Records on its own, the song became a staple of the weekly Dr. Demento radio program.

Bray and Stanislav Szukalski

During this period of publishing projects, Bray discovered that Stanislav Szukalski was alive and lived a few miles from his home. He began to visit the artist regularly and made overtures to publish his works. Bray married Lena Zwalve, editor of the Dutch underground comic “Tante Leny Presenteert”, in 1978 and she became the co-editor of all future Szukalski books. “Troughful of Pearls” (1980) and “Inner Portraits” (1982), co-designed by Bray and Szukalski, were published in the artist’s lifetime.

Starting in 1983, Bray videotaped Szukalski for a series of lectures the artist gave on his philosophy, life and work. In 1986, Bray contacted a sculptor’s foundry in Los Angeles and had Szukalski’s sculptures cast in bronze with the artist supervising the work. Szukalski died on 19 May 1987 and willed his estate to Bray. In July 1988, Bray, Zwalve and a group of friends traveled to Easter Island to scatter Szukalski’s ashes at the Rano Raraku sculptors’ quarry there.

Bray and Zwalve mounted a home show of the works of Belgian artist Ever Meulen in 1984. The next year, Bray commissioned artist Gary Panter to create the in-home mural “Saturated Defense” in Bray’s Sylmar living room. 1985 also saw the publication of a series of commissioned postcards by Kim Deitch, Drew Friedman, Rick Griffin, Gary Panter, Savage Pencil, Szukalski Robert Williams and XNO.

In 1989, Bray co-curated the first contemporary public exhibition of Szukalski’s artwork at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood. The show, titled “Wait! My Heart Still Beats!”, was followed by an exhibition of Szukalski work in Chicago titled The Lost Tune, Illinois at The Polish Museum of America. In 1989, Bray published the catalogue “The Bronzes of Szukalski,” followed in 1990 by “The Lost Tune,” which was designed by Dutch artist Piet Schreuders.

In 1999, Bray helped organize a Szukalski exhibit for the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California and edited “The Art of Szukalski”, published by Last Gasp Books. The volume was designed by Schreuders with text by Eva and Donat Kirsch. Subsequent Szukalski exhibitions included 2005’s “The Self-Born” for Varnish Fine Art Gallery in San Francisco, California ,2007’s “Forgotten Masters Revived,” curated by Kirsch for The Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum in San Bernardino, “Mantong and Protong, Richard Shaver and Stanislav Szukalski,” curated by Brian Tucker at Pasadena City College Art Gallery October 9 – November 14, 2009, and “Szukalski Drawings,” curated by Mike McGee at Cal State University Fullerton / Begovich Gallery in Fullerton, CA, February 2 – March 7, 2013.

Bray’s relationship with Szukalski is shown in the 2018 Netflix documentary “STRUGGLE, The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski”, which was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. The film’s release was followed by new editions of “Behold the Protong!!!” (2019) and “Inner Portraits” (2020), re-designed by Schreuders and published by Last Gasp.

Other Projects

Art Exhibits

In September 1995, Bray loaned various pieces of underground comics art (and related items) including originals by Wolverton, Kurtzman, Ron Cobb and Rick Griffin to the exhibit “What’s Up Underground!” The show was curated by Fred Dortort for SK Josefsburg Studio in Portland Oregon.

Bray exhibited other original artwork from his collection in a 2009 show at The Gladstone Gallery in New York, where over 150 pieces of Basil Wolverton’s work was curated by Cameron Jamie. The exhibit ran from June-August 2009.

From May-June 2011, the Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York hosted “Zap: Masters of Psychedelic Art” with artwork from the Glenn Bray Collection.

From January 26 to May 6, 2012, Angoulême, at the Musée de la Bande Dessinée (BD) in France, exhibited a vast collection of Bray comic art collection, along with the entire 40 pages of Justin Green’s Binky Brown book. The exhibit was curated by Art Spiegelman. This exhibit was also displayed from October 26 to November 11, 2012 at The Amadora BD International Festival of Comic Arts in Portugal.

From June 23 – September 18, 2016, original comic strip art by George Herriman and Cliff Sterrett were loaned by Bray to the exhibit “Pioniere des Comics,” curated by Alexander Braun for Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt a. M., Germany.

From October 14 to December 10, 2016, Amadora BD International Festival of Comic Arts in Portugal exhibited “Ferozes Transparencies, Underground Comic Art from the Collection of Glenn Bray,” curated by Pedro Moura at the Galeria da Bedecteca in Amadora.

From May 7 to September 10, 2017, pieces from the Bray collection were part of “Comics! Mangas! Graphic Novels!”, an exhibit curated by Alexander Braun for Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany.

Recent and Forthcoming Publications

“The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from The Glenn Bray Collection,” published in 2014 by Fantagraphics Books, was a lavish retrospective of Bray’s holdings and includes a long interview with Bray that details his life story and his interests in high and low art. Much of Bray's life story is found in this interview.

The first volume in a series to spotlight the work of political and social cartoonist Art Young, “To Laugh That We May Not Weep: The Life and Times of Art Young,” published by Fantagraphics Books in 2017, featured essays by Art Spiegelman, Justin Green and Frank M. Young. It was nominated for the Will Eisner Award in 2018.

A second book of Art Young’s work, reprinting his 1933 work “Art Young’s Inferno” and sourced from original artwork in Bray’s collection, was published by Fantagraphics in 2019. It was nominated for the Will Eisner Award in 2021.

In 2020, Bray self-published “Glenn Bray’s Scrap Book,” a 508-page hardcover that reproduces curated pages from newspaper, magazine and packaging clippings Bray saved and juxtaposed. Bray co-edited the book with Young.

A second book, “Library,” designed by Young, contains 800 pages of book, magazine and pamphlet covers from Bray’s collection presented in a similar fashion to “Scrap Book”. The book is under consideration by a publisher.

Bibliography

Self-Publication:

1973: Gjdrkzlxcbwq Comics – Basil Wolverton

1975: Foopgoop Frolics – Basil Wolverton

1975: Axis in Agony! – Boris Artzybasheff (uncredited pirate edition)

1976: The Illustrated Harvey Kurtzman Index

1976: Blassie - King Of Men (vinyl record with picture sleeve) – Fred Blassie (co-produced as Raunchy Tonk Records)

1980: Troughful of Pearls – Stanislav Szukalski

1982: Inner Portraits – Stanislav Szukalski

1985: Various postcards, mostly with Drew Friedman. Other artists include Szukalski, Rick Griffin, Robert Williams, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Savage Pencil, Ever Meulen and Xno

1989: The Bronzes of Szukalski

1989: Behold!!! The Protong – Stanislav Szukalski (partial reprint of 1980 Troughful of Pearls)

1990: The Lost Tune – Stanislav Szukalski (co-published with the Polish-American Museum of Chicago), edited by Glenn Bray and Lena Zwalve, layout by Piet Schreuders; ISBN: 0-9626230-0-8

2000: World Remade Vol.1 – Stanislav Szukalski

2005: World Remade Vol.2 – Stanislav Szukalski

2020: Scrap Book (co-published with Tref Books) Design by Frank M. Young

Published by Last Gasp Press:

2000: Behold!!! The Protong – Stanislav Szukalski, edited by Glenn Bray and Lena Zwalve; ISBN: 0-86719-519-3

2000: Inner Portraits - Stanislav Szukalski, edited by Glenn Bray and Lena Zwalve; ISBN: 0-86719-494-4

2000: Struggle – Stanislav Szukalski (co-published with Laguna Art Museum), edited by Glenn Bray and Lena Zwalve; layout by Piet Schreuders; ISBN: 0-86719-479-0

2007: The Original Art of Basil Wolverton: from the Collection of Glenn Bray, edited by Glenn Bray (co-published with Grand Central Press); ISBN: 10-0867196874/13-978-0867196870

2019: Republication of Behold!!! The Protong, Stanislav Szukalski, edited by Glenn Bray and Lena Zwalve; New layout by Piet Schreuders; ISBN: 978-0-86719-876-8

2020: Republication of Inner Portraits, Stanislav Szukalski, edited by Glenn Bray and Lena Zwalve; new layout by Piet Schreuders; ISBN-13: 978-0-86719-879-9

2021: 2nd Republication of Behold!!! The Protong, Stanislav Szukalski, edited by Glenn Bray and Lena Zwalve; new layout by Piet Schreuders; ISBN: 978-0-86719-876-8

Other Publishers:

2008: Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes, edited by Glenn Bray and Dan Nadel; Fantagraphics Books; ISBN: 1560979232

2012: Rory Hayes Book – The Dolls Weekly and Crawlee Things, Rory Hayes artwork from the collection of Glenn Bray; United Dead Artists Pub., France

2013: Nounours En Enfer – Rory Hayes, Editions Stara (France); French-language edition of Where Demented Wented; Edited by Glenn Bray and Dan Nadel; ISBN: 2952816441

2014: The Blighted Eye – Original Comic Art from The Glenn Bray Collection, Fantagraphics Books; ISBN: 978-1-60699-695-9

2015: Art Young’s Types of The Old Hometown, edited by Glenn Bray and Marc Moorash; Bethel Historical Society (edition of 333 copies)

2017: To Laugh That We May Not Weep, The Art and Life of Art Young, edited by Glenn Bray and Frank M. Young; Fantagraphics Books; ISBN: 978-1-60699-994-3

2018: Szukalski, Polish language book published by Evvia l’Arte (Poland); images copyright Archives Szukalski; ISBN: 978-83-944747-6-8

2020: Art Young’s Inferno, foreword by Glenn Bray; Fantagraphics Books; ISBN: 978-1-68396-280-9

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