Here’s wishing a happy (belated) birthday to the super-talented artist June Brigman, who was born on October 25, 1960 in Atlanta, GA. Early in her career, Brigman worked as a portrait artist at Six Flags Over Georgia. Her talent at illustrating children would prove to be a valuable asset when in 1984, with husband Roy Richardson, she relocated to NYC and came to the offices of Marvel Comics seeking out work. There she met editor Louise Simonson, who was in the process of pitching her first series, which was about a group of pre-teen superheroes. Simonson was introduced to Brigman and, learning that she could draw children, the two soon began working together, developing Power Pack.
Last month, when I blogged about Louise Simonson’s work, I talked about how much I enjoyed Power Pack when I was young. I really believe that June Brigman, working with veteran inker Bob Wiacek, was crucial to the appeal of the series. Brigman designed the four Power siblings, the visual manifestations of their abilities, as well as the looks of the kindly alien Kymellians, the Smartship Friday, and the malevolent invading Snarks. What she came up with was such a departure from the traditional Marvel sensibilities that it really stood out. Paired with Simonson’s imaginative plots and wonderful talent for scripting young characters, this ensured that Power Pack was a unique title.
Brigman worked on Power Pack for a year and a half, departing the series with #17. Subsequently, her art appeared in a number of series at Marvel such as Alpha Flight, Barbie, She-Hulk, New Mutants, and Strange Tales. In that last title, she penciled an unusual two-part team-up between Cloak & Dagger, the Punisher, and the Power Pack kids!
Power Pack was cancelled in late 1990. The last several issues had, unfortunately, seen the title go in an unpleasant, dysfunctional direction. As a reader, I wasn’t too happy with that. “Dark Power Pack” just seemed wrong. Now obviously, as I’ve written before, I am a huge fan of graphic novels such as Watchmen and Faust. But I also enjoy “lighter” fare, to be sure. Diversity is great; not everything needs to be grim & gritty. And, honestly, Power Pack had been a rather serious title under both Simonson’s helm. I mean, at one point it even crossed over with the “Mutant Massacre” storyline, which was a bloodbath! But throughout her run, despite the upheavals in Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie’s lives, Simonson had always maintained a real sense of fun and wonder.
Fortunately, Simonson and Brigman were able to reunite for the Power Pack Holiday Special, released in December 1991. They more or less hit the big old reset button, and restored the Power family to (relative) normality, in the process telling a really awesome adventure. Brigman, paired with her husband Roy Richardson on inks, turned in superb artwork.
In the 1990s June and Roy lived in White Plains NY, pretty close to where I grew up. So I used to see the two of them regularly at local comic conventions. They were always both very friendly. When I began collecting original comic book artwork in high school, one of first pieces I ever bought was one of their pages from the Holiday Special. Two decades later I still have it, framed. I really ought to take a photo and post it on Comic Art Fans.
In 1993 Brigman did some work for DC Comics, penciling the Supergirl/Team Luthor special, which was followed shortly thereafter by a four issue Supergirl miniseries. I really enjoyed these stories by Roger Stern, which spun out of his ongoing plotlines from Action Comics involving the Supergirl (aka Matrix) from the Pocket Universe and her relationship with Lex Luthor who, at the time, was masquerading as his own son via a brain transplant into a cloned body… long story!!! Brigman was inked on these issues by Jackson “Butch” Guice. It was an interesting collaboration, since the two artists have very different styles. But I felt that it worked well and suited the mood of the stories.
Shortly thereafter, Brigman re-teamed with Simonson and Richardson over at Dark Horse for the Star Wars: River of Chaos miniseries. Other than Princess Leia, all of the characters featured were brand new, which allowed Simonson & Brigman the opportunity to design & develop some interesting additions to the Star Wars mythos. I think this is one of the few Star Wars titles that Dark Horse did not subsequently collect into a trade paperback, or if they did it’s now out of print. Whatever the case, River of Chaos was a great read with wonderful art, and I recommend searching out the back issues.
Brigman took over the Brenda Starr newspaper strip in 1995, and stayed on it until its cancellation in 2011. During this time, she also penciled several issues of Meridian and Sojourn for CrossGen. These comic featured some really beautiful artwork. Brigman’s style is very well suited to the fantasy genre, and I wish she had the opportunity to work in it more often.
More recently, Brigman has been working with Teshkeel, a comic book company based in Kuwait that publishes The 99. In addition to her work on the comics, Brigman’s art has appeared prominently in a theme park based on the series. Some of her art from The 99 can be viewed on Teshkeel’s website.
Brigman once again briefly returned to Power Pack in 2010, penciling a seven page story in Girl Comics #3 written by Simonson, with inking by Rebecca Buchman. In 2011, Brigman and Richardson drew two issues of Herc that tied in with Marvel’s big “Spider-Island” crossover, and also contributed the variant cover for FF #15. I was happy to see her work in these books, and I really hope that at some point she has the opportunity to illustrate some other projects. As I’ve said before, it would be great if she and Simonson could do a new Power Pack miniseries or special. Even better, I would love to see them collaborate on a creator-owned project. They are each immensely talented, and I imagine they would conceive something really spectacular.
June and Roy moved back to Atlanta a number of years ago. Fortunately there is the Internet, and I get to chat with them regularly on Facebook. As I said, in addition to being accomplished artists, they are both really nice people.
I hope you had a very happy birthday, June. Thanks for all they wonderful artwork over the years.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 