Peter Bramley, a Designer of Early National Lampoon, Dies at 60 -- Rest in Peace

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Subject: Peter Bramley, a Designer of Early National Lampoon, Dies at 60

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died April 12 in St. Petersburg, Fla.

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Date Posted: May 06, 2005 11:14:27 EDT

Peter Bramley, the first art director of the National Lampoon magazine, editor of humor magazines and creator of absurd underground comics, died on April 12 in St. Petersburg, Fla. He was 60.

The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Nano Riley.

In 1967 Mr. Bramley joined Bill Skurski and Gail Burwen to found Cloud Studio in New York, an alternative-culture art-and-design studio that wed an interest in comics and theater to commercial art and illustration. In its early years the studio was known for its surreal photographic comic strips and montage novellas, often featuring studio members as actors. Along with others in the studio, Mr. Bramley, who wore a handlebar mustache and goatee, also had roles in some underground movies, including one as a trapeze artist in "It Happened in Hollywood," a 1970's pornographic film.

Mr. Bramley's bizarre yet goofy stories in All Duck Comics and Cloud Comics showcased his signature mix of classical pen-and-ink drawing and his ribald graphic aesthetic.

His comics earned the attention of founders of the National Lampoon, the popular offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon, who hired Mr. Bramley and Mr. Skurski in 1970 as art directors of the first few issues. They were replaced after a year as art directors, but Mr. Bramley continued to contribute comics and illustrations through 1973.

A native of Braintree, Mass., Mr. Bramley began drawing cartoons of high school football games for The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass., when he was 13. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art. After moving to New York in 1967 with some classmates and starting the studio, he was commissioned to produce many eclectic, if discordant, illustrations for Fortune, The East Village Other, "Sesame Street," "The Electric Company," Boys' Life, Playgirl and The New York Times, as well as book covers for Random House, Knopf, Simon & Schuster and Doubleday.

Mr. Bramley was instrumental in starting three relatively short-lived national humor magazines: Apple Pie, Harpoon and International Insanity. Although never achieving as much notoriety as San Francisco-based underground comics artists like R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, Mr. Bramley had moderate success with "Vinny Shinblind, the Invisible Sex Maniac" and "Cahoot Cheroot," a cowboy character.

In 1984 Mr. Bramley moved to St. Petersburg, where he created lush paintings of orchids and tropical birds as well as public murals with natural themes.

In addition to his wife of 30 years, he is survived by two sons from a previous marriage, Gareth, of Baltimore, and Lymond, of Philadelphia; a brother, Steven, of Sharon, Mass.; a sister, Roberta Bramley of West Yarmouth, Mass.; and two granddaughters.

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