Clarence Gray (November 14, 1901 – January 5, 1957) was an American comic strip artist, best known for drawing the science fiction adventure strip Brick Bradford for more than two decades.[1] He also worked as a freelance illustrator for various magazines.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Gray called himself the "middle man" of three brothers. He was the son of Laura Jane and Val Gray, a construction worker. His father took little interest in his childhood drawings. "He just pitied me," recalled Gray. The red-haired youth began drawing trains and automobiles at an early age, teaching himself by making copies of magazine illustrations. He once described himself as a "red-headed, freckle-faced little punk."[2] He concentrated on art courses in grade and high school, and after his high school graduation, he started his career at $18 a week doing sports and editorial cartoonist with the Toledo News-Bee. However, on his second week, he was surprised by a large raise, as detailed in a 1936 syndicated feature story on cartoonists:
"I had to give it back the next Monday," recalled Gray. "It was a payroll mistake."[2]
In 1933, he created Brick Bradford with writer William H. Ritt, a columnist with the Central Press Association of Cleveland. Launched by the Central Press Association as an adventure strip, it quickly developed into one of the leading science-fiction strips of the 1930s.[1] The daily comic strip was joined by a Sunday page in 1934, followed by a companion strip, The Time Top in 1935.[4]
In 1939, Gray gave his art tips:
Gray received the solo byline for the daily strip in 1948 and the Sunday strip in 1949.[1] When Ritt stopped scripting in 1952, Gray worked only on the Sunday strip and left the daily strip to Paul Norris.[4][1] Gray and his wife, Jessie Matthews Gray, lived in Rocky River, Ohio where they had one son, Robert, and red-haired twins, Janet and Jane. When not at the drawing board, Gray liked golf, hunting, fishing and camping, where he communed with nature:
Clarence Gray died in 1957 at age 55.[1] At age 70, William Ritt died September 20, 1972.