Peter Alan Bramley was still a student at the MassachusettsCollege of Art in the 1960s when he sold one of his early works. Inthe tradition of starving young artists, Mr. Bramley, instead ofasking for money, traded it for free meals at Joe & Nemo's, theformer hot dog emporium, in the West End.
Peopled with tiny Celtic and medieval figures, the large pen-and-ink drawing was titled "The Castle," according to family accounts,and the owners of Joe & Nemo's fell in love with it.
"The Castle" may not have made Mr. Bramley famous, but his role asthe first art director of the sophisticated and irreverent humormagazine the National Lampoon, in 1970, did. His time there wasbrief, but it was the highlight of his career. Mr. Bramley died ofcomplications of pneumonia at St. Anthony's Hospital in St.Petersburg, Fla., on April 12. He was 60.
Mr. Bramley, who grew up in Braintree and drew sports cartoons forthe Quincy Patriot Ledger as a boy, was art director for the NationalLampoon's first six issues, before he and the magazine partedcompany, according to Scott Rubin, editor in chief of the magazine,which is now published on the Internet. Mr. Bramley's family said helater did freelance work for the magazine.
"Peter gave it a more alternative `60s look," Rubin said. Mr.Bramley was also involved with the spoofs the National Lampoon ran ofnewspapers and magazines. "I think [founder] Matty [Simmons] felt,and rightly so, that the magazine had a limited appeal and wanted itto reach a greater audience," Rubin said. "Though he didn't lastthrough six issues, Peter did establish a graphic sensibility thatwould be built on by others for the next 35 years."
Mr. Bramley helped establish Cloud Studio in New York in 1967. Itwas an alternative-culture studio that combined an interest in comicsand theater with commercial art and illustration. His comics earnedthe attention of the National Lampoon founders, who hired Bramley andhis partner, Bill Skurski, in 1970 as art directors of the first fewissues.
Simmons, who founded the magazine in 1970 and is now a Hollywoodproducer, recalled Mr. Bramley as "very much a man of his times whodressed like a hippie in strange uniforms and far-out clothing. Hewas a very nice guy but a little too esoteric for us."
Mr. Bramley remained flamboyant in dress all his life. "Peter wasa very humorous person, very quick-witted," said his wife, NanoRiley. "He wore a derby in winter and a straw hat in summer andpainted designs on his canvas shoes. He always wore a moustache and agoatee."
One of five children, Mr. Bramley started drawing at an early age,said his sister Roberta Bramley-Hassett of West Yarmouth. "Until hewas punished, he'd be drawing on the walls of his bedroom," she said.He was 13 when the Patriot Ledger published his cartoons, she said,and when he graduated from Braintree High School, he knew his careerwould be in art.
One of the jobs Mr. Bramley had while in college was as nightwatchman at a Brookline residence for senior citizens. He roomed inshabby student quarters with Skurski, of Los Angeles and formerly ofSalem. They would work together on many art projects.
As an artist, Mr. Bramley was multifaceted. He was a cartoonist,caricaturist, and muralist. His former wife, Florence (Duguid)Bramley Hill of Keyport, N.J., who married Mr. Bramley in 1966 asthey were completing their courses at Massachusetts College of Art,said children's illustrations remained a constant in his life.
"In college, it became evident that Peter could master in a veryshort time any medium or subject that interested him," she said."This talent and the skills that support it remained evidentthroughout his life."
For much of his life, Hill said, Mr. Bramley created children'sillustrations for himself and would do the more commerciallylucrative book covers for clients, including covers for sciencefiction books. He designed the cover for Ray Bradbury's "I Sing theBody Electric" and record covers and posters for musicians, she said.
In New York, according to his sister, Mr. Bramley's work wasfeatured in several underground comic books of the period. She saidhe was instrumental in starting two national humor magazines, ApplePie and Harpoon.
When Mr. Bramley moved to St. Petersburg in 1984, his art took anew turn, and he created whimsical and colorful public murals ofFlorida's flora and fauna that won him much notice and abeautification award from the city, Riley said. His painting ofwinged pigs on the ceiling of a local restaurant, Dave's, became atourist attraction, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
In addition to his wife, former wife, and sister, Mr. Bramleyleaves two sons, Gareth of Westminster, Md., and Lymond ofPhiladelphia; a brother, Steven D. of Sharon; and two granddaughters.
The family is planning a private service this summer to scatterhis ashes off Cape Cod.
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