Dick Briefer studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan, New York City, and debuted in comic books in 1936 with work inWow, What A Magazine!, one of the era's proto-comics "Comic books": tabloid-sized collections of comic strip reprints in color, which would later include occasional new comic strip-like material. Wow was edited by Jerry Iger, and when the comic ceased publication with issue #4, Briefer freelanced for the newly formed Eisner & Iger, one of the earliest "packagers" that produced complete comics on demand for publishers entering the fledgling medium. Briefer's earliest recorded credit is as writer and artist of a five-page story beginning an adaptation of the Victor HugonovelThe Hunchback of Notre Dame, in Jumbo Comics #1-8 & 10, for the Eisner-Iger client Fiction House. Other seminal work includes drawing and possibly writing the science-fiction adventure feature "Rex Dexter of Mars", which ran in several issues of Fox Comics' Mystery Men Comics; "Dynamo" in Fox's Science Comics; "Biff Bannon" in Harvey Comics' Speed Comics; "Storm Curtis" in Prize Comics' Prize Comics; and "Crash Parker" in Fiction House's Planet Comics. For Timely Comics, the precursor of Marvel Comics during the 1930s to 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books, Briefer created or co-created the single-appearance superherothe Human Top in Red Raven #1. Also during this time he also drew the comic strip Pinky Rankin, about a Nazi-fighter, for the American Communist PartynewspaperThe Daily Worker.
Target and the Targeteers
Briefer, using the pen nameDick Hamilton, created the superhero team the Target and the Targeteers for Novelty Press in 1940. The Targetfirst appeared in Target Comics #10, and the Targeteers the following issue. The team starred in Target Comics through issue #95 / vol. 9, #5. Target itself ran 10 more issues.
In Prize Comics #7, writer-artist Briefer introduced the eight-page feature "New Adventures of Frankenstein", an updated version of the much-adapted Frankenstein monster created by Mary Shelley in her 1818 novel Frankenstein. Considered by comics historians to be "America's first ongoing comic book series to fall squarely within the horror genre", the feature, set in New York City circa 1930, starred a guttural, rampaging creature actually dubbed "Frankenstein". Briefer's better-known version of the Frankenstein monster, however, developed upon the monster's return from the war, in Frankenstein #1, Frankenstein settled into small-town life, becoming a genial neighbor who "began having delightful adventures with Dracula, the Wolfman and other horrific creatures. Briefer, with his trademark "loose and smooth ink and brush skills" began telling stories that would "straddle some amorphous line between pure children's humor and adventure and an adult sensibility about the world". In his book Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900-1969, author Dan Nadel described Briefer as Briefer's humorous Frankenstein ran through Prize Comics #68, and his humorous Frankenstein ran through issue #17. Three years later, Briefer revived the series with his original, horrific Frankenstein from #18-33.