Glenn Bray is an American private collector of comic book art and memorabilia, and the editor of multiple books about comic book and modern art, including The Original Art of Basil Wolverton: From the Collection of Glenn Bray (2007) and The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection. Bray started collecting comics, original art, toys and posters in the 1970s, amassing one of the largest private collections of comic art by Mad magazine artist Basil Wolverton over the following decades. BrayâÂÂs comic art collection has thousands of pieces, including art from Mad magazine artist Harvey Kurtzman, George Herriman (known for the Krazy Kat comic strip), Disney cartoonist Carl Barks, and Savage Pencil.
Bray grew up in California's San Fernando Valley. Bray's interest in comic book art started in the 1950s when he was 9 years old, and he saw Basil Wolverton's art in Mad magazine. As a teen, Bray started working in his familyâÂÂs hardware store and began collecting comics, original art, toys and posters.
Bray purchased his first original piece of art, a drawing by Wolverton, in 1965 at age 17 for $10, and years later he purchased six pages of original art Wolverton made for a story in Mad magazine. Bray's collection of art from Mad is primarily from the comic book editions published under editor Harvey Kurtzman. His collection developed through the 1970s when he purchased original art auctioned by Mads former publisher, William Gaines. His collection includes original comic art from Mad magazine artists Harvey Kurtzman and Basil Wolverton, underground cartoonists Robert Williams, Robert Crumb, Gary Panter, and Savage Pencil, alternative comic artists Daniel Clowes, George Herriman, and Carl Barks.
In 1971, Bray commissioned the first oil painting from Carl Barks; entitled A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By, the painting featured Donald Duck.
Pieces from BrayâÂÂs comic art collection were included in the 2005 âÂÂMasters of American Comicsâ exhibitions at the Los Angeles Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Bray and his wife Lena Zwalve also collect art work by Polish modernist painter and sculptor Stanislav Szukalski. Bray collaborated with and published several books with Szukalski. In 2000 Bray, who is also the executor of SzukalskiâÂÂs estate, helped organize a retrospective of SzukalskiâÂÂs work called âÂÂStruggle: The Art of Stanislav Szukalski,â hosted at the Laguna Art Museum and sponsored by actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The book Struggle: The Art of Szukalski, edited by Bray and Lena Zwalve, was released the same year. BrayâÂÂs filmed interviews with Szukalski in the 1980s were included in the 2018 Netflix documentary, '.
As of 2008, Bray held he largest private collection of art by Wolverton, with over 400 pieces. In 2014, BrayâÂÂs comic art collection included âÂÂhundreds of thousands of items.âÂÂ
Bray edited and co-edited multiple books about comic art, including The Original Art of Basil Wolverton (2007) and Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes in 2008.
In 2014, Bray co-edited The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection, featuring art by Harvey Kurtzman, Robert Crumb, Charles Addams, Peter Pontiac, and others.
Bray and comics scholar Frank M. Young co-edited To Laugh That We May Not Weep: The Life and Times of Art Young, published in 2017. The book was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2018.
Bray lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife Lena Zwalve, a Dutch cartoonist. He retired and closed his familyâÂÂs hardware store in 2010.