I am out of town this week, working.

As usual, I bring my pile of equine magazines to try to catch up on my reading while I’m alone in my hotel room at night.  Most of the time, I read about a page and a half and I’m asleep.

But, being a creature of habit, once again, I brought my pile of magazines.

Tonight I started flipping through the September ’13 edition of HORSE AND RIDER.  I stopped at this graphic illustration.

I just loved this!

These story illustrations that come monthly in HORSE AND RIDER are my favorites.  The artist (who I searched tonight), June Brigman, tickles me.  She gets it.  She knows about owning horses and about horse personalities – and her humor shines through all of her works.

Take this illustration for example.  The horse’s expression and uneven whiskers just slay me.  Not only does she make me smile with the horse’s intent interest in becoming successful, she has the grooming thing spot on!  I love the insider bit about the owner who clips her horse every so often – .

So, I decided to try to learn about her and share this with you.

CARTOON ILLUSTRATOR

The more I looked the more I realized that she is a very famous illustrator in the graphic cartoon world – which I know very little.

If you google her, she has penned several famous cartoons including Brenda Starr and the Power Pack.  I watched an interview of her from a Comic Convention and she said she has worked for Marvel for 30 years.

Cool.

But her real love is horses.

Since she was a very little girl, she always wanted to draw horses.

At age 5, June drew horses that were so realistic, her father put them up in his office.

Confidence builder.

Brigman honed her skill at age 16 by taking a job at Six Flags Over Georgia, painting those pastel cartoon portraits of park visitors.  (I have one from Disneyland… you know what I mean…)

She created over 600 drawings that summer – invaluable experience – and where her humor through caricature bloomed.

AN INTERVIEW IN THE CHRONICLE OF THE HORSE

I found this interview in the Chronicle of the Horse.

Click here for the original article by Donna Ross.

Brigman continued to draw horses but was never able to afford one, until her career took off.

(excerpt from article)

“I was born horse crazy, it’s part of that phenomena,” she said. “I bought my first horse, an Appaloosa-draft cross, [in 1987] from the royalties I earned on The X-Men.”

She trail rode that horse until he retired six years later. “I’ve been supporting him in the style to which he’s been accustomed for 11 years now,” Brigman said wryly.

When she first started hunting in 1994, Brigman leased a horse. Over the next three years, that mount taught her the basics. She now has worked out a deal where she exercises the guest horses of Rombout MFH Suzie Can-navino in exchange for being able to hunt them. “It’s a nice arrangement. As a freelance artist, my financial situation changes somewhat dramatically, so I haven’t been able to buy another horse,” said Brigman.

But the upside of her profession is the flexible schedule. “It’s great that I get to set my own hours. As long as I meet my deadline, it doesn’t matter when I work. It allows me the freedom to ride during the week, when everyone else might be behind their desk, and hunt on Wednesdays,” she said.

And it’s worth it. “It’s always an adventure when I go hunting,” said Brigman. “Whether we have great sport or a blank day, it’s an opportunity to get on a horse, go riding with friends, and see things you’d never get a chance to see otherwise.”

I’ve always loved children as a subject and hope to be able to draw children with their ponies,” Brigman said.

And she’s started going back to her cartoonist roots in her equine art as well. “I started doing funny cartoons of my friends and their horses, as my friends and their horses are constantly inspiring me,” she said.

But she’d never really poked fun at herself until she met Bella, a big, beautiful, willful bay mare who descends from the influential Thoroughbred stallion Princequillo.

“Bella humiliated me in the hunting field–it was an Auntie Mame moment when this 20-year-old mare just ran away with me. I’m sure she got a big laugh out of it, and I thought it deserved a cartoon,” Brigman said. That cartoon has immortalized the infamous mare.

I WROTE A BIT ABOUT HER PREVIOUSLY

I guess I’ve always been captivated by those who can draw because I cannot.

Previously, I did write about equine illustrators and included June.  You can read that post here.

BLACK BEAUTY!  A GRAPHIC NOVEL

I had no idea this book even existed.  It is the novel, Black Beauty, presented and illustrated like a comic book.

I went to Amazon to look inside and this is what I saw… pages and pages (the entire novel) illustrated like this!

HORSE AND RIDER MAGAZINE – Now that you know her, look for her work!

So, for all of you who read HORSE AND RIDER, now you can look for her work every month!  I sure hope you enjoyed dancing through the eyes of a humor artist who loves horses.

Thanks for skipping with me…

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!