Dick Briel, who was born in Leiden, studied at the Rietveld Art Academy. He is best known for his series about 'Professor Palmboom', which first appeared in Eppo in 1979. Two albums were published by Oberon in the 1980s. With its Clear Line style and 1950s atmosphere, the series also found its way to the French-speaking audience.
In addition to the adventures of Julius Palmboom, Briel also made humorous stories with 'Hulbert' for Mickey Maandblad, and did contributions to Titanic, before slowly disappearing from the comic scene in the mid-1980s.
In the mid-1990s Dick Briel reappeared in Veronicablad with the humorous horror comic 'Max en Mummie', drawn at first by Steven Dupré (1995) and then by Wout Paulussen (1995-96). Briel and Ruud den Drijver were co-writers.
In 1997, Briel finished a new 'Julius Palmboom' story, also published in the Veronicagids and in album format by Arboris in 1999. Dick Briel passed away after a short illness in his hometown Rijswijk in September 2011. He was working on a fourth story of his science fiction series.
