Brian Bolland
Encyclopedia
Brian Bolland is a British
comics
artist
, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd
artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD
, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in 1982 produced the artwork on Camelot 3000
(with author Mike W. Barr
), which was DC's first 12-issue comicbook maxiseries created for the direct market
.
His rare forays into interior art also include Batman: The Killing Joke
, with UK-based writer Alan Moore
, regularly hailed as one of the finest realised Batman stories, and a self-penned Batman: Black and White story. Bolland remains in high demand a cover artist, producing the vast majority of his work for DC Comics
.
, Lincolnshire
to parents Albert "A.J." John, a fenland farmer, and Lillie Bolland. He spent his "first 18 years" living "in a small village near Boston in the fens of Lincolnshire
, England," but has "no memory of comics" much before the age of ten. When American comics began to be imported into England, c.1959, Bolland says that it "took a little while for me to discover them," but by 1960 he was intrigued by Dell Comics
' Dinosaurus!, which fed into a childhood interest in dinosaur
s of all shapes and sizes. Comics including Turok
, Son of Stone and DC
's Tomahawk
soon followed, and it was this burgeoning comics collection that would help inspire the young Bolland to draw his own comics around the age of ten with ideas such as "Insect League." He recalls that "[s]uperheroes crept into my life by stealth," as he actively sought out covers featuring "any big creature that looked vaguely dinosaur-like, trampling puny humans." This adolescent criteria led from Dinosaurus! and Turok via House of Mystery
to "Batman
and Robin
[who] were [often] being harassed by big weird things, as were Superman
, Aquaman
, Wonder Woman
[etc]." Soon, family outings to Skegness
became an excuse for the future artist to "trawl... round some of the more remote backstreet newsagents" for comics to store on an overflowing "bookcase I'd made in school woodwork especially."
As early as 1962, aged 11, Bolland remembers thinking that "Carmine Infantino
's work on the Flash
and Gil Kane
's on Green Lantern
and the Atom had a sophistication about it that I hadn't [previously] seen." He would later cite Kane and Alex Toth
as "pinnacle[s] of excellence," alongside "Curt Swan
, Murphy Anderson
, Syd Greene, Joe Kubert
, Ross Andru
, Mike Esposito
, Nick Cardy
and the under-rated Bruno Premiani
," whose influences showed in his "early crude stabs at drawing comics." The young Bolland did not rate Marvel Comics
as highly as DC, feeling the covers cluttered and the paper quality crude. His appreciation of the artwork of Jack Kirby
, he says, only materialised much later "through the eyes of a seasoned professional." He did however enjoy UK comics, including newspaper strips such as "Syd Jordan's Jeff Hawke
[and] David Wright
's Carol Day, " and Valiant
which featured "Eric Bradbury
's Mytek the Mighty and Jesus Blasco
's Steel Claw
" Despite such a variety of inspirations, Bolland credits his eventual pursuance of art as a hobby and then vocation to a primary school art teacher, who "evidently said all the right things to me."
Growing up as "and only child in a house without culture," (Bolland says that his "mother and father had no use for art, literature or music"), he embraced the late 1960s pop culture explosion of "pirate radio
stations, music (particularly Frank Zappa
...), drug taking, psychedelia
, "peace
and love
," "dropping out
," the underground scene, Oz Magazine
," and other aspects of hippy culture epitomised by underground comix
such as Robert Crumb
's Zap Comix
. Having taken both O-Level and A-Level examinations in art, Bolland spent five years at art school (starting in 1969) learning graphic design
and Art history
. Learning to draw comics, however, was "more a self-taught thing," with Bolland eventually writing a 15,000 word dissertation in 1973 on Neal Adams
- an "artist [his teachers] had never heard of." He would later recall
s and his work was published in British underground magazines Friendz
, International Times
and OZ
. In 1971, his friend Dave Harwood "took his first step into printed mass production with his RDH Comix," for which Bolland provided a cover (featuring Norwich Cathedral
)." Also in 1971, Time Out - an underground magazine rapidly reinventing itself into "the biggest weekly listings magazine in London" - gave Bolland his "first paid job" producing "a proper illustration of Jazz
bassist
Buddy Guy
." While in Norwich
, Bolland produced the first episodes of an adult Little Nemo in Slumberland parody
entitled Little Nympho in Slumberland, and when he moved to London's Central School of Art and Design in 1973, he continued to produce (mostly full-page) Little Nympho strips for a 50-copy fanzine entitled Suddenly at 2-o-clock in the Morning. He also contributed a smaller, strip entitled "The Mixed-Up Kid" to the Central School of Art's "college newspaper... the Galloping Maggot."
, Nick Landau
, Richard Burton
, Angus McKie
and - crucially - Dave Gibbons
. Bolland and Gibbons became firm friends. After finishing his college course, Bolland was hit with "the stark reality of unemployment" and on the advice of Gibbons joined art agency Bardon Press Features. "A few two-page strips" for D.C. Thomson resulted, but Bolland would refer to this period as his "lowest time." Bardon did however produce a client called Pikin which was "planning a bi-weekly comic about an African superhero," Powerman
, which was to be sold in Nigeria
. Gibbons and Bolland were to draw alternate issues (Bolland's first issue was Powerman #2.), and Bolland recalls that "soon Dave had drawn his entire story and I had produced just a few pages." This knowledge - "that Dave could produce a page a day... and that I was going to have to do the same" - was a shock, but proved to be "the very best kind of training ground." With comics purportedly being new to Nigeria, Bolland recalls this work being created specifically to be "really simple; six panels on a page and [all] the panels had to be numbered." Not only was this work "[t]he best way to learn the simple rules of comic book storytelling," but "better still, it was going someplace where nobody I knew could see it." He "drew around 300 pages of that very straightforward, simple-to-follow work, and I guess the storytelling flowed naturally from that." Even so, he "was always struggling to get the last eight or ten pages finished," and was occasionally helped by friends, both from his "Norwich School of Art days," Gibbons and future-2000 AD and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O'Neill
.
Bolland writes that starting with Powerman he "found regular employment drawing comics, one of which, Judge Dredd
, in 1977-80, turned out to be quite a hit..."
In early 1977
, Bardon agent Barry Coker called Gibbons and Bolland to the office and showed them "mock-ups from a new science fiction comic I.P.C. was planning to publish." With Star Wars
doing well at the box office
, the time was ripe for a new SF comic, and Gibbons joined Carlos Ezquerra
in "jumping into 2000AD feet first with issue 1 (or Programme, later Prog 1)... but meanwhile [Bolland] would have to keep drawing Powerman on [his] own." Powerman dropped to a monthly schedule, and Coker soon got Bolland "a cover on 2000AD in May '77 with Prog 11" (7 May 1977; signed "Bollo"). Bolland recalls of those early days that
Other covers following (nearly a third of the first 30), as well as stand-alone pages and some inking duties on Gibbons' Dan Dare
. Already familiar with Nick Landau (acting editor), when another artist dropped out, Bolland was called directly to complete a Judge Dredd
story in Prog 41 (03 Dec 77) and soon was established as a regular artist on the series. "From that point on," writes Bolland, "either he [Landau] or his successor Steve MacManus
called me direct whenever they wanted me to do a Dredd story." Dredd stories started as traditional UK comic stories, i.e. "six page one-offs... [Writers] Pat Mills
and John Wagner
seem[ing] to spurn the American comic idea of continuing stories or, worse, the idea of a 2000AD continuity between characters," Bolland seeing this as a "strength... hav[ing] one great new idea each week." Soon, though, the writers began to craft serials, and Bolland's distinct abilities with subtle facial expressions, dramatic lighting and the dynamic composition of page layout made him the perfect choice to draw the on-going sagas, starting with "The Lunar Olympics." Bolland contributed artwork to such popular and seminal Judge Dredd story-arcs as "Luna Period," "The Cursed Earth," "The Day the Law Died," "The Judge Child Quest
" and "Block Mania
." As the Dredd stories rose in popularity, they "were moved so they started on the middle pages" with a colour double-page spread, which Bolland "always struggled with" finding it "very difficult... [trying] to fill that space most effectively." Ultimately the weekly deadlines meant that Bolland was unable to produce all episodes of the epic storylines himself, and the art chores on The Cursed Earth were split between Bolland and Mike McMahon
.
Bolland's early work on Judge Dredd was much influenced by McMahon, a talented newcomer whose idiosyncratic style was fueling the interest in the new character. Bolland thought McMahon was "terrific, the real ideas man on Dredd," but noted that McMahon's approach was "very impressionistic," while the "average comics reader, certainly at the time, does tend to prefer realism." Bolland therefore states that he "aped Mike's genius... and then reinterpreted [Dredd] in a style which actually borrowed a lot from the work of the American artists," retaining McMahon's "granite-jawed" look but bringing a level of realism and fine detail to the character, which Mark Salisbury says "finally cemented the iconic image."
As well as honing the look of the character and contributing to the highest-profile early storylines, Bolland also created the look of two of the wider Dredd universe's most enduring characters: Judge Death
(and the other three Dark Judges
) and Judge Anderson
.
Later, Landau's Titan "decided they could repackage the Judge Dredd stories in an American comic format with new covers and sell it to America," and did under the evocative British brand "Eagle Comics
". Bolland provided many of the covers for these compendium issues.
Bolland "drew the first three episodes of the Judge Death story over the winter of 1979-80," as "just another villain in just another excellent John Wagner
script." He doesn't "remember doing any sketches to get him right," the "outfit was described somewhat in the script... and details of it were heavily inspired by the look of Kevin O'Neill
's Nemesis the Warlock
. Bolland was, he acknowledges, "by far the slowest of the rotating Judge Death artists," opting to "take as long as I needed and do a half-way decent job" rather than rushing. For the sequel, a "massive (for me) 30 pages," 2000AD' s editorial banked one-off stories to give Bolland long enough to draw it all.
When Nick Landau began (in 1981) Titan Books
' reprints of Judge Dredd material, he "used this story non-chronologically" to begin the series. Landau spent time paginating the book at Bolland's flat, and discovered that "[s]ome stories started or ended on the wrong page thereby leaving blank pages," as it was set to be "in effect, the first book exclusively of my work" the artist "gladly offered to add three full page pictures for the Cursed Earth volume and a new back cover for the first Judge Dredd volume.
Walter the Wobot was an android with a speech impediment who served as Judge Dredd's personal servant robot. Created for light relief, Bolland notes that "[t]he great thing about the Judge Dredd strip was it's [sic] ability to slide seamlessly between gritty sci fi adventure, nasty gothic horror, spoof
ery, all the way to daft comedy." Walter's solo adventures - "Walter the Wobot, Fwiend of Dwedd" - were the latter style. Bolland drew all bar a couple of Walter's adventures, which appeared between Progs #50-61; #67-68 and #84-85 (with Ian Gibson
drawing the first two episodes and Brendan McCarthy
the last two), and says that he "was usually able to complete one in a day." He namechecks "the great Don Martin" as an artist he "shamelessly ripped off" for the human supporting characters, drawing most of the pages in Chiswick
, 1978.
's House of Hammer, having been introduced to the comic through another of the "fanboy in-crowd," Trevor Goring, who drew "a comic strip version of the movie Plague of the Zombies," and asked Bolland to ink it. Soon, Bolland was asked to draw "Vampire Circus
" (dir. Robert Young
, 1972; comic version scripted by Steve Parkhouse
), and "pile[d] on the gore" for his first Hammer
horror adaptation - although he found much of the "blood painted out" in the printed version.
From the 1970s to the present, Bolland has also produced one-off pieces of artwork for use as record (including one for The Drifters
in 1975), paperback book (including the UK Titan
editions of George R. R. Martin
's Wild Cards
anthologies) and magazine covers (including Time Out and a every major comics publication). He continued to produce work for fanzines, including for Nick Landau's Comic Media News, and Arkensword and even "drew the hazard cards" for a board game
called Maneater. He later "got to know the Games Workshop
guys, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone
," and produced various "games related drawings" including a cover or two for Fighting Fantasy
Adventure Game Books, and RPG scenario pamphlets.
In 1977, Bolland was approached by Syd Jordan to ghost some episodes of Jordan's newspaper strip
Jeff Hawke
. (Fellow fandom-pro artist Paul Neary
had "already done quite a few.") Bolland drew 13 episodes, and "Syd touched up some of the faces, a few details here and there, to make them look a bit more like him." By this point, "although the Express owned the rights to the strip, they were not printing it," but since it had a strong European following, these new episodes (Bolland believes) "got collected in anthologies in French and Spanish," but not in the UK except briefly in "the fanzine Eureka." In 1985, as a known fan, Bolland was approached by Nick Landau to select stories and draw covers for two Titan
collections of the strip, with a third design going unpublished. Bolland also contributed "A Miracle of Elisha
" to Knockabout Comics
' Old Bailey
OZ Trial
Special, written because Old Testament
history had piqued the interest of Bolland when living near the British Museum
. This page was later reprinted in the star-studded (Moore
, Hunt Emerson
, Gaiman
, Gibbons
, Dave McKean
, etc.) Outrageous Tales From the Old Testament volume, although Bolland's name was left off the cover.
Bolland produced a considerable amount of advertising work, initially because his agent "Barry Coker kept putting advertising jobs my way," including a number of ads for "Palitoy
's Star Wars
toys." He also drew some of the earliest pieces of advertising artwork for the science fiction and comic shop Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed
, which ran in various Fanzines, Convention programmes and magazines such as Time Out and was commissioned by future-Titan Distribution & Forbidden Planet co-founder Mike Lake (who was "working there at the time") c. 1976. As well as the DTWAGE adverts, Bolland also contributed (alongside most of his peers) artwork to advertise, and/or feature in programme booklets for the UK Comicon, starting c.1976. In 1978, Nick Landau, Mike Lake and Mike Luckman "took their comic distribution business into the highstreet," opening the first Forbidden Planet
comics shop, for which Lake asked Bolland to produce the now-famous "People like us shop at... FORBIDDEN PLANET" adverts. Bolland's artwork would also feature on the shops plastic bags, as well as T-Shirts and "covers for their SF, comic and TV & film catalogues," among other places. Later, when a branch of FP was opened in New York
, and at a second location in London, Bolland "did ads for both of them."
attended the Summer 1979 Comicon, and, needing somewhere to work (on Green Lantern) while in the UK, arranged to stay with the Bollands. Staton called his editor Jack Harris and told him that Bolland, a big Green Lantern fan, would "like to draw a Green Lantern cover," Harris agreed. Bolland's US career thus "started with a Green Lantern
cover [Green Lantern #127 (Apr, 1980)]," after which he produced "a trickle of covers [including more Green Lantern covers over Ross Andru
layouts] and stories" before gaining "regular employment." These stories included, in 1980-1, "Certified Safe" in Mystery in Space
and "Falling Down to Heaven" in Madame Xanadu
, DC's first attempt at marketing comics specifically to the "direct market
" of fans and collectors. For editor Julius Schwartz
, Bolland drew covers around which writers would craft stories, which included "a couple of Starro
covers and the Superman Beastman cover Superman #422 (Aug, 1986)]."
Among his earliest interior work for DC was a chapter in Justice League of America #200 (Mar, 1982) alongside industry legends - and artistic heroes - Joe Kubert
, Carmine Infantino
and Gil Kane
as well as Jim Aparo
, George Pérez
and Dick Giordano
. This gave the artist his "first stab at drawing Batman." Bolland feels that "after my cover [GL #127] worked out the people at DC turned their gaze on London... and particularly on the group of artists at 2000AD who had been weaned on the DC characters." He recalls that, "after I was settled in at DC, scouts from that company came to our "Society of Strip Illustration" meetings to win over a few more of us," making a "formal invitation" at an SSI meeting, which saw "Dave Gibbons
, Kevin O'Neill
... [t]hen Alan Davis
and Mark Farmer
," following the artists "Alan Grant "went across" and, at some point, a certain tall hairy writer from the Midlands
."
In 1982, DC editor Len Wein
chose Bolland to be the artist on DC
's Camelot 3000
12-issue limited series
, with writer Mike W. Barr
. The story, a "re-working of the old Arthurian legend" dealing with the return of King Arthur
to save England from an alien invasion
in the Year 3000, not only "represents the single biggest body of work" by Bolland - and his only attempt to draw a monthly title - but was also the "first example of a DC (or otherwise) maxi-series." Bolland wasn't initially familiar with the Arthurian legends, and initially conceived Merlin as "a comical character." His "first encounter with media hype," proved popular as he found himself "whisked off to San Diego and places and made a fuss of." Bolland was allowed to "pick between two inkers," but opted to ink his covers himself. (Indeed, it was initially unpopular with him to allow a third party to ink his pencils, since he'd previously "never had my work inked unless I was in dire straits," but "by the end I was quite pleased with the results.") Reacting indignantly to being presented with Andru layouts for the first two Camelot 3000 covers, he
Camelot 3000 also became notorious for the lengthy delays between its final issues. Bolland recalls that he and DC "talked quite a bit about how long it would take me to do the series," and because the series was inked by a third party (initially by Bruce Patterson, then by Terry Austin
), he started off "churning the pages out with great enthusiasm." As the series continued, however, Bolland became increasingly meticulous, "trying to make the pages look better and better" not least because he "wanted the final parts of the story to [look] amazing." The added details he introduced into his famously-detailed artwork caused significant delays in the final issues of the limited series, causing issues #8-11 to be released on a quarterly rather than monthly status, and the final issue to be cover dated nine months later than the penultimate issue.
In 1986, Bolland was one of several artists who contributed pages to the anniversary issue Batman
#400 (Oct, 1986), his offering featuring villains Ra's Al Ghul
and Catwoman
. Around this time, Titan Books were "trying to launch a line of comics all written by Alan Moore," and "talks were underway to do a Batman Meets Judge Dredd one-off by Alan and me." With these ideas kicking around in his head, and when "it became clear that [Camelot 3000] had sold reasonably well," DC editor Dick Giordano
then asked Bolland what project he wanted to work on next. Bolland says:
The result was the popular, influential and controversial Batman: The Killing Joke
, first published in 1988.
Giordano's invitation led directly to Bolland working with writer Alan Moore
to create a plausible background story for the premier Batman villain, the Joker. Bolland's Joker fascination stemmed in part from his having "recently seen the excellent silent movie
The Man Who Laughs
," and he therefore wanted to do a "Joker story with the Batman as a more distant, peripheral character." Although the story takes pains to stress that it is merely one possible 'origin story
,' it has been widely accepted and adopted into DC continuity, and a central mutilation of a long-running character
had to be specially approved by editor Wein. Bolland notes that he saw "Judge Death [as] almost a dry run for drawing the Joker," but that this artistic similarity did not proclude difficulties setting in during the genesis of TKJ as
The 64-page prestige format
one-shot comic took a considerable amount of time to produce. Both Moore and Bolland are well-known for their meticulous and time-consuming work - both creators' then-recently-finished 12-issue maxiseries titles had seen delays - and Bolland made it clear that he "wanted to do the best possible job," even though it wasn't perhaps "quite what I'd hoped to draw." He was aided by the laid back attitude taken by DC, who he says "seemed prepared to let me do it at my own pace." However, a change of editorship also affected the pace. The original editor, Len Wein
left the company, and was replaced by Dennis O'Neil
, a "very hands-off sort of guy," with whom Bolland only recalls having "one conversation" about the book. This atmosphere allowed Bolland not only the time to produce his best work, but also "to do lots of other pieces of work in and around it." "Only when it was nearing completion in 1988, and the hype machine swung into action," did Bolland worry about deadlines.
Bolland felt that there might have been the opinion that his book was "surplus to requirement" in the wake of Frank Miller
's groundbreaking Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
, and considers his title "almost just a piece of pure vanity publishing." He was, however, quite hurt when Moore confessed that "to him, it was just another Bat comic" - for Bolland "it was this grand thing I had been building up to... [wanting] it to be really special." Stung by Moore's criticism, Bolland was mortified by the colouring, and bemused not to have seen proofs pre-publication. Having envisaged the flashback
sequences in "black and white so you knew they were taking place at an earlier time," and instructing Watchmen-colorist John Higgins
to use "muted November colors," he found instead "garish... hideous glowing purples and pinks... and my precious Eraserhead
-esque flashback sequences swamped in orange."
The 2008-published 20th anniversary edition of the book featured new colouring by Bolland, restoring his artistic intentions to the palate.
Speaking c. 2000, Bolland notes that his pursuit of "self-written" strips meant that "since The Killing Joke I haven't drawn a single page that wasn't penned by me." Six years later he clarified that
In 1996, in accordance with his hopes to only draw interior work written by him also, Bolland wrote and drew the story "An Innocent Guy" for the anthology Batman: Black and White, in which an otherwise normal inhabitant of Gotham City
documents his plan to carry out the ultimate perfect crime
and assassinate the Dark Knight Detective. Invited by Mark Chiarello
to join "an impressive list of artists" for what Bolland terms "a nifty new project," Bolland jumped at the chance. Not only was he joining a fantastic complement of artists, but "better still - I could write my own story. No writer. No colorist. Just me." Drawing inspiration from "a masterpiece of a cover by my idol, Alex Toth
," Bolland set out to "explore ideas... that in real life people don't come labelled "GOODIES" and "BADDIES" and that all of us walk a tightrope and could easily fall on either side."
Intended as an " "homage" to the Batman I loved as a kid," Bolland wrote in 2006 that
Approached by Bat-editor Mark Chiarello (again), Bolland was asked whether he would like to draw Batman covers for a new title, Gotham Knights. Jumping at the chance, he remarks that "there was a misunderstanding" resulting in his being unaware of the first issue being scheduled, resulting in "the superb Dave Johnson" drawing #1 instead, and Bolland joining at issue #2. Bolland's first two covers were colored by editor Chiarello, but from issue #5 to #47 (his last) they were colored by the artist himself. As his run progressed, "the job of getting a cover on Gotham Knights passed from Mark to a number of other people," and Bolland "found more and more of [his] first ideas for covers being turned down." Eventually, Bolland was "told [that he'd] be off the book in a few issues time," but after discovering that upcoming covers featured Bane
prominently (and not the Joker or Penguin as he'd been hoping for for some time), Bolland "said I'd go right away."
Bolland has contributed covers — in many cases to complete runs/arcs — to some of the more famous landmark comics of recent years, with his photo-realistic work leaving an indelible impression on the titles for which he works, as the primary external reference image. His iconic covers are in high demand, although his work predominantly appears on titles published by DC Comics
.
Bolland now draws on a computer, eschewing pencil and paper. He cites the influence of Dave Gibbons
, who "had got into computers himself, and... was really enthusing about them." Noting also that some colorists were increasingly using computer effects "seemingly arbitrarily," he decided "that if I didn't take control of the colouring process myself... [those effects] would eventually transform the covers into something not my own." Starting in 1997, Bolland "bought all the gear" and spent ten frustrated months learning the ropes and ultimately finding the liberating "infinite ability to change" his now-solely-onscreen artwork. He states categorically that, in his opinion, "[t]here is absolutely no difference between drawing on my Wacom tablet and drawing on a pad of paper." Having fully embraced the technology, Bolland has also produced a number of lessons/tutorials on his Official Website demonstrating his complex techniques. He states that, while this leap means that he no longer produces any paper-based artwork (a profitable sideline for many artists who sell on their original work to collectors), "the pen and paper are gone for good."
Bolland recalls that, in the wake of The Killing Joke, he "was offered a lot of work," but didn't feel ready to make a long commitment. So, instead
featuring Bolland's artwork covered the tenures of writers Grant Morrison
, Peter Milligan
, Tom Veitch
and Jamie Delano
, with Bolland's images maintaining a continuity of style and imagery while the interior work underwent several changes of style and storyline. Initially, he recalls that his cover images derived directly from the script. He would "go through and find a scene that looked as if it would make a good cover," or "find a particular hook that cleverly summed up what's going on inside the book." This included the incorporation of photographs into the later covers of Morrison's tale of metafiction
and deus ex machina
author-input. With the (post-Morrison) move of Animal Man to DC's new 'Mature Readers' imprint Vertigo, Bolland notes that the covers moved to "full color painted covers" with issue #57. These of his covers were "a mixture of ink linework, color washes, airbrush
and then, eventually, areas painted in poster color by my wife, Rachel," which ultimately saw her have significant input on some covers, with Bolland acknowledging that "some of the last Animal Man covers were more her than me."
Describing the art of good covers, Bolland remarks that
Happy coincidence also plays its part, as when a time travel
story arc saw Bolland's work coincide with the plot in such a way that he was able to produce a recreated cover from an alternate angle to shed new light on an initially inconsequential image.
's The Invisibles
and his depictions of the main characters are widely reprinted as the definitive images, despite them all having been realised by other artists - and often drawn by several before Bolland entered the picture. With this title, the artist remarks "the subject matter is more complicated," necessitating his "working a lot of strange symbol
ism and subliminal
messages into the cover designs" to create "an image that puzzles to a degree and is layered with elements of surrealism
." Asked to take over from Sean Hughes
and "do the covers on volume two" by editor Shelly Roeberg, Bolland found her to be "the dream editor," effusive with praise and "very specific about what she required." Generally, Bolland recalls "she was enthusiastic about my ideas," although Morrison had "creator's approval" on all designs. Finding that he had a rapport with, and the trust of, his editor, Bolland thinks that these factors "resulted in some of [his] most experimental work." Newly embracing the use of a computer, Bolland cites The Invisibles Vol 2 #11 as his earliest computer-assisted piece of artwork, using it to "insert... a computer generated background behind a severed hand."
For the third series,
The covers for the third volume of The Invisibles were "done on the computer," in part because "Vertigo were paying for "painted" covers and [Bolland] felt [he] had to deliver something more than line and flat color." The experimental nature of the twelve covers was assisted by the fact that, says Bolland "neither I nor Shelly had seen that issue's script." For the trade paperback covers, Bolland "was determined to make each one weider than the last," and so created a Francis Bacon
inspired "fleshy mass [dubbed "The Blobby Man"] with a typewriter" for Entropy in the UK. Having convinced Karen Berger
(Editor in chief of Vertigo) and Shelly Roeberg that it was a good idea, the artist recalls that "Shelly rang up and, rather than telling me how wonderful I was, said that when she saw it she nearly lost her lunch! I was asked to turn his skin color from flesh to blue to tone him down a bit." For the final Invisible Kingdom TPB cover, Bolland produced "a cover containing 12 small alternative Invisibles covers," which "took a long time to do." Likening the process to creating "a mini comic strip," Bolland says that "if any detail made any sense it had to be changed to something that didn't."
Bolland's style includes the initial 'rough' outline stage, making it easy for the publisher (and, in some cases, the writer) to "sign off" on his designs. In the case of The Invisibles, however, although Morrison officially had "final approval on the cover designs," Bolland describes him as "very generous about my work," saying that "it's not his job to actually come up with the idea." In selected cases, however, Bolland would ask for ideas, and in one specific case "Shelly [Roeberg], the editor... did once relay that Grant wanted an arm coming out of the water holding a gun on the cover of the last issue." Bolland admits "I don't know exactly why. I just supplied it."
, beginning with William Messner Loebs's first issue (#63, June 1992) after that author took over writer (and artist) George Pérez
's 1987
post-Crisis relaunch
. Bolland recalls his time drawing Wonder Woman fondly, as one of the few occasions he actually sought work rather than being sought for work. He recalls
Bolland's first cover saw Diana next to the headline: "The Stunning return of comics' greatest heroine!" speaking directly to the reader the words "...Miss me?" Bolland's covers over the next 30-plus issues laid the visual groundwork for the character subsequently reworked by writer-artist John Byrne, and saw Bolland illustrate up to and including the centennial issue #100. To prepare for his work, Bolland "clipped pictures of the most beautiful women of the time - Christie Turlington, Stephanie Seymour
, etc." saying that he was predominantly interested in their faces ("The body I generally made up"). Interested particularly in drawing the costume, which he feels "has to be one of the sexiest in comics," he soon found the character removed from her normal costume in the storyline, "defeating, for me, the whole point." For her return to her famous costume, Bolland produced one of his best known images: the Britannia-esque pose from Wonder Woman #72 (Mar, 1993). With typical modesty, he says that "[i]mages like that... usually arise when you're completely stuck for an idea." The image was so iconic that it was released as a poster and later turned into a statue. Shortly thereafter, Diana underwent another costume change - this time designed by Bolland, and mostly drawn on the interior pages by Mike Deodato
. The black costume was roundly disliked, even by its designer, Bolland, who philosophically says only that "it was what was asked for at the time," and - aside from Camelot 3000 - is "the only occasion" he was asked to design a costume. The new costume - black hotpants, halter top, straight hair (which Bolland did like) and "WW"-emblazoned jacket - was based, Bolland thinks, "on a Versace
outfit I saw Cindy Crawford
wearing in an issue of Vogue
."
In addition to his landmark runs on Animal Man and The Invisibles, Bolland has also produced lengthy runs on covers for Geoff Johns
' The Flash
(from roughs by series editor Joey Cavalieri
) and the Batman anthology series Batman: Gotham Knights
, as well as assorted issues of Tank Girl
(for original UK publication Deadline and the two subsequent Vertigo miniseries Tank Girl: The Odyssey and Tank Girl: Apocalypse), Superman
, Green Lantern
, Batman
and many more, including a number of oneshots and miniseries for DC's offshoot Vertigo
. Bolland is currently the cover artist on Vertigo's Fables
spin-off Jack of Fables
, replacing previous cover artist James Jean
. Bolland's covers also grace the DC/Vertigo trade paperback collections of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol
, although he only produced "a couple" of covers for the individual issues. He recalls that he "turned in quite a few roughs, but, disappointingly for me, they were often rejected," previous cover artist Simon "The Biz" Bisley
being "a hard act to follow."
Long-standing familiarity with DC characters and staff, coupled with high demand have combined with other factors to mean that the vast majority of Bolland's work has been for DC Comics. In The Art of Brian Bolland, he also mentions in passing that a bad experience with a Marvel UK
Hulk cover and a later oddity with a She Hulk cover featuring Howard the Duck
have given him a mild "phobia about Marvel... [and] the laws of the production line" that overrule "whatever it is I have to give." He has however, produced odd covers for Marvel, First Comics
, Continuity Comics
, Eclipse Comics
, New Comics and a dozen other companies, large and small, as well as book, magazine and record covers. For Dark Horse Comics
, Bolland has produced several diverse covers, including a couple for Michael Chabon
's The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist at the behest of editor Diana Schutz
. He recalls that "the cover for number ten was done in the style of Hergé
's Tintin
... but the book was cancelled after number eight."
Bolland is noted by some for his use of bondage
imagery, although in a humorous self-referential comment, he quotes this "fact" (cited as from Wikipedia
), and states that he is "unsure" of the sentiment's accuracy. He notes that "I can only think off-hand of a few occasions when I've drawn bondage. A few Wonder Woman covers perhaps, a Flash cover, a 2000 AD cover, a Mr. Mamoulian page... but that's all that I can remember out of many hundreds of images." In 2006's The Art of Brian Bolland, he does suggest that "I trace my mild bondage fetish back to a book of Bible
stories that must have been given to my father as a Sunday school gift when he was a child," wherein "was a picture of Shadrach
, Meshach and Abednigo [sic]." Such Biblical imagery was bolstered in 1971 by a book bought in Paris
"called Les Filles de Papier... [a] large part of [which] was taken up with comic strips about women tied up in fiendish and excruciating positions by mad robots... it was just jaw-droppingly bonkers... and yet... there was something rather appealing about it." The Art of Brian Bolland also features a separate "Nudes" section, mostly created for the purpose of "trying out a different inking technique or trying to work out the figure from a difficult angle." (Only three of the nude sketches involve scenes of bondage.)
, 2005). Bolland Strips! stemmed from a suggestion by Josh Palmano (owner of Gosh Comics in London, and also involved in publishing company Knockabout Comics
) to collect all instances of Bolland's two strips and Steve Moore
's "Zirk" story. Bolland had other thoughts, and suggested including an undrawn 20-page story called "The Actress & the Bishop and the Thing in the Shed" (written 18 years previously), and two stories written and illustrated by him for Vertigo Comics. After negotiations with DC, the two stories - "Princess & the Frog" (from Heartthrobs) and "The Kapas" (from Strange Adventures) were included alongside six limited edition Éditions Déesse prints.
-esque semi-autobiographical stream of consciousness humour strip Mr. Mamoulian, which was first printed in Paul Gravett
's UK pro-zine Escape and later brought to the US in issues of the Dark Horse
title Cheval Noir and the Caliber Comics
anthology Negative Burn
. Bolland recalled that the origins of the character lay in him "contemplating middle age
" on his 36th birthday, and experimenting with drawing "whatever came into my head." The name echoes the character's mammalian look ("lie a hedgehog
"), although Bolland acknowledges that Armenian-American film director
Rouben Mamoulian
may also have provided an inspiration on the name front. Noting his enjoyment of Berke Breathed's Bloom County
, Bolland's own strip didn't "have a funny line to end each page, because I wasn't always in a funny mood." Thus the strip became an "exposé of the inner me" drawn because "I felt like it... [n]ot to deadline," as a forum to explore and express "various interests of mine, various philosophical notions, personal neuroses." Designed to be read individually - indeed, early publication in Escape was in "no particular order" - gradually it became clear that a mildly self-referential "chronological narrative was taking shape," "a plot that would come to a shock conclusion on page 96 - and then continue, possibly, to volume two."
Bolland writes in 2006 that "[a]fter a while, Nick Landau
of Titan Books
showed an interest and offered to act as my agent." Through Landau, Bolland saw his strip published across Europe
in publications including Linus, Cimoc and (in Sweden
) Pox. Such widespread exposure had its downside, when the original artwork went missing, meaning that "[s]ubsequent prints of Mamoulian have [had to be] made from [Bolland's] photocopies." Disenchanted by the loss of (more of) his artwork, and with "European interest... waning," Bolland "lost interest in doing more." Subsequent to the collection Bolland Strips!, however, interest from Negative Burn (now published by Desperado Publishing
) "has coaxed new pages out of" the artist.
based comic-store-cum-publishers, and Bolland drew in one of the six plates an elderly Bishop (whose face echoed "shamelessly" the work of Alberto Breccia
) and a femme fatale Actress. Bolland was subsequently approached by Garry Leach
and Dave Elliot, who "were launching a new comic anthology called A1." They asked Bolland to draw - and write - "a few pages for the first issue," and Bolland recalls that it "was the first time I'd been commissioned to write and draw anything." Actively seeking to write a story that wouldn't "fit into any identifiable genre," Bolland found the description 'Whimsy' reached by Leach and Elliot to be very apt, and "rooted in the Englishness" of the artists life.
Written in rhyming couplets, the pair "look like the punchline of a smutty joke," but their creator instead "wanted the reader to see them in a benign and non-judgemental light" - the antithesis of "Benny Hill
, Frankie Howerd
"Oo er, Mrs!"... [rather] like the owl and the pussycat
setting sail in a pea green boat." Three pages in A1 #1 were followed by another three in A1 #3, while a "longer story with 110 verses... gathered dust for 17 years" until publication in the compendium hardback Bolland Strips!.
, an autobiographical essay and sections ranging from his "Influences" (featuring near-unseen examples of Bolland's childhood art), through each of the decades from the 1960s to the present. The book also showcases several of Bolland's own photographs taken in Asia and Russia over twenty years of travelling.
-published retrospective The Art of Brian Bolland.)
Much in demand for advertisements, Bolland has produced work down the years for bookshops - including pioneering UK Sci-Fi/Comics sellers such as Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed
and Forbidden Planet
- and film festivals (including a poster for BFI Southbank
's July/August 2008 Comic-Book Movies series). His work has appeared on the covers of, and inside, numerous publications over the decades, ranging from fanzines to several covers for London-based magazine Time Out and other professional, internationally sold magazines.
Bolland has also produced posters for local theatre groups' amateur stage productions, most notably for his local "village panto
" production of Beauty and the Beast
in 2004.
In 1982, he received an Inkpot Award
, and the following year (1983), he was named "Favourite Artist" in the British section of the Eagle Awards.
In 1989, Moore and Bolland's The Killing Joke received an Eisner Award
for "Best Graphic Album," while Bolland was named separately as "Best Artist/Penciller/Inker" for the same work. The same year, Bolland won three Harvey Award
s; two in the same categories for the same work - "Best Artist" and "Best Graphic Album" - while the third was also The Killing Joke which was separately honoured as the winner of the "Best Single Issue" award.
In 1992, Bolland won an Eisner Award after being named "Best Cover Artist," an honour he received three years in a row (1992–1994), and twice subsequently (1999, 2001) for various works. To date, he ties with James Jean
(Fables
cover artist) for five Cover Artist Eisners.
In 2007, Bolland added to his Eisner Award wins when The Art of Brian Bolland won the "Best Comics-Related Book" award.
, which he created with Mike W. Barr
, was nominated for the 1985 Kirby Award
for Best Finite Series, narrowly losing to Wolfman
and Pérez
's Crisis on Infinite Earths
. In 2002, he was beaten by Jack Kirby
to the title of "Best Artist Ever," at the short-lived National Comics Awards
, placing him in rare company.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in 1982 produced the artwork on Camelot 3000
Camelot 3000
Camelot 3000 is an American twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Mike W. Barr and penciled by Brian Bolland. It was published by DC Comics from 1982 to 1985 as one of its first direct market projects, and as its first maxi-series.-Plot:...
(with author Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels.-Biography:Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 , for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man...
), which was DC's first 12-issue comicbook maxiseries created for the direct market
Direct market
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for North American comic books. It consists of one dominant distributor and the majority of comics specialty stores, as well as other retailers of comic books and related merchandise...
.
His rare forays into interior art also include Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke is an influential one-shot superhero graphic novel written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland. First published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained in print since then, and has also been reprinted as part of the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan...
, with UK-based writer Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, regularly hailed as one of the finest realised Batman stories, and a self-penned Batman: Black and White story. Bolland remains in high demand a cover artist, producing the vast majority of his work for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
.
Early life
Brian Bolland was born on 26 March 1951 in ButterwickButterwick, Lincolnshire
Butterwick is a village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, about east of Boston town centre.Butterwick is one of eighteen civil parishes which, together with Boston, form the Borough of Boston local government arrangement, in place since a reorganisation of 1 April 1974, which resulted...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
to parents Albert "A.J." John, a fenland farmer, and Lillie Bolland. He spent his "first 18 years" living "in a small village near Boston in the fens of Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, England," but has "no memory of comics" much before the age of ten. When American comics began to be imported into England, c.1959, Bolland says that it "took a little while for me to discover them," but by 1960 he was intrigued by Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
' Dinosaurus!, which fed into a childhood interest in dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s of all shapes and sizes. Comics including Turok
Turok
Turok is a fictional American comic book character initially in comics from Western Publishing published through licensee Dell Comics. He first appeared in Four Color Comics #596 , then graduated to his own title, Turok, Son of Stone...
, Son of Stone and DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
's Tomahawk
Tomahawk (comics)
Tomahawk is a comic book character whose adventures were published by DC Comics during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as a backup feature in Star Spangled Comics and World's Finest Comics and in his own eponymous series...
soon followed, and it was this burgeoning comics collection that would help inspire the young Bolland to draw his own comics around the age of ten with ideas such as "Insect League." He recalls that "[s]uperheroes crept into my life by stealth," as he actively sought out covers featuring "any big creature that looked vaguely dinosaur-like, trampling puny humans." This adolescent criteria led from Dinosaurus! and Turok via House of Mystery
House of Mystery
The House of Mystery is the name of several horror-mystery-suspense anthology comic book series. It had a companion series, House of Secrets.-Genesis:...
to "Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and Robin
Robin (comics)
Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
[who] were [often] being harassed by big weird things, as were Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, Aquaman
Aquaman
Aquaman is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in More Fun Comics #73 . Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles, Aquaman later starred in several volumes of a solo title...
, Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
[etc]." Soon, family outings to Skegness
Skegness
Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Located on the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, east of the city of Lincoln it has a total resident population of 18,910....
became an excuse for the future artist to "trawl... round some of the more remote backstreet newsagents" for comics to store on an overflowing "bookcase I'd made in school woodwork especially."
As early as 1962, aged 11, Bolland remembers thinking that "Carmine Infantino
Carmine Infantino
Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (born May 24, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York is an American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books...
's work on the Flash
Flash (comics)
The Flash is a name shared by several fictional comic book superheroes from the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in Flash Comics #1 ....
and Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
's on Green Lantern
Green Lantern
The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...
and the Atom had a sophistication about it that I hadn't [previously] seen." He would later cite Kane and Alex Toth
Alex Toth
Alexander Toth was an American professional cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but is known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The...
as "pinnacle[s] of excellence," alongside "Curt Swan
Curt Swan
Douglas Curtis Swan was an American comic book artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.-Early life and career:Curt Swan, whose Swedish...
, Murphy Anderson
Murphy Anderson
Murphy Anderson is an American comic book artist, known as one of the premier inkers of his era, who has worked for companies such as DC Comics for over fifty years, starting in the 1930s-'40s Golden Age of Comic Books...
, Syd Greene, Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert is an American comic book artist who went on to found The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman...
, Ross Andru
Ross Andru
Ross Andru was an American comic book artist and editor. He is best known for his work on Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Flash and Metal Men....
, Mike Esposito
Mike Esposito (comics)
Mike Esposito , who sometimes used the pseudonyms Mickey Demeo, Mickey Dee, Michael Dee, and Joe Gaudioso, was an American comic book artist whose work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics and others spanned the 1950s to the 2000s...
, Nick Cardy
Nick Cardy
Nick Cardy , a.k.a. Nick Cardi, is an American comic book artist best known for his DC Comics work on Aquaman, the Teen Titans and other major characters....
and the under-rated Bruno Premiani
Bruno Premiani
Giordano Bruno Premiani , whose work is credited as Bruno Premiani, was an Italian illustrator known for his work for several American comic book publishers, particularly DC Comics...
," whose influences showed in his "early crude stabs at drawing comics." The young Bolland did not rate Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
as highly as DC, feeling the covers cluttered and the paper quality crude. His appreciation of the artwork of Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, he says, only materialised much later "through the eyes of a seasoned professional." He did however enjoy UK comics, including newspaper strips such as "Syd Jordan's Jeff Hawke
Jeff Hawke
Jeff Hawke was a British science fiction comic strip created by Sydney Jordan. It was published in the Daily Express from 15 February 1955 to 18 April 1974, by which point Jordan had "written or co-written and drawn 6,474 episodes." Despite its obscurity in English-speaking countries, it is often...
[and] David Wright
David Wright (artist)
David Wright was a British illustrator who drew a series of "lovelies" that epitomised female glamour during World War II...
's Carol Day, " and Valiant
Valiant (comic)
Valiant was the title of a British boys adventure comics anthology which ran from 1962 to 1976. It was published by IPC Magazines and was one of their major adventure titles throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.-Publication history:...
which featured "Eric Bradbury
Eric Bradbury
Eric Bradbury was a British comic artist who primarily worked for Amalgamated Press/IPC from the late 1940s to the 1990s....
's Mytek the Mighty and Jesus Blasco
Jesús Blasco
Jesús Blasco was a Spanish author and artist of comic books, whose career covered most of the conventional history of comic strips. He worked extensively in British comics in the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:...
's Steel Claw
Steel Claw
The Steel Claw was one of the most popular comic book heroes of British weekly adventure comics of the 1960s and 1970s. The character was revived in 2005 for Albion, a six issue mini-series published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics....
" Despite such a variety of inspirations, Bolland credits his eventual pursuance of art as a hobby and then vocation to a primary school art teacher, who "evidently said all the right things to me."
Growing up as "and only child in a house without culture," (Bolland says that his "mother and father had no use for art, literature or music"), he embraced the late 1960s pop culture explosion of "pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
stations, music (particularly Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
...), drug taking, psychedelia
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
, "peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
and love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
," "dropping out
Turn on, tune in, drop out
"Turn on, tune in, drop out" is a counterculture phrase popularized by Timothy Leary in 1967. Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and uttered the famous phrase, "Turn on, tune in, drop out". In a 1988 interview with Neil Strauss, Leary...
," the underground scene, Oz Magazine
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
," and other aspects of hippy culture epitomised by underground comix
Underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books which are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence...
such as Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
's Zap Comix
Zap Comix
Zap Comix is the best-known and one of the most popular of the underground comics that emerged as part of the youth counterculture of the late 1960s. While not believed to be the first underground comic to have been published, Zap is considered to mark the beginning of the "underground comix"...
. Having taken both O-Level and A-Level examinations in art, Bolland spent five years at art school (starting in 1969) learning graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
and Art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
. Learning to draw comics, however, was "more a self-taught thing," with Bolland eventually writing a 15,000 word dissertation in 1973 on Neal Adams
Neal Adams
Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...
- an "artist [his teachers] had never heard of." He would later recall
Fanzines and early work
While at art school, Bolland drew and self-published a couple of fanzineFanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
s and his work was published in British underground magazines Friendz
Friends (magazine)
Friends magazine was launched in London in winter 1969 as a direct result of the closure by its US parent of the short-lived UK edition of Rolling Stone....
, International Times
International Times
International Times was an underground newspaper founded in London in 1966. Editors included Hoppy, David Mairowitz, Pete Stansill, Barry Miles, Jim Haynes and playwright Tom McGrath...
and OZ
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
. In 1971, his friend Dave Harwood "took his first step into printed mass production with his RDH Comix," for which Bolland provided a cover (featuring Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....
)." Also in 1971, Time Out - an underground magazine rapidly reinventing itself into "the biggest weekly listings magazine in London" - gave Bolland his "first paid job" producing "a proper illustration of Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
bassist
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
." While in Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, Bolland produced the first episodes of an adult Little Nemo in Slumberland parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
entitled Little Nympho in Slumberland, and when he moved to London's Central School of Art and Design in 1973, he continued to produce (mostly full-page) Little Nympho strips for a 50-copy fanzine entitled Suddenly at 2-o-clock in the Morning. He also contributed a smaller, strip entitled "The Mixed-Up Kid" to the Central School of Art's "college newspaper... the Galloping Maggot."
2000AD, Judge Death and Walter the Wobot
In 1972, Bolland attended a comic convention at the Waverley Hotel in London, and met "a lot of the people who were key in the comics scene of the time," including Dez SkinnDez Skinn
Derek "Dez" Skinn is a British comic and magazine editor, and author of a number of books on comics. As head of Marvel Comics' operations in England in the late 1970s, Skinn reformatted existing titles, launched new ones, and acquired the BBC license for Doctor Who Weekly...
, Nick Landau
Nick Landau
Nick Landau is a British media figure, currently co-owner of the Titan Entertainment Group, which publishes Titan Magazines and Titan Books.-2000 AD:...
, Richard Burton
Richard Burton (comics)
Richard Burton is a British comic editor who worked on 2000 AD. However, he is possibly better known to readers as Tharg the Mighty's bumbling assistant Burt who appeared in a number of strips with him....
, Angus McKie
Angus McKie
Angus McKie is an artist who has worked as a colorist in the comics industry.He is best known as an English science fiction illustrator whose work appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction paperback novels in the mid 1970s and 1980s, as well as in Stewart Cowley's Terran Trade Authority...
and - crucially - Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
. Bolland and Gibbons became firm friends. After finishing his college course, Bolland was hit with "the stark reality of unemployment" and on the advice of Gibbons joined art agency Bardon Press Features. "A few two-page strips" for D.C. Thomson resulted, but Bolland would refer to this period as his "lowest time." Bardon did however produce a client called Pikin which was "planning a bi-weekly comic about an African superhero," Powerman
Powerman (comic book series)
Powerman is a British comic book series written by Don Avenall and Norman Worker, and illustrated by Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland that was initially distributed in Nigeria. The series starred a superhero named Powerman...
, which was to be sold in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. Gibbons and Bolland were to draw alternate issues (Bolland's first issue was Powerman #2.), and Bolland recalls that "soon Dave had drawn his entire story and I had produced just a few pages." This knowledge - "that Dave could produce a page a day... and that I was going to have to do the same" - was a shock, but proved to be "the very best kind of training ground." With comics purportedly being new to Nigeria, Bolland recalls this work being created specifically to be "really simple; six panels on a page and [all] the panels had to be numbered." Not only was this work "[t]he best way to learn the simple rules of comic book storytelling," but "better still, it was going someplace where nobody I knew could see it." He "drew around 300 pages of that very straightforward, simple-to-follow work, and I guess the storytelling flowed naturally from that." Even so, he "was always struggling to get the last eight or ten pages finished," and was occasionally helped by friends, both from his "Norwich School of Art days," Gibbons and future-2000 AD and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
.
Bolland writes that starting with Powerman he "found regular employment drawing comics, one of which, Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
, in 1977-80, turned out to be quite a hit..."
In early 1977
1977 in comics
- Year overall :* Wendy and Richard Pini establish WaRP Graphics.* Jan and Dean Mullaney establish Eclipse Comics.* The United Kingdom's Eagle Awards are established.* Bob Brown dies at age 62.* Ciao magazine is launched.-January:...
, Bardon agent Barry Coker called Gibbons and Bolland to the office and showed them "mock-ups from a new science fiction comic I.P.C. was planning to publish." With Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
doing well at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
, the time was ripe for a new SF comic, and Gibbons joined Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra , who has also worked under the alias L. John Silver, is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra...
in "jumping into 2000AD feet first with issue 1 (or Programme, later Prog 1)... but meanwhile [Bolland] would have to keep drawing Powerman on [his] own." Powerman dropped to a monthly schedule, and Coker soon got Bolland "a cover on 2000AD in May '77 with Prog 11" (7 May 1977; signed "Bollo"). Bolland recalls of those early days that
Other covers following (nearly a third of the first 30), as well as stand-alone pages and some inking duties on Gibbons' Dan Dare
Dan Dare
Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...
. Already familiar with Nick Landau (acting editor), when another artist dropped out, Bolland was called directly to complete a Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
story in Prog 41 (03 Dec 77) and soon was established as a regular artist on the series. "From that point on," writes Bolland, "either he [Landau] or his successor Steve MacManus
Steve MacManus
Steve MacManus is a British comic writer and editor, particularly known for his work at 2000 AD.Born in London and educated in Devon, MacManus joined IPC in 1973, aged 20, as a sub-editor on the boys' weekly comic Valiant, until 1975 when he moved to Battle Picture Weekly under editor David Hunt...
called me direct whenever they wanted me to do a Dredd story." Dredd stories started as traditional UK comic stories, i.e. "six page one-offs... [Writers] Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
and John Wagner
John Wagner
John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
seem[ing] to spurn the American comic idea of continuing stories or, worse, the idea of a 2000AD continuity between characters," Bolland seeing this as a "strength... hav[ing] one great new idea each week." Soon, though, the writers began to craft serials, and Bolland's distinct abilities with subtle facial expressions, dramatic lighting and the dynamic composition of page layout made him the perfect choice to draw the on-going sagas, starting with "The Lunar Olympics." Bolland contributed artwork to such popular and seminal Judge Dredd story-arcs as "Luna Period," "The Cursed Earth," "The Day the Law Died," "The Judge Child Quest
Judge Child
The Judge Child was an extended storyline in the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd that ran from issues 156 to 181 in 1980. It introduced a character with the same name...
" and "Block Mania
Block Mania
Block Mania is a Judge Dredd story, which ran in British comic 2000 AD #236-244, in 1981. The story itself is a prologue for the longer storyline "The Apocalypse War", which immediately follows the conclusion of "Block Mania".-Story:...
." As the Dredd stories rose in popularity, they "were moved so they started on the middle pages" with a colour double-page spread, which Bolland "always struggled with" finding it "very difficult... [trying] to fill that space most effectively." Ultimately the weekly deadlines meant that Bolland was unable to produce all episodes of the epic storylines himself, and the art chores on The Cursed Earth were split between Bolland and Mike McMahon
Mike McMahon (comics)
Michael McMahon is a British comics artist best known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors, and the mini-series The Last American....
.
Bolland's early work on Judge Dredd was much influenced by McMahon, a talented newcomer whose idiosyncratic style was fueling the interest in the new character. Bolland thought McMahon was "terrific, the real ideas man on Dredd," but noted that McMahon's approach was "very impressionistic," while the "average comics reader, certainly at the time, does tend to prefer realism." Bolland therefore states that he "aped Mike's genius... and then reinterpreted [Dredd] in a style which actually borrowed a lot from the work of the American artists," retaining McMahon's "granite-jawed" look but bringing a level of realism and fine detail to the character, which Mark Salisbury says "finally cemented the iconic image."
As well as honing the look of the character and contributing to the highest-profile early storylines, Bolland also created the look of two of the wider Dredd universe's most enduring characters: Judge Death
Judge Death
Judge Death is a fictional character of the Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. He is the leader of the Dark Judges, a sinister group of undead law enforcers from the alternate dimension of Deadworld, where all life has been declared a crime since only the living commit crimes...
(and the other three Dark Judges
Dark Judges
The Dark Judges are recurring villains in the fictional Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. They are Judge Death, Judge Fire, Judge Fear and Judge Mortis. Later storylines added the "Sisters of Death" , to their ranks...
) and Judge Anderson
Judge Anderson
Judge Cassandra Anderson is a fictional character that started as a supporting player in the comic story Judge Dredd of 2000 AD and eventually rose in prominence and became the star of her own series, which is entitled Anderson: Psi-Division. It was created by writer John Wagner and artist Brian...
.
Later, Landau's Titan "decided they could repackage the Judge Dredd stories in an American comic format with new covers and sell it to America," and did under the evocative British brand "Eagle Comics
Eagle Comics
Eagle Comics was a short lived comic book publishing company that existed to reprint comic stories from the UK's 2000 A.D. magazine for distribution in North America...
". Bolland provided many of the covers for these compendium issues.
Bolland "drew the first three episodes of the Judge Death story over the winter of 1979-80," as "just another villain in just another excellent John Wagner
John Wagner
John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
script." He doesn't "remember doing any sketches to get him right," the "outfit was described somewhat in the script... and details of it were heavily inspired by the look of Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
's Nemesis the Warlock
Nemesis the Warlock
Nemesis the Warlock is a story created by writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neill which appeared in the pages of the weekly comics anthology 2000 AD. The title character, a fire-breathing demonic alien, fights against the fanatical Torquemada, Grand Master of the Terran Empire in Earth's distant...
. Bolland was, he acknowledges, "by far the slowest of the rotating Judge Death artists," opting to "take as long as I needed and do a half-way decent job" rather than rushing. For the sequel, a "massive (for me) 30 pages," 2000AD
When Nick Landau began (in 1981) Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
' reprints of Judge Dredd material, he "used this story non-chronologically" to begin the series. Landau spent time paginating the book at Bolland's flat, and discovered that "[s]ome stories started or ended on the wrong page thereby leaving blank pages," as it was set to be "in effect, the first book exclusively of my work" the artist "gladly offered to add three full page pictures for the Cursed Earth volume and a new back cover for the first Judge Dredd volume.
Walter the Wobot was an android with a speech impediment who served as Judge Dredd's personal servant robot. Created for light relief, Bolland notes that "[t]he great thing about the Judge Dredd strip was it's [sic] ability to slide seamlessly between gritty sci fi adventure, nasty gothic horror, spoof
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
ery, all the way to daft comedy." Walter's solo adventures - "Walter the Wobot, Fwiend of Dwedd" - were the latter style. Bolland drew all bar a couple of Walter's adventures, which appeared between Progs #50-61; #67-68 and #84-85 (with Ian Gibson
Ian Gibson (artist)
Ian Gibson is a British comic book artist, best known for his 1980s black-and-white work for 2000 AD, especially as the main artist on Robo-Hunter and The Ballad of Halo Jones, as well as his long run on Judge Dredd.-Biography:...
drawing the first two episodes and Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy is a British artist and designer best known for his work in comic books, film and television.- Biography :Brendan McCarthy, of Irish descent, was born in London. Brendan soon began painting and drawing his own home-made comics....
the last two), and says that he "was usually able to complete one in a day." He namechecks "the great Don Martin" as an artist he "shamelessly ripped off" for the human supporting characters, drawing most of the pages in Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
, 1978.
Other UK work
In between Dredd assignments Bolland drew horror strips for Dez SkinnDez Skinn
Derek "Dez" Skinn is a British comic and magazine editor, and author of a number of books on comics. As head of Marvel Comics' operations in England in the late 1970s, Skinn reformatted existing titles, launched new ones, and acquired the BBC license for Doctor Who Weekly...
's House of Hammer, having been introduced to the comic through another of the "fanboy in-crowd," Trevor Goring, who drew "a comic strip version of the movie Plague of the Zombies," and asked Bolland to ink it. Soon, Bolland was asked to draw "Vampire Circus
Vampire Circus
Vampire Circus is a 1972 British horror film directed by Robert Young for Hammer Film Productions. It stars Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters and Anthony Higgins . The story concerns a travelling carnival whose vampiric artistes prey on the children of a 19th-century Austrian village...
" (dir. Robert Young
Robert Young (director)
Robert William Young is a British television and film director.Young was born in Cheltenham, and in the 1980s and early 1990s, established himself as a leading director of British TV drama. In the 1970s, he directed Vampire Circus and Hammer House of Horror...
, 1972; comic version scripted by Steve Parkhouse
Steve Parkhouse
Steve Parkhouse is a writer, artist and letterer who has worked for many British comics, especially 2000 AD and Doctor Who Magazine.-Biography:...
), and "pile[d] on the gore" for his first Hammer
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
horror adaptation - although he found much of the "blood painted out" in the printed version.
From the 1970s to the present, Bolland has also produced one-off pieces of artwork for use as record (including one for The Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
in 1975), paperback book (including the UK Titan
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
editions of George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...
's Wild Cards
Wild Cards
Wild Cards is a science fiction and superhero anthology series set in a shared universe. The series was created by a group of New Mexico science fiction authors, but it is mostly pulled together and edited by best-selling author George R. R. Martin with assistance by Melinda Snodgrass, also a...
anthologies) and magazine covers (including Time Out and a every major comics publication). He continued to produce work for fanzines, including for Nick Landau's Comic Media News, and Arkensword and even "drew the hazard cards" for a board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
called Maneater. He later "got to know the Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
guys, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone
Ian Livingstone
Ian Livingstone OBE is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. He is a co-writer of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and co-founder of Games Workshop....
," and produced various "games related drawings" including a cover or two for Fighting Fantasy
Fighting Fantasy
Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player fantasy roleplay gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volumes in the series were published by Puffin in 1982, with the rights to the franchise eventually being purchased by Wizard Books in 2002...
Adventure Game Books, and RPG scenario pamphlets.
In 1977, Bolland was approached by Syd Jordan to ghost some episodes of Jordan's newspaper strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Jeff Hawke
Jeff Hawke
Jeff Hawke was a British science fiction comic strip created by Sydney Jordan. It was published in the Daily Express from 15 February 1955 to 18 April 1974, by which point Jordan had "written or co-written and drawn 6,474 episodes." Despite its obscurity in English-speaking countries, it is often...
. (Fellow fandom-pro artist Paul Neary
Paul Neary
Paul Neary is a British comic book artist, writer and editor.His first work was for Warren Publishing in the 1970s before working with Dez Skinn at Marvel UK as well as work for 2000 AD...
had "already done quite a few.") Bolland drew 13 episodes, and "Syd touched up some of the faces, a few details here and there, to make them look a bit more like him." By this point, "although the Express owned the rights to the strip, they were not printing it," but since it had a strong European following, these new episodes (Bolland believes) "got collected in anthologies in French and Spanish," but not in the UK except briefly in "the fanzine Eureka." In 1985, as a known fan, Bolland was approached by Nick Landau to select stories and draw covers for two Titan
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
collections of the strip, with a third design going unpublished. Bolland also contributed "A Miracle of Elisha
Elisha
Elisha is a prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic.-Biblical biography:...
" to Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.-History:It was formed by Tony Bennett and Carol Bennett in the 1980s to distribute Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers titles as well as British work from creators such as Hunt Emerson and Bryan...
' Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
OZ Trial
Schoolkids OZ
Schoolkids OZ was issue 28 of the Oz magazine, famous for being the subject of a high-profile obscenity case in the United Kingdom in June 1971. The OZ trial ended on 5 August 1971.-History:...
Special, written because Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
history had piqued the interest of Bolland when living near the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. This page was later reprinted in the star-studded (Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, Hunt Emerson
Hunt Emerson
Hunt Emerson is a cartoonist living and working in Birmingham, England. He was closely involved with the Birmingham Arts Lab of the mid-to-late 1970s, and with the British underground comics scene of the 1970s and 1980s...
, Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
, Gibbons
Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
, Dave McKean
Dave McKean
David McKean is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician....
, etc.) Outrageous Tales From the Old Testament volume, although Bolland's name was left off the cover.
Bolland produced a considerable amount of advertising work, initially because his agent "Barry Coker kept putting advertising jobs my way," including a number of ads for "Palitoy
Palitoy
Palitoy was the name of a British toy company.It manufactured some of the most popular toys in Britain, some original items and others under licence...
's Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
toys." He also drew some of the earliest pieces of advertising artwork for the science fiction and comic shop Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed
Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed (bookshop)
Dark They Were And Golden Eyed in London was the largest science fiction bookshop and comic store in Europe during the 1970s. Specialising in science fiction, occultism, and Atlantis, the central London shop also played a key role in bringing American underground comics to the UK...
, which ran in various Fanzines, Convention programmes and magazines such as Time Out and was commissioned by future-Titan Distribution & Forbidden Planet co-founder Mike Lake (who was "working there at the time") c. 1976. As well as the DTWAGE adverts, Bolland also contributed (alongside most of his peers) artwork to advertise, and/or feature in programme booklets for the UK Comicon, starting c.1976. In 1978, Nick Landau, Mike Lake and Mike Luckman "took their comic distribution business into the highstreet," opening the first Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet (bookstore)
Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States of America, after the feature film of the same name....
comics shop, for which Lake asked Bolland to produce the now-famous "People like us shop at... FORBIDDEN PLANET" adverts. Bolland's artwork would also feature on the shops plastic bags, as well as T-Shirts and "covers for their SF, comic and TV & film catalogues," among other places. Later, when a branch of FP was opened in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and at a second location in London, Bolland "did ads for both of them."
DC Comics
Bolland was among the very first British comics creators 'discovered' by the American comics industry, spearheading the so-called "British Invasion" in 1979/80. Bolland recalls that his big break came when Joe StatonJoe Staton
Joe Staton is an American illustrator and writer of comic books.-Career:Staton started his work with Charlton Comics in 1971 and gained notability as the artist of the super-hero book E-Man...
attended the Summer 1979 Comicon, and, needing somewhere to work (on Green Lantern) while in the UK, arranged to stay with the Bollands. Staton called his editor Jack Harris and told him that Bolland, a big Green Lantern fan, would "like to draw a Green Lantern cover," Harris agreed. Bolland's US career thus "started with a Green Lantern
Green Lantern
The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...
cover [Green Lantern #127 (Apr, 1980)]," after which he produced "a trickle of covers [including more Green Lantern covers over Ross Andru
Ross Andru
Ross Andru was an American comic book artist and editor. He is best known for his work on Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Flash and Metal Men....
layouts] and stories" before gaining "regular employment." These stories included, in 1980-1, "Certified Safe" in Mystery in Space
Mystery in Space
Mystery in Space is the name of two science fiction comic book series published in the United States by DC Comics, then known as National Comics. The first series ran for 110 issues from 1951 - 1966, with a further 7 issues continuing the numbering during a 1980s revival of the title...
and "Falling Down to Heaven" in Madame Xanadu
Madame Xanadu
Madame Xanadu is a fictional character, a comic book mystic published by DC Comics. The character is identified with Nimue, the sorceress from Arthurian mythology made popular by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.-Publication history:...
, DC's first attempt at marketing comics specifically to the "direct market
Direct market
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for North American comic books. It consists of one dominant distributor and the majority of comics specialty stores, as well as other retailers of comic books and related merchandise...
" of fans and collectors. For editor Julius Schwartz
Julius Schwartz
Julius "Julie" Schwartz was a comic book and pulp magazine editor, and a science fiction agent and prominent fan. He was born in the Bronx, New York...
, Bolland drew covers around which writers would craft stories, which included "a couple of Starro
Starro
Starro is a fictional supervillain that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Brave and the Bold #28 , and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky....
covers and the Superman Beastman cover Superman #422 (Aug, 1986)]."
Among his earliest interior work for DC was a chapter in Justice League of America #200 (Mar, 1982) alongside industry legends - and artistic heroes - Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert is an American comic book artist who went on to found The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman...
, Carmine Infantino
Carmine Infantino
Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (born May 24, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York is an American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books...
and Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
as well as Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo
James N. "Jim" Aparo was an American comic book artist best known for his 1960s and 1970s DC Comics work, including on the characters Batman, Aquaman and the Spectre....
, George Pérez
George Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...
and Dick Giordano
Dick Giordano
Richard Joseph "Dick" Giordano was an American comic book artist and editor best known for introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes, and serving as executive editor of then–industry leader DC Comics...
. This gave the artist his "first stab at drawing Batman." Bolland feels that "after my cover [GL #127] worked out the people at DC turned their gaze on London... and particularly on the group of artists at 2000AD who had been weaned on the DC characters." He recalls that, "after I was settled in at DC, scouts from that company came to our "Society of Strip Illustration" meetings to win over a few more of us," making a "formal invitation" at an SSI meeting, which saw "Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
, Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
... [t]hen Alan Davis
Alan Davis
Alan Davis is an English writer and artist of comic books, known for his work on titles such as Captain Britain, The Uncanny X-Men, ClanDestine, Excalibur, JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail.-UK work:...
and Mark Farmer
Mark Farmer
Mark Farmer is a British comic book artist. He is best known as an inker, often working with Alan Davis.-Biography:Farmer got his start in the UK comics industry before becoming part of the British Invasion, the wave of UK creators that were an integral part of the DC Comics "new look" of the...
," following the artists "Alan Grant "went across" and, at some point, a certain tall hairy writer from the Midlands
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
."
In 1982, DC editor Len Wein
Len Wein
Len Wein is an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men...
chose Bolland to be the artist on DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
's Camelot 3000
Camelot 3000
Camelot 3000 is an American twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Mike W. Barr and penciled by Brian Bolland. It was published by DC Comics from 1982 to 1985 as one of its first direct market projects, and as its first maxi-series.-Plot:...
12-issue limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
, with writer Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels.-Biography:Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 , for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man...
. The story, a "re-working of the old Arthurian legend" dealing with the return of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
to save England from an alien invasion
Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
in the Year 3000, not only "represents the single biggest body of work" by Bolland - and his only attempt to draw a monthly title - but was also the "first example of a DC (or otherwise) maxi-series." Bolland wasn't initially familiar with the Arthurian legends, and initially conceived Merlin as "a comical character." His "first encounter with media hype," proved popular as he found himself "whisked off to San Diego and places and made a fuss of." Bolland was allowed to "pick between two inkers," but opted to ink his covers himself. (Indeed, it was initially unpopular with him to allow a third party to ink his pencils, since he'd previously "never had my work inked unless I was in dire straits," but "by the end I was quite pleased with the results.") Reacting indignantly to being presented with Andru layouts for the first two Camelot 3000 covers, he
Camelot 3000 also became notorious for the lengthy delays between its final issues. Bolland recalls that he and DC "talked quite a bit about how long it would take me to do the series," and because the series was inked by a third party (initially by Bruce Patterson, then by Terry Austin
Terry Austin (comics)
Terry Austin is an American comic book artist, working primarily as an inker. He is best known for his work embellishing John Byrne's pencils on The Uncanny X-Men from 1977–1981.-Early life and career:...
), he started off "churning the pages out with great enthusiasm." As the series continued, however, Bolland became increasingly meticulous, "trying to make the pages look better and better" not least because he "wanted the final parts of the story to [look] amazing." The added details he introduced into his famously-detailed artwork caused significant delays in the final issues of the limited series, causing issues #8-11 to be released on a quarterly rather than monthly status, and the final issue to be cover dated nine months later than the penultimate issue.
In 1986, Bolland was one of several artists who contributed pages to the anniversary issue Batman
Batman (comic book)
Batman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939. Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication in the spring of 1940...
#400 (Oct, 1986), his offering featuring villains Ra's Al Ghul
Ra's al Ghul
Ra's al Ghul is a DC Comics supervillain and is one of Batman's greatest enemies. His name in Arabic has been translated in the comics as "The Demon's Head" and references the name of the star Algol. Created by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams, he was introduced in Batman #232's...
and Catwoman
Catwoman
Catwoman is a fictional character associated with DC Comics' Batman franchise. Historically a supervillain, the character was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, partially inspired by Kane's cousin, Ruth Steel...
. Around this time, Titan Books were "trying to launch a line of comics all written by Alan Moore," and "talks were underway to do a Batman Meets Judge Dredd one-off by Alan and me." With these ideas kicking around in his head, and when "it became clear that [Camelot 3000] had sold reasonably well," DC editor Dick Giordano
Dick Giordano
Richard Joseph "Dick" Giordano was an American comic book artist and editor best known for introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes, and serving as executive editor of then–industry leader DC Comics...
then asked Bolland what project he wanted to work on next. Bolland says:
The result was the popular, influential and controversial Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke is an influential one-shot superhero graphic novel written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland. First published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained in print since then, and has also been reprinted as part of the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan...
, first published in 1988.
Giordano's invitation led directly to Bolland working with writer Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
to create a plausible background story for the premier Batman villain, the Joker. Bolland's Joker fascination stemmed in part from his having "recently seen the excellent silent movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title L'Homme qui rit. Also published under the title By Order of the King...
," and he therefore wanted to do a "Joker story with the Batman as a more distant, peripheral character." Although the story takes pains to stress that it is merely one possible 'origin story
Origin story
In comic book terminology, an origin story is an account or back-story revealing how a character or team gained their superpowers and/or the circumstances under which they became superheroes or supervillains....
,' it has been widely accepted and adopted into DC continuity, and a central mutilation of a long-running character
Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and in related media, created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino...
had to be specially approved by editor Wein. Bolland notes that he saw "Judge Death [as] almost a dry run for drawing the Joker," but that this artistic similarity did not proclude difficulties setting in during the genesis of TKJ as
- "by the time Alan had finished WatchmenWatchmenWatchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colourist John Higgins. The series was published by DC Comics during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted in collected form...
he had fallen out with DC to a certain extent... [i]n the end, he only continued to do Killing Joke as a favour to me."
The 64-page prestige format
Prestige format
Prestige format is a term coined by DC Comics and later came into wider use to refer to a square-bound comic book with cardstock covers. A prestige format comic book is usually longer than a normal, stapled 32-page comic...
one-shot comic took a considerable amount of time to produce. Both Moore and Bolland are well-known for their meticulous and time-consuming work - both creators' then-recently-finished 12-issue maxiseries titles had seen delays - and Bolland made it clear that he "wanted to do the best possible job," even though it wasn't perhaps "quite what I'd hoped to draw." He was aided by the laid back attitude taken by DC, who he says "seemed prepared to let me do it at my own pace." However, a change of editorship also affected the pace. The original editor, Len Wein
Len Wein
Len Wein is an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men...
left the company, and was replaced by Dennis O'Neil
Dennis O'Neil
Dennis J. "Denny" O'Neil is an American comic book writer and editor, principally for Marvel Comics and DC Comics in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of books until his retirement....
, a "very hands-off sort of guy," with whom Bolland only recalls having "one conversation" about the book. This atmosphere allowed Bolland not only the time to produce his best work, but also "to do lots of other pieces of work in and around it." "Only when it was nearing completion in 1988, and the hype machine swung into action," did Bolland worry about deadlines.
Bolland felt that there might have been the opinion that his book was "surplus to requirement" in the wake of Frank Miller
Frank Miller (comics)
Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
's groundbreaking Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a four-issue comic book limited series written and drawn by Frank Miller, originally published by DC Comics under the title Batman: The Dark Knight in 1986. When the issues were released in a collected edition later that year, the story title for the first issue...
, and considers his title "almost just a piece of pure vanity publishing." He was, however, quite hurt when Moore confessed that "to him, it was just another Bat comic" - for Bolland "it was this grand thing I had been building up to... [wanting] it to be really special." Stung by Moore's criticism, Bolland was mortified by the colouring, and bemused not to have seen proofs pre-publication. Having envisaged the flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
sequences in "black and white so you knew they were taking place at an earlier time," and instructing Watchmen-colorist John Higgins
John Higgins (comics)
John Higgins is an English comic book artist and writer. He did significant work for 2000 AD, and he has frequently worked with writer Alan Moore, most notably as colourist for Watchmen.-Biography:...
to use "muted November colors," he found instead "garish... hideous glowing purples and pinks... and my precious Eraserhead
Eraserhead
Eraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist film and the first feature film of David Lynch, who wrote, produced and directed. Lynch began working on the film at the AFI Conservatory, which gave him a $10,000 grant to make the film after he had begun working there following his 1971 move to Los Angeles...
-esque flashback sequences swamped in orange."
The 2008-published 20th anniversary edition of the book featured new colouring by Bolland, restoring his artistic intentions to the palate.
Speaking c. 2000, Bolland notes that his pursuit of "self-written" strips meant that "since The Killing Joke I haven't drawn a single page that wasn't penned by me." Six years later he clarified that
In 1996, in accordance with his hopes to only draw interior work written by him also, Bolland wrote and drew the story "An Innocent Guy" for the anthology Batman: Black and White, in which an otherwise normal inhabitant of Gotham City
Gotham City
Gotham City is a fictional U.S. city appearing in DC Comics, best known as the home of Batman. Batman's place of residence was first identified as Gotham City in Batman #4 . Gotham City is strongly inspired by Trenton, Ontario's history, location, atmosphere, and various architectural styles...
documents his plan to carry out the ultimate perfect crime
Perfect crime
Perfect crime is a colloquial term used in law and fiction to characterize crimes that are undetected, unattributed to a perpetrator, or else unsolved as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator....
and assassinate the Dark Knight Detective. Invited by Mark Chiarello
Mark Chiarello
Mark Chiarello is an American painter, art director and comic book editor.-Biography:As a painter, Chiarello has worked on such projects as the Batman story Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop and Clive Barker's Hellraiser...
to join "an impressive list of artists" for what Bolland terms "a nifty new project," Bolland jumped at the chance. Not only was he joining a fantastic complement of artists, but "better still - I could write my own story. No writer. No colorist. Just me." Drawing inspiration from "a masterpiece of a cover by my idol, Alex Toth
Alex Toth
Alexander Toth was an American professional cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but is known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The...
," Bolland set out to "explore ideas... that in real life people don't come labelled "GOODIES" and "BADDIES" and that all of us walk a tightrope and could easily fall on either side."
Intended as an " "homage" to the Batman I loved as a kid," Bolland wrote in 2006 that
Approached by Bat-editor Mark Chiarello (again), Bolland was asked whether he would like to draw Batman covers for a new title, Gotham Knights. Jumping at the chance, he remarks that "there was a misunderstanding" resulting in his being unaware of the first issue being scheduled, resulting in "the superb Dave Johnson" drawing #1 instead, and Bolland joining at issue #2. Bolland's first two covers were colored by editor Chiarello, but from issue #5 to #47 (his last) they were colored by the artist himself. As his run progressed, "the job of getting a cover on Gotham Knights passed from Mark to a number of other people," and Bolland "found more and more of [his] first ideas for covers being turned down." Eventually, Bolland was "told [that he'd] be off the book in a few issues time," but after discovering that upcoming covers featured Bane
Bane (comics)
Bane is a fictional character who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 , and was created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan. Bane has been one of Batman's more physically and intellectually powerful foes...
prominently (and not the Joker or Penguin as he'd been hoping for for some time), Bolland "said I'd go right away."
Covers
Although his forays into interior artwork are almost universally acclaimed, Bolland is far more commonly seen as 'just' a cover artist - although he notes that he has never decided to actually "pursue covers exclusively," having merely "branched off a little bit" from strip work. He cheerfully admits that he works slowly, and consequently finds covers easier to supply than whole story artwork. He also noted simply that he began to "concentrate on covers... really just because they were the jobs that I was offered." He adds that for artists like him, "it's common knowledge they're going to say no" to strip work, "so editors get them to do pin-ups instead."Bolland has contributed covers — in many cases to complete runs/arcs — to some of the more famous landmark comics of recent years, with his photo-realistic work leaving an indelible impression on the titles for which he works, as the primary external reference image. His iconic covers are in high demand, although his work predominantly appears on titles published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
.
Bolland now draws on a computer, eschewing pencil and paper. He cites the influence of Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
, who "had got into computers himself, and... was really enthusing about them." Noting also that some colorists were increasingly using computer effects "seemingly arbitrarily," he decided "that if I didn't take control of the colouring process myself... [those effects] would eventually transform the covers into something not my own." Starting in 1997, Bolland "bought all the gear" and spent ten frustrated months learning the ropes and ultimately finding the liberating "infinite ability to change" his now-solely-onscreen artwork. He states categorically that, in his opinion, "[t]here is absolutely no difference between drawing on my Wacom tablet and drawing on a pad of paper." Having fully embraced the technology, Bolland has also produced a number of lessons/tutorials on his Official Website demonstrating his complex techniques. He states that, while this leap means that he no longer produces any paper-based artwork (a profitable sideline for many artists who sell on their original work to collectors), "the pen and paper are gone for good."
Bolland recalls that, in the wake of The Killing Joke, he "was offered a lot of work," but didn't feel ready to make a long commitment. So, instead
Animal Man
The first 63 issues of Animal ManAnimal Man
Animal Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . As a result of being in proximity to an exploding extraterrestrial spaceship, Buddy Baker acquires the ability to temporarily “borrow” the abilities of animals...
featuring Bolland's artwork covered the tenures of writers Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
, Peter Milligan
Peter Milligan
Peter Milligan born in London, a British writer, best known for his comic book, film and television work.-Early career:Milligan started his comic career with short stories for 2000 AD in the early 1980s. By 1986, Milligan had his first ongoing strip in 2000AD called Bad Company, with artists Brett...
, Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch
Tom Veitch is an American writer, best known for his contributions to the Dark Horse Comics line of Star Wars comic books, primarily Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi. For DC Comics Veitch wrote Animal Man, along with two Elseworlds series featuring Kamandi and an elder Superman...
and Jamie Delano
Jamie Delano
Jamie Delano is a British comics writer. He was part of the first post-Alan Moore "British Invasion" of writers. Best known as the first writer of the comic book series Hellblazer, starring John Constantine.- Biography :...
, with Bolland's images maintaining a continuity of style and imagery while the interior work underwent several changes of style and storyline. Initially, he recalls that his cover images derived directly from the script. He would "go through and find a scene that looked as if it would make a good cover," or "find a particular hook that cleverly summed up what's going on inside the book." This included the incorporation of photographs into the later covers of Morrison's tale of metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
and deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
author-input. With the (post-Morrison) move of Animal Man to DC's new 'Mature Readers' imprint Vertigo, Bolland notes that the covers moved to "full color painted covers" with issue #57. These of his covers were "a mixture of ink linework, color washes, airbrush
Airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...
and then, eventually, areas painted in poster color by my wife, Rachel," which ultimately saw her have significant input on some covers, with Bolland acknowledging that "some of the last Animal Man covers were more her than me."
Describing the art of good covers, Bolland remarks that
Happy coincidence also plays its part, as when a time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
story arc saw Bolland's work coincide with the plot in such a way that he was able to produce a recreated cover from an alternate angle to shed new light on an initially inconsequential image.
The Invisibles
Bolland's covers adorn the whole second and third volumes of Grant MorrisonGrant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
's The Invisibles
The Invisibles
The Invisibles is a comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication....
and his depictions of the main characters are widely reprinted as the definitive images, despite them all having been realised by other artists - and often drawn by several before Bolland entered the picture. With this title, the artist remarks "the subject matter is more complicated," necessitating his "working a lot of strange symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ism and subliminal
Subliminal stimuli
Subliminal stimuli , contrary to supraliminal stimuli or "above threshold", are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception. The large majority of research has found that subliminal messages do not produce strong or lasting changes in behavior...
messages into the cover designs" to create "an image that puzzles to a degree and is layered with elements of surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
." Asked to take over from Sean Hughes
Sean Hughes
Sean Hughes may refer to:* Sean Hughes * Sean Hughes , alleged IRA member* Sean Hughes , British Labour Party Member of Parliament 1983–1990* Sean Hughes of Green Day...
and "do the covers on volume two" by editor Shelly Roeberg, Bolland found her to be "the dream editor," effusive with praise and "very specific about what she required." Generally, Bolland recalls "she was enthusiastic about my ideas," although Morrison had "creator's approval" on all designs. Finding that he had a rapport with, and the trust of, his editor, Bolland thinks that these factors "resulted in some of [his] most experimental work." Newly embracing the use of a computer, Bolland cites The Invisibles Vol 2 #11 as his earliest computer-assisted piece of artwork, using it to "insert... a computer generated background behind a severed hand."
For the third series,
The covers for the third volume of The Invisibles were "done on the computer," in part because "Vertigo were paying for "painted" covers and [Bolland] felt [he] had to deliver something more than line and flat color." The experimental nature of the twelve covers was assisted by the fact that, says Bolland "neither I nor Shelly had seen that issue's script." For the trade paperback covers, Bolland "was determined to make each one weider than the last," and so created a Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
inspired "fleshy mass [dubbed "The Blobby Man"] with a typewriter" for Entropy in the UK. Having convinced Karen Berger
Karen Berger
Karen Berger is an American comic book editor. She is best known as the Executive Editor of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.-Biography:...
(Editor in chief of Vertigo) and Shelly Roeberg that it was a good idea, the artist recalls that "Shelly rang up and, rather than telling me how wonderful I was, said that when she saw it she nearly lost her lunch! I was asked to turn his skin color from flesh to blue to tone him down a bit." For the final Invisible Kingdom TPB cover, Bolland produced "a cover containing 12 small alternative Invisibles covers," which "took a long time to do." Likening the process to creating "a mini comic strip," Bolland says that "if any detail made any sense it had to be changed to something that didn't."
Bolland's style includes the initial 'rough' outline stage, making it easy for the publisher (and, in some cases, the writer) to "sign off" on his designs. In the case of The Invisibles, however, although Morrison officially had "final approval on the cover designs," Bolland describes him as "very generous about my work," saying that "it's not his job to actually come up with the idea." In selected cases, however, Bolland would ask for ideas, and in one specific case "Shelly [Roeberg], the editor... did once relay that Grant wanted an arm coming out of the water holding a gun on the cover of the last issue." Bolland admits "I don't know exactly why. I just supplied it."
Wonder Woman
Bolland also contributed a large number of covers to Wonder WomanWonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
, beginning with William Messner Loebs's first issue (#63, June 1992) after that author took over writer (and artist) George Pérez
George Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...
's 1987
1987 in comics
- Year overall :* Independent publishers continue to enter the comics arena, including Amazing, CFW Enterprises, Imperial Comics, Matrix Graphic Series, New Comics Group, and Rebel Studios...
post-Crisis relaunch
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 12-issue American comic book limited series and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity...
. Bolland recalls his time drawing Wonder Woman fondly, as one of the few occasions he actually sought work rather than being sought for work. He recalls
Bolland's first cover saw Diana next to the headline: "The Stunning return of comics' greatest heroine!" speaking directly to the reader the words "...Miss me?" Bolland's covers over the next 30-plus issues laid the visual groundwork for the character subsequently reworked by writer-artist John Byrne, and saw Bolland illustrate up to and including the centennial issue #100. To prepare for his work, Bolland "clipped pictures of the most beautiful women of the time - Christie Turlington, Stephanie Seymour
Stephanie Seymour
Stephanie Michelle Seymour is an American model and actress. Seymour has modeled for many notable fashion magazines and designers, and has been photographed by several well-known photographers including Herb Ritts, Richard Avedon, Gilles Bensimon, and Mario Testino.-Career:Born in San Diego,...
, etc." saying that he was predominantly interested in their faces ("The body I generally made up"). Interested particularly in drawing the costume, which he feels "has to be one of the sexiest in comics," he soon found the character removed from her normal costume in the storyline, "defeating, for me, the whole point." For her return to her famous costume, Bolland produced one of his best known images: the Britannia-esque pose from Wonder Woman #72 (Mar, 1993). With typical modesty, he says that "[i]mages like that... usually arise when you're completely stuck for an idea." The image was so iconic that it was released as a poster and later turned into a statue. Shortly thereafter, Diana underwent another costume change - this time designed by Bolland, and mostly drawn on the interior pages by Mike Deodato
Mike Deodato
Mike Deodato , sometimes credited as Mike Deodato Jr., is the professional pseudonym of Brazilian comic book artist Deodato Taumaturgo Borges Filho.-Biography:...
. The black costume was roundly disliked, even by its designer, Bolland, who philosophically says only that "it was what was asked for at the time," and - aside from Camelot 3000 - is "the only occasion" he was asked to design a costume. The new costume - black hotpants, halter top, straight hair (which Bolland did like) and "WW"-emblazoned jacket - was based, Bolland thinks, "on a Versace
Versace
Gianni Versace S.p.A. , usually referred to as Versace, is an Italian fashion label founded by Gianni Versace in 1978.The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses...
outfit I saw Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
wearing in an issue of Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
."
Other cover work
Bolland notes that while he tends not to reuse cover ideas, he does occasionally produce "what I like to think of as homages to my own covers." Particularly, for "the first issue of the Eagle Judge Dredd comic" - which repackaged 2000AD stories for the American market - on which the positioning of the figures echoed similar covers Bolland had drawn "two or three times for different companies with different characters."In addition to his landmark runs on Animal Man and The Invisibles, Bolland has also produced lengthy runs on covers for Geoff Johns
Geoff Johns
Geoff Johns is an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics, where he has been Chief Creative Officer since February 2010, in particular for characters such as Green Lantern, The Flash and Superman...
' The Flash
Flash (comics)
The Flash is a name shared by several fictional comic book superheroes from the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in Flash Comics #1 ....
(from roughs by series editor Joey Cavalieri
Joey Cavalieri
Joey Cavalieri is a writer who has also served as an editor in the comic book field.His writing credits for DC Comics include the Green Arrow back-up feature in Detective Comics; both the pre-Crisis version of the Huntress in a back-up feature in Wonder Woman and the post-Crisis version of the...
) and the Batman anthology series Batman: Gotham Knights
Batman: Gotham Knights
Batman: Gotham Knights was a monthly, fictional comic book series published by DC Comics. The original intent of this book was to feature the exploits of Batman and his extended family - Alfred Pennyworth, Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, Oracle, Catwoman, etc...
, as well as assorted issues of Tank Girl
Tank Girl
Tank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett, it has also been drawn by Rufus Dayglo, Ashley Wood, and Mike McMahon.The eponymous character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home...
(for original UK publication Deadline and the two subsequent Vertigo miniseries Tank Girl: The Odyssey and Tank Girl: Apocalypse), Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, Green Lantern
Green Lantern
The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...
, Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and many more, including a number of oneshots and miniseries for DC's offshoot Vertigo
Vertigo (comics)
Vertigo is an imprint of the American comic-book publisher DC Comics. Its books are marketed to a sophisticated audience, and may contain graphic violence, substance abuse, frank depictions of sexuality, profanity, and controversial subjects...
. Bolland is currently the cover artist on Vertigo's Fables
Fables (comics)
Fables is a comic book series created by writer Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics's Vertigo imprint beginning in 2002. The series deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore – referring to themselves as "Fables" – who have been forced out of their Homelands by "The...
spin-off Jack of Fables
Jack of Fables
Jack of Fables was a spin-off of the comic book Fables, both of which were published by DC Comics as part of that company's Vertigo imprint. It shows the adventures of Jack Horner after his exile from Fabletown. A preview of the series was shown in Fables #50, and the series itself debuted in July...
, replacing previous cover artist James Jean
James Jean
James Jean is a Taiwanese-American visual artist, known for both his commercial work and fine art gallery work. He is known in the American comics industry as a cover artist for various books published by DC Comics, as well as for his work for Prada, ESPN and Atlantic Records...
. Bolland's covers also grace the DC/Vertigo trade paperback collections of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol
Doom Patrol
The Doom Patrol is a superhero team appearing in publications from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80...
, although he only produced "a couple" of covers for the individual issues. He recalls that he "turned in quite a few roughs, but, disappointingly for me, they were often rejected," previous cover artist Simon "The Biz" Bisley
Simon Bisley
Simon Bisley is a British comics artist best known for his 1990s work on ABC Warriors, Lobo and Sláine. His style, reliant on paints, acrylics, inks and multiple-mediums, is strongly influenced by Frank Frazetta, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dalí, Egon Schiele, and Richard Corben...
being "a hard act to follow."
Long-standing familiarity with DC characters and staff, coupled with high demand have combined with other factors to mean that the vast majority of Bolland's work has been for DC Comics. In The Art of Brian Bolland, he also mentions in passing that a bad experience with a Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
Hulk cover and a later oddity with a She Hulk cover featuring Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck is a comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. The character first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered, anthropomorphic, "funny...
have given him a mild "phobia about Marvel... [and] the laws of the production line" that overrule "whatever it is I have to give." He has however, produced odd covers for Marvel, First Comics
First Comics
First Comics was an American comic-book publisher that was active from 1983–1991, known for titles like American Flagg!, Grimjack, Nexus, Badger, Dreadstar, and Jon Sable...
, Continuity Comics
Continuity Comics
Continuity Publishing, also known as Continuity Comics, was an American independent comic book company formed by Neal Adams in 1984, publishing comics until 1994....
, Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...
, New Comics and a dozen other companies, large and small, as well as book, magazine and record covers. For Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
, Bolland has produced several diverse covers, including a couple for Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....
's The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist at the behest of editor Diana Schutz
Diana Schutz
Diana Schutz is a comic book editor, most notable as editor in chief of Comico during its peak years and for her continuing tenure at Dark Horse Comics, for whom she has worked since 1990...
. He recalls that "the cover for number ten was done in the style of Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
's Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
... but the book was cancelled after number eight."
Bolland is noted by some for his use of bondage
Bondage (BDSM)
Bondage is the use of restraints for the sexual pleasure of the parties involved. It may be used in its own right, as in the case of rope bondage and breast bondage, or as part of sexual activity or BDSM activity.- Private bondage :...
imagery, although in a humorous self-referential comment, he quotes this "fact" (cited as from Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
), and states that he is "unsure" of the sentiment's accuracy. He notes that "I can only think off-hand of a few occasions when I've drawn bondage. A few Wonder Woman covers perhaps, a Flash cover, a 2000 AD cover, a Mr. Mamoulian page... but that's all that I can remember out of many hundreds of images." In 2006's The Art of Brian Bolland, he does suggest that "I trace my mild bondage fetish back to a book of Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
stories that must have been given to my father as a Sunday school gift when he was a child," wherein "was a picture of Shadrach
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are characters in the biblical Hebrew book of Daniel Chapters 1 – 3, known for their exclusive devotion to God. In particular, they are known for being saved by divine intervention from the Babylonian execution of being burned alive in a fiery furnace...
, Meshach and Abednigo [sic]." Such Biblical imagery was bolstered in 1971 by a book bought in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
"called Les Filles de Papier... [a] large part of [which] was taken up with comic strips about women tied up in fiendish and excruciating positions by mad robots... it was just jaw-droppingly bonkers... and yet... there was something rather appealing about it." The Art of Brian Bolland also features a separate "Nudes" section, mostly created for the purpose of "trying out a different inking technique or trying to work out the figure from a difficult angle." (Only three of the nude sketches involve scenes of bondage.)
Other comics work
In addition to his early forays into full interior strip art, and his later focus on covers, Bolland has also produced a number of short - often single pages - strips, numerous pin-ups and a pair of on-going 'occasional' humour strips. These latter feature Bolland as writer-artist, his now-preferred method of working. Most notable are Bolland's two 'personal projects', Mr. Mamoulian and The Actress and the Bishop, all appearances of which strips were collected in the book Bolland Strips! (Palmano-Bennet/Knockabout ComicsKnockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.-History:It was formed by Tony Bennett and Carol Bennett in the 1980s to distribute Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers titles as well as British work from creators such as Hunt Emerson and Bryan...
, 2005). Bolland Strips! stemmed from a suggestion by Josh Palmano (owner of Gosh Comics in London, and also involved in publishing company Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.-History:It was formed by Tony Bennett and Carol Bennett in the 1980s to distribute Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers titles as well as British work from creators such as Hunt Emerson and Bryan...
) to collect all instances of Bolland's two strips and Steve Moore
Steve Moore
Steven Dean Moore is a former Canadian professional ice hockey center, best known for receiving what turned out to be a career-ending injury as a result of an illegal hit by then Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi....
's "Zirk" story. Bolland had other thoughts, and suggested including an undrawn 20-page story called "The Actress & the Bishop and the Thing in the Shed" (written 18 years previously), and two stories written and illustrated by him for Vertigo Comics. After negotiations with DC, the two stories - "Princess & the Frog" (from Heartthrobs) and "The Kapas" (from Strange Adventures) were included alongside six limited edition Éditions Déesse prints.
Mr. Mamoulian
Among Bolland's other works is the Robert CrumbRobert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
-esque semi-autobiographical stream of consciousness humour strip Mr. Mamoulian, which was first printed in Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years....
's UK pro-zine Escape and later brought to the US in issues of the Dark Horse
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
title Cheval Noir and the Caliber Comics
Caliber Comics
Caliber Comics or Caliber Press was an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, in the next decade Caliber published over 1300 comics and ranked as one of the America's leading independent publishers...
anthology Negative Burn
Negative Burn
Negative Burn is a black-and-white anthology comic book published beginning in 1993 by Caliber Press, and subsequently by Image Comics and Desperado Publishing...
. Bolland recalled that the origins of the character lay in him "contemplating middle age
Middle age
Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....
" on his 36th birthday, and experimenting with drawing "whatever came into my head." The name echoes the character's mammalian look ("lie a hedgehog
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand . There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas...
"), although Bolland acknowledges that Armenian-American film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Rouben Mamoulian
Rouben Mamoulian
Rouben Mamoulian was an Armenian-American film and theatre director.-Biography:Born in Tbilisi, Georgia to an Armenian family, Rouben relocated to England and started directing plays in London in 1922...
may also have provided an inspiration on the name front. Noting his enjoyment of Berke Breathed's Bloom County
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
, Bolland's own strip didn't "have a funny line to end each page, because I wasn't always in a funny mood." Thus the strip became an "exposé of the inner me" drawn because "I felt like it... [n]ot to deadline," as a forum to explore and express "various interests of mine, various philosophical notions, personal neuroses." Designed to be read individually - indeed, early publication in Escape was in "no particular order" - gradually it became clear that a mildly self-referential "chronological narrative was taking shape," "a plot that would come to a shock conclusion on page 96 - and then continue, possibly, to volume two."
Bolland writes in 2006 that "[a]fter a while, Nick Landau
Nick Landau
Nick Landau is a British media figure, currently co-owner of the Titan Entertainment Group, which publishes Titan Magazines and Titan Books.-2000 AD:...
of Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
showed an interest and offered to act as my agent." Through Landau, Bolland saw his strip published across Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in publications including Linus, Cimoc and (in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
) Pox. Such widespread exposure had its downside, when the original artwork went missing, meaning that "[s]ubsequent prints of Mamoulian have [had to be] made from [Bolland's] photocopies." Disenchanted by the loss of (more of) his artwork, and with "European interest... waning," Bolland "lost interest in doing more." Subsequent to the collection Bolland Strips!, however, interest from Negative Burn (now published by Desperado Publishing
Desperado Publishing
Desperado Publishing is an American independent comic book publisher, established in 2004. Located in Norcross, Georgia, Desperado's president is Joe Pruett, its creative director is Stephan Nilson, and its director of business development is former Caliber Press publisher Gary Reed.-Overview:With...
) "has coaxed new pages out of" the artist.
The Actress and the Bishop
Bolland's other "personal project" is his occasional strip The Actress and the Bishop. This strip's origins date back to 1985, when Frederick Manzano commissioned Bolland to "draw 6 plates in my own portfolio bearing my name" for Éditions Déesse, a "small ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
based comic-store-cum-publishers, and Bolland drew in one of the six plates an elderly Bishop (whose face echoed "shamelessly" the work of Alberto Breccia
Alberto Breccia
Alberto Breccia was an Uruguay-born Argentine comics artist and writer.-Biography:Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Breccia moved with his parents to Buenos Aires, Argentina when he was three years old...
) and a femme fatale Actress. Bolland was subsequently approached by Garry Leach
Garry Leach
-Biography:Garry Leach studied Graphic Design at St. Martin's School of Art. He was first noted for his early work for 2000 AD, which was mainly on one-off stories featuring Dan Dare and M.A.C.H. 1. He then became a fan-favourite for his work on the series The VCs.In 1981 he joined Dez Skinn's...
and Dave Elliot, who "were launching a new comic anthology called A1." They asked Bolland to draw - and write - "a few pages for the first issue," and Bolland recalls that it "was the first time I'd been commissioned to write and draw anything." Actively seeking to write a story that wouldn't "fit into any identifiable genre," Bolland found the description 'Whimsy' reached by Leach and Elliot to be very apt, and "rooted in the Englishness" of the artists life.
Written in rhyming couplets, the pair "look like the punchline of a smutty joke," but their creator instead "wanted the reader to see them in a benign and non-judgemental light" - the antithesis of "Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
, Frankie Howerd
Frankie Howerd
Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...
"Oo er, Mrs!"... [rather] like the owl and the pussycat
The Owl and the Pussycat
"The Owl and the Pussycat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1871.- Background :Lear wrote the poem for a three-year-old girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine Symonds...
setting sail in a pea green boat." Three pages in A1 #1 were followed by another three in A1 #3, while a "longer story with 110 verses... gathered dust for 17 years" until publication in the compendium hardback Bolland Strips!.
The Art of Brian Bolland
In 2006 a comprehensively sizable retrospective of Bolland's work was published under the title The Art of Brian Bolland, featuring contextualising references and copious text - 33,500 words - written by the artist alongside hundreds of pieces of artwork and rare photographs. The Art of Brian Bolland covers all of the artists' work to date, under an introduction from close friend Dave GibbonsDave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
, an autobiographical essay and sections ranging from his "Influences" (featuring near-unseen examples of Bolland's childhood art), through each of the decades from the 1960s to the present. The book also showcases several of Bolland's own photographs taken in Asia and Russia over twenty years of travelling.
Non-comics work
An accomplished photographer (examples of Bolland's work are, for example, included in the Image/Desperado book The Art of Brian Bolland), as of May 2008, Bolland noted on his website that he is "working on a book about a week I spent in Burma in 1988." (Some photographs taken by Bolland in Burma are reprinted in the ImageImage Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
-published retrospective The Art of Brian Bolland.)
Much in demand for advertisements, Bolland has produced work down the years for bookshops - including pioneering UK Sci-Fi/Comics sellers such as Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed
Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed (bookshop)
Dark They Were And Golden Eyed in London was the largest science fiction bookshop and comic store in Europe during the 1970s. Specialising in science fiction, occultism, and Atlantis, the central London shop also played a key role in bringing American underground comics to the UK...
and Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet (bookstore)
Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States of America, after the feature film of the same name....
- and film festivals (including a poster for BFI Southbank
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
's July/August 2008 Comic-Book Movies series). His work has appeared on the covers of, and inside, numerous publications over the decades, ranging from fanzines to several covers for London-based magazine Time Out and other professional, internationally sold magazines.
Bolland has also produced posters for local theatre groups' amateur stage productions, most notably for his local "village panto
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
" production of Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
in 2004.
Personal life
Bolland married his girlfriend, illustrator and sometime-collaborator Rachel Birkett in 1981. She later gave up illustration "to become a cook in a vegetarian restaurant, although she has since assisted her husband with his work, acting as colorist, inker, co-artist and ghost. The two have a son, Harry.Wins
Bolland and his work have received considerable recognition in the both the British and American comics industry. He was awarded the "best newcomer" award by the Society of Strip Illustration in 1977 (the SSI "was formed in about 1976 or 1977" making this one of their first awards).In 1982, he received an Inkpot Award
Inkpot Award
The Inkpot Award, bestowed annually since 1974 by Comic-Con International, is given to some of the professionals in comic book, comic strip, animation, science fiction, and related pop-culture fields, who are guests of that organization's yearly multigenre fan convention, commonly known as...
, and the following year (1983), he was named "Favourite Artist" in the British section of the Eagle Awards.
In 1989, Moore and Bolland's The Killing Joke received an Eisner Award
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
for "Best Graphic Album," while Bolland was named separately as "Best Artist/Penciller/Inker" for the same work. The same year, Bolland won three Harvey Award
Harvey Award
The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
s; two in the same categories for the same work - "Best Artist" and "Best Graphic Album" - while the third was also The Killing Joke which was separately honoured as the winner of the "Best Single Issue" award.
In 1992, Bolland won an Eisner Award after being named "Best Cover Artist," an honour he received three years in a row (1992–1994), and twice subsequently (1999, 2001) for various works. To date, he ties with James Jean
James Jean
James Jean is a Taiwanese-American visual artist, known for both his commercial work and fine art gallery work. He is known in the American comics industry as a cover artist for various books published by DC Comics, as well as for his work for Prada, ESPN and Atlantic Records...
(Fables
Fables (comics)
Fables is a comic book series created by writer Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics's Vertigo imprint beginning in 2002. The series deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore – referring to themselves as "Fables" – who have been forced out of their Homelands by "The...
cover artist) for five Cover Artist Eisners.
In 2007, Bolland added to his Eisner Award wins when The Art of Brian Bolland won the "Best Comics-Related Book" award.
Nominations
The mini-series Camelot 3000Camelot 3000
Camelot 3000 is an American twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Mike W. Barr and penciled by Brian Bolland. It was published by DC Comics from 1982 to 1985 as one of its first direct market projects, and as its first maxi-series.-Plot:...
, which he created with Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels.-Biography:Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 , for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man...
, was nominated for the 1985 Kirby Award
Kirby Award
The Jack Kirby Award for achievement in comic books was presented from 1985-1987 by Amazing Heroes magazine, and managed by Fantagraphics employee Dave Olbrich...
for Best Finite Series, narrowly losing to Wolfman
Marv Wolfman
Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.-1960s:...
and Pérez
George Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...
's Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 12-issue American comic book limited series and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity...
. In 2002, he was beaten by Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
to the title of "Best Artist Ever," at the short-lived National Comics Awards
National Comics Awards
National Comics Awards are given out on an annual basis for comic book and related material published in the United Kingdom the previous year.-History:...
, placing him in rare company.
DC
- BatmanBatman (comic book)Batman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939. Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication in the spring of 1940...
#400 (among other artists) (1986) - Batman: The Killing JokeBatman: The Killing JokeBatman: The Killing Joke is an influential one-shot superhero graphic novel written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland. First published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained in print since then, and has also been reprinted as part of the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan...
, graphic novel (1988) - Batman Black and White, miniseries, #4 (1996)
- Camelot 3000Camelot 3000Camelot 3000 is an American twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Mike W. Barr and penciled by Brian Bolland. It was published by DC Comics from 1982 to 1985 as one of its first direct market projects, and as its first maxi-series.-Plot:...
, limited series, #1-12 (1982–85) - DC Universe: LegaciesDC Universe: LegaciesDC Universe: Legacies are a 2010-2011 ten-issue comic book limited series written by Len Wein and published by DC Comics. It details the person an admirer of Golden Age of Comic Books-era, Silver Age of Comic Books-era, Bronze Age of Comic Books-era, and Modern Age of Comic Books-era superheroes in...
, limited series, (Atom backup story) #7 (2010) - Justice League of America #200 (among other artists) (1982)
- Madame XanaduMadame XanaduMadame Xanadu is a fictional character, a comic book mystic published by DC Comics. The character is identified with Nimue, the sorceress from Arthurian mythology made popular by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.-Publication history:...
(backup story) #1 (1981) - Mystery in SpaceMystery in SpaceMystery in Space is the name of two science fiction comic book series published in the United States by DC Comics, then known as National Comics. The first series ran for 110 issues from 1951 - 1966, with a further 7 issues continuing the numbering during a 1980s revival of the title...
#115 (1981) - OutsidersOutsiders (comics)The Outsiders are a fictional DC Comics superhero team. As its name suggests, the team consists of superheroes who allegedly do not fit the norms of the mainstream superhero community, namely the Justice League....
(MetamorphoMetamorphoMetamorpho is a fictional character, a superhero in the . He is a founding member of the Outsiders, and has also joined multiple incarnations of the Justice League.-Publication history:...
backup story) #18 (1987) - The SpiritThe SpiritThe Spirit is a crime-fighting fictional character created by writer-artist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940 in "The Spirit Section", the colloquial name given to a 16-page Sunday supplement, distributed to 20 newspapers by the Register and Tribune Syndicate and reaching five million...
#17 (among other artists) (2011) - Strange AdventuresStrange AdventuresStrange Adventures was the title of several American comic books published by DC Comics, most notably a long-running science fiction anthology that began in 1950.-Original series:...
, miniseries, #1 (1999) - Wonder WomanWonder WomanWonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
, vol. 2, Annual #1 (among other artists) (1988)
DC
- Adventure ComicsAdventure ComicsAdventure Comics was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1935 to 1983 and then revamped from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues , making it the fifth-longest-running DC series, behind Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, and Batman...
#475 (1980) - Action ComicsAction ComicsAction Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
#571, 609 (1985–88) - Amazing Transformations of Jimmy OlsenJimmy OlsenJimmy Olsen is a fictional character who appears mainly in DC Comics’ Superman stories. Olsen is a young photojournalist working for the Daily Planet. He is close friends with Lois Lane, Clark Kent/Superman and Perry White...
(2007) - Animal ManAnimal ManAnimal Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . As a result of being in proximity to an exploding extraterrestrial spaceship, Buddy Baker acquires the ability to temporarily “borrow” the abilities of animals...
#1-63 (1988–93), Annual #1 (1993), Deus Ex Machina (2003), Last Days of Animal Man #1-6 (2009) - AquamanAquamanAquaman is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in More Fun Comics #73 . Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles, Aquaman later starred in several volumes of a solo title...
, vol. 3, #39 (2006) - Atom Special #2 (1995)
- Batman #445-447 (1990)
- Batman ChroniclesBatman ChroniclesThe Batman Chronicles is a series of comics published by DC Comics from 1995 to 2001, which lasted 23 quarterly issues and a series of collections.-Publication history:...
#3 (1996) - Batman: Gotham KnightsBatman: Gotham KnightsBatman: Gotham Knights was a monthly, fictional comic book series published by DC Comics. The original intent of this book was to feature the exploits of Batman and his extended family - Alfred Pennyworth, Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, Oracle, Catwoman, etc...
#2-47 (2000–04) - Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #50, 119 (1993–96)
- Batman: Shadow of the BatBatman: Shadow of the BatBatman: Shadow of the Bat was a comic book series featuring Batman, published by DC Comics. The series ran for 96 issues, from 1992 to 2000. The stories took place in Batman's then-current continuity along with Detective Comics and Batman, in contrast to Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, which...
#87 (1999) - Batman Villains: Secret Files and Origins #1 (1998)
- Blood & WaterBlood & WaterBlood & Water was a 2003 five-issue horror comic book limited series written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Tomm Coker, with covers by Brian Bolland...
, miniseries, #1-5 (2003) - CatwomanCatwomanCatwoman is a fictional character associated with DC Comics' Batman franchise. Historically a supervillain, the character was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, partially inspired by Kane's cousin, Ruth Steel...
: Nine Lives of the Feline Fatale (2004) - Challengers of the UnknownChallengers of the UnknownThe Challengers of the Unknown is a group of fictional characters in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jack Kirby, or co-created with Dave Wood , this quartet of adventurers explored science fictional and apparent paranormal occurrences and faced fantastic menaces.Scripts for the first...
, vol. 2, #1 (1991) - CongorillaCongorillaCongorilla, originally a human character known as Congo Bill, is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and Vertigo Comics. Originally co-created by writer Whitney Ellsworth and artist George Papp, he was later transformed into Congorilla by Robert...
, 4-issue limited series, #1-2 (1992) - DC Comics Presents (Julius SchwartzJulius SchwartzJulius "Julie" Schwartz was a comic book and pulp magazine editor, and a science fiction agent and prominent fan. He was born in the Bronx, New York...
tribute):- Atom (2004)
- Green LanternHal JordanHarold "Hal" Jordan is a DC Comics superhero known as Green Lantern, the first human shown to join the Green Lantern Corps and a founding member of the Justice League of America. Jordan is the second DC Comics character to adopt the Green Lantern moniker...
(2004)
- DC Universe: The Stories of Alan MooreDC Universe: The Stories of Alan MooreDC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore is a 2006 trade paperback collection of comic books written by Alan Moore for DC Comics from 1985 to 1988, published by Titan Books...
(2006) - Detective ComicsDetective ComicsDetective Comics is an American comic book series published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27 . It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and...
#559, Annual #2 - Doom PatrolDoom PatrolThe Doom Patrol is a superhero team appearing in publications from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80...
, vol. 2, #64, 75 - Doom Patrol Archives #2-3
- Elvira's House of MysteryHouse of MysteryThe House of Mystery is the name of several horror-mystery-suspense anthology comic book series. It had a companion series, House of Secrets.-Genesis:...
#1 (1986) - FlashWally WestThe Flash is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. He is the first Kid Flash and the third Flash....
, vol. 2, #164-178, 180-187 (2000–02) - FlashBarry AllenThe Flash is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Comics universe. He is the second character known as the Flash. The character first appeared in Showcase #4 , created by writers Robert Kanigher and John Broome and penciler Carmine Infantino. His name combines talk show hosts Barry Gray...
: The Return of Barry Allen (1996) - Greatest JokerJoker (comics)The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...
Stories Ever Told, softcover edition (1989) - Green ArrowGreen ArrowGreen Arrow is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in November 1941. His secret identity is Oliver Queen, billionaire and former mayor of fictional Star City...
, vol. 2, #32 (2004) - Green LanternHal JordanHarold "Hal" Jordan is a DC Comics superhero known as Green Lantern, the first human shown to join the Green Lantern Corps and a founding member of the Justice League of America. Jordan is the second DC Comics character to adopt the Green Lantern moniker...
, vol. 2, #127, 130-131 (1980) - Green Lantern CorpsGreen Lantern CorpsThe Green Lantern Corps is the name of a fictional intergalactic military/police force appearing in comics published by DC Comics. They patrol the farthest reaches of the DC Universe at the behest of the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa...
#45 (2010) - Huntress: Dark Knight Daughter (2006)
- The InvisiblesThe InvisiblesThe Invisibles is a comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication....
# - Jack of FablesJack of FablesJack of Fables was a spin-off of the comic book Fables, both of which were published by DC Comics as part of that company's Vertigo imprint. It shows the adventures of Jack Horner after his exile from Fabletown. A preview of the series was shown in Fables #50, and the series itself debuted in July...
#12-45 (2007–08) - JLA: Zatanna´s Search (2004)
- Joker: Last Laugh, miniseries, #1, 6 (2001)
- Jonah HexJonah HexJonah Woodson Hex is a Western comic book antihero created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. Hex is a surly and cynical bounty hunter whose face is horribly scarred on the right side. Despite his poor reputation and personality, Hex is bound by a personal...
, vol. 2, #6 - Justice League of America #189-190 (1981)
- Legion of Super-HeroesLegion of Super-HeroesThe Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 30th and 31st centuries of the . The team first appears in Adventure Comics #247 , and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino....
, vol. 2, Annual #4 (1988) - OusidersOutsiders (comics)The Outsiders are a fictional DC Comics superhero team. As its name suggests, the team consists of superheroes who allegedly do not fit the norms of the mainstream superhero community, namely the Justice League....
#45 (1987) - RobinTim DrakeTimothy "Tim" Drake is a superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics and in related media. The character was created by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick. From 1989 to 2009, he was known as Robin in the Batman comics, becoming the third character to take up the identity...
, miniseries, #1-5 (1991) - Secret OriginsSecret OriginsSecret Origins is the title of three American comic book series published by DC Comics.The title began in 1961 and for one issue, all reprints. The title Secret Origins of Super Heroes went onto a second series, also reprints, which ran for seven issues from 1973-1974...
#7, Special #1 (1986–89) - Silver AgeSilver ageA silver age is a name often given to a particular period within a history, typically as a lesser and later successor to a golden age, the metal silver generally being valuable, but less so than gold.-Greek myth:...
#1 (2000) - ShowcaseShowcase (comics)Showcase has been the title of several comic anthology series published by DC Comics. The general theme of these series has been to feature new and minor characters as a way to gauge reader interest in them, without the difficulty and risk of featuring "untested" characters in their own ongoing...
´93 #3 (1993) - SpectreSpectre (comics)The Spectre is a fictional character and superhero who has appeared in numerous comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in a next issue ad in More Fun Comics #51 and received his first story the following month, #52...
#42 (painted cover, 1996) - SupermanSuperman (comic book)Superman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character Superman began as one of several anthology features in the National Periodical Publications comic book Action Comics #1 in June 1938...
#422 (1986) - Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" is a 1986 comic book story featuring the DC Comics character of Superman. The story was published in two parts, beginning in Superman #423 and ending in Action Comics #583, both published in September 1986...
The Deluxe Edition (2009) - Superman and Batman: World´s Funnest (2000)
- Swamp ThingSwamp ThingSwamp Thing, a fictional character, is a plant elemental in the created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. He first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in a stand-alone horror story set in the early 20th century . The Swamp Thing then returned in his own series, set in the contemporary world and in...
, vol. 2, #151-153 (1995), Annual #3 (1987) - Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, miniseries, #1-3 (1981)
- Tales of the Teen Titans #63-65 (1986)
- Vamps, miniseries, #1-6 (1994–95)
- Wonder WomanWonder WomanWonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
, vol. 2, #63-100 (1992–95) - ZatannaZatannaZatanna Zatara is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman vol. 1 #4...
#1-6 (2010), - Zatanna: Everyday Magic (2003)
Collected works
- Bolland Strips (112 pages, Knockabout ComicsKnockabout ComicsKnockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.-History:It was formed by Tony Bennett and Carol Bennett in the 1980s to distribute Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers titles as well as British work from creators such as Hunt Emerson and Bryan...
, May 2005, ISBN 0861661508) - The Art of Brian Bolland (326 pages, Image ComicsImage ComicsImage Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
, November 2006, ISBN 1582406030)
Other sources
- Salisbury, Mark, "Brian Bolland" in Artists on Comic Art (Titan BooksTitan BooksTitan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
, 2000) ISBN 1-84023-186-6, pp. 10–29 - Brian Bolland at Barney
- Brian Bolland at LambiekLambiekLambiek is a comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded in 1968 by Kees Kousemaker .It has held exhibitions of art by comic creators, including Robert Crumb, Daniel Clowes, Erik Kriek, André Franquin, Tanino Liberatore and Chris Ware...
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