Brian John Bolland (; born 26 March 1951)Salisbury, Mark, Artists on Comic Art (Titan Books, 2000) , p. 11 is a British comics artist. Best known in the United Kingdom as one of the 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 alongside author Mike W. Barr on Camelot 3000, which was DC Comics's first 12-issue comicbook maxiseries created for the direct market.
Bolland illustrated the critically acclaimed 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, an origin story for Batman supervillain the Joker, with writer Alan Moore. He gradually shifted to working primarily as a cover artist, producing the majority of his work for DC Comics. Bolland created cover artwork for the Animal Man, Wonder Woman, and Batman: Gotham Knights superhero comic book series. In 1996, he drew and self-penned a Batman: Black and White story, "An Innocent Guy". For DC's Vertigo imprint, Bolland has done covers for The Invisibles, Jack of Fables, and a number of one-shots and miniseries.
In addition to interior and cover art, Bolland has also produced several comic strips and pin-ups as both writer and artist. His most notable are the semi-autobiographical humour strip Mr. Mamoulian and the whimsical rhyming strip The Actress and the Bishop. All strips of both projects were included in the Bolland Strips! collection book, published in 2005. In 2006, he compiled the art book The Art of Brian Bolland, showcasing all of Bolland's work to date and also his work as a photographer.
Early life
Brian Bolland was born in Butterwick, Lincolnshire, England, to Albert "A.J." John, a fenland farmer, and Lillie Bolland.Bolland, Brian, "On Sale Everywhere" in Joe Pruett (ed.). The Art of Brian Bolland, (Image Comics, 2006), , pp. 10–15 He grew up in a small village near Boston, Lincolnshire until he was 18 years old. When American comics began to be imported into England, , Bolland hadn't read any comics before the age of ten, but by 1960 he was intrigued by Dell Comics' Dinosaurus!, which developed into a childhood interest in dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes. Comics including Turok, Son of Stone and DC Comics' Tomahawk soon followed, and it was this burgeoning comics collection that would help inspire Bolland to draw his own comics around the age of ten with ideas such as "Insect League."Bolland & Pruett, "The 1960s – Insect League" in The Art of Brian Bolland, pp. 22–23 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." These 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]," Bolland recalled. 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 wooden bookcase he'd built in school.
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, Sid Greene, Joe Kubert, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Nick Cardy, and 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. He did however enjoy UK comics, including newspaper strips such as Jeff Hawke by Syd Jordan and Carol Day by David Wright,Bolland & Pruett, "Influences – Carol Day by David Wright" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 17 and Valiant which featured Mytek the Mighty by Eric Bradbury and Steel Claw by Jesus Blasco.Bolland & Pruett, "Influences – The Steel Claw by Jesus Blasco" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 19 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.Salisbury, p. 10
Growing up as an only child with parents that had no interest in art, literature, or music, he embraced the late 1960s pop culture explosion of pirate radio stations, experimental music, recreational drugs, psychedelia, Oz Magazine, "dropping out" 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 beginning in 1969, learning graphic design and art history. Learning to draw comics, however, was an art he self-taught, 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:
UK career
Fanzines and early work Bolland studied graphic design at Norwich University of the Arts. While at art school, Bolland drew and self-published a couple of fanzines and his work was published in British underground magazines Frendz, International Times and OZ.Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – Time Out Illustration" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 27 In 1971, his friend Dave Harwood entered printed mass production with his RDH Comix, for which Bolland provided a cover (featuring Norwich Cathedral).Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – Epic & RDH Comix" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 25 Also in 1971, Time Out – an underground magazine rapidly reinventing itself into "the biggest weekly listings magazine in London" – gave Bolland his first compensated workBolland & Pruett, "The 1980s – Time Out" in The Art of Brian Bolland, pp. 142–143 producing an illustration of blues guitarist 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 the Central School of Art and Design in London 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.Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – Suddenly and Little Nympho" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 29 He also contributed a smaller, strip entitled "The Mixed-Up Kid" to the Central School of Art's Galloping Maggot, the college newspaper.Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – The Mixed-Up Kid" in The Art of Brian Bolland, pp. 34–35
2000 AD, Judge Death and Walter the Wobot In 1972, Bolland attended the British Comic Art Convention at the Waverley Hotel in London, and met several influential figures in the current British comics scene, including Dez Skinn, Nick Landau, Richard Burton, Angus McKie and – crucially – Dave Gibbons.Bolland & Pruett, "1970s – Powerman" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 37 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 GibbonsSalisbury, p. 13 joined art agency Bardon Press Features. He soon found work doing a number of 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, with Bolland first drawing Powerman No. 2. 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."Salisbury, p. 12 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 & Pruett, "The 1970s – Help from Friends" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 42
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 IPC was planning to publish."Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – 2000AD" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 57 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 2000 AD in May '77 with Prog 11" (7 May 1977; signed "Bollo"). Bolland recalls of those early days that:
Other covers followed for nearly a third of the first 30 progs, 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 (3 Dec 77) and soon was established as a regular artist on the series.Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – My First Dredd Nov 1977" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 42 "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 2000 AD continuity between characters," Bolland seeing this as a "strength... hav[ing] one great new idea each week."Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – Dredd Stories and 2000AD covers" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 72 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 ongoing sagas, starting with "The Lunar Olympics". Bolland contributed artwork to such 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"Bolland & Pruett, "The 1970s – The Muties Mountain Double Page Spread" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 76 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.