66 Facts About Brian Bolland

Brian Bolland gradually shifted to working primarily as a cover artist, producing the majority of his work for DC Comics.

Brian Bolland created cover artwork for the Animal Man, Wonder Woman, and Batman: Gotham Knights superhero comic book series.

For DC's Vertigo imprint, Brian Bolland has done covers for The Invisibles, Jack of Fables, and a number of one-shots and miniseries.

In 2006, he compiled the art book The Art of Brian Bolland, showcasing all of Bolland's work to date and his work as a photographer.

Brian Bolland grew up in a small village near Boston, Lincolnshire until he was 18 years old.

Brian Bolland did however enjoy UK comics, including newspaper strips such as Jeff Hawke by Syd Jordan and Carol Day by David Wright, and Valiant which featured Mytek the Mighty by Eric Bradbury and Steel Claw by Jesus Blasco.

Brian Bolland studied graphic design at Norwich University of the Arts.

In 1971, his friend Dave Harwood entered printed mass production with his RDH Comix, for which Brian Bolland provided a cover.

Brian Bolland contributed a smaller, strip entitled "The Mixed-Up Kid" to the Central School of Art's Galloping Maggot, the college newspaper.

Gibbons and Brian Bolland were to draw alternate issues, with Brian Bolland first drawing Powerman No 2.

Already familiar with Nick Landau, when another artist dropped out, Brian Bolland was called directly to complete a Judge Dredd story in Prog 41 and soon was established as a regular artist on the series.

Brian Bolland provided many of the covers for these compendium issues.

Brian 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.

In between Dredd assignments Brian Bolland drew horror strips for Dez Skinn'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 Brian Bolland to ink it.

Brian Bolland 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.

Brian Bolland 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, Brian Bolland was approached by Syd Jordan to ghost some episodes of Jordan's newspaper strip Jeff Hawke, after fellow fandom-pro artist Paul Neary had already done a fair number of them.

Brian Bolland contributed "A Miracle of Elisha" to Knockabout Comics' Old Bailey OZ Trial Special, written because Old Testament history had piqued the interest of Brian Bolland when living near the British Museum.

Brian Bolland drew several covers for DC Comics, starting with Green Lantern No 127, as well as some fill-in stories.

For editor Julius Schwartz, Brian Bolland drew covers around which writers would craft stories, which included two Starro covers for Justice League of America No 189 and 190 and Superman No 422.

In 1982, DC editor Len Wein chose Bolland to be the artist on DC's Camelot 3000 12-issue maxi-series, with writer Mike W Barr.

Brian Bolland was not familiar with the Arthurian legends, and initially conceived Merlin as a comical character.

The series was graced with considerable media hype, and Brian Bolland found himself invited to San Diego Comic-Con and other conventions.

Brian Bolland was allowed to pick between two inkers, but opted to ink his covers himself.

Brian Bolland was uncomfortable with having a third party ink his pencils, and later admitted that he put a high level of detail into his art for the series to leave as little room as possible for the inker to creatively reinterpret his work.

Brian Bolland recalled that he and DC spoke often about how long the series would take to complete, and because the series was inked by other artists, he started off enthusiastically working on issues.

Brian Bolland drew a pinup for Superman No 400 and its companion portfolio.

In 1986, Brian Bolland was one of several artists who contributed pages to the anniversary issue Batman No 400, his offering featuring villains Ra's al Ghul and Catwoman.

Brian Bolland had expressed some dissatisfaction with the final book, regretting that its impending schedule for release meant he could not colour the book himself, with John Higgins instead being the colorist.

In March 2008, the twentieth anniversary hardcover edition of The Killing Joke saw the release of the artwork as Brian Bolland intended it, and is completely recoloured by Brian Bolland himself.

In 1996, Brian 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.

Excited by the opportunity, he remarks that a misunderstanding resulted in his being unaware of the first issue being scheduled, resulting in Dave Johnson drawing No 1 instead, and Brian Bolland joining at issue No 2.

Brian Bolland admits that he works slowly, and consequently finds covers easier to supply than whole story artwork.

Brian Bolland noted simply that he began to focus on covers simply because they were the assignments he was offered.

Brian Bolland adds that for artists like him that are well known for covers, editors will usually ask for pin-ups instead.

Brian Bolland cites the influence of Dave Gibbons, who was himself enthusiastic about the capabilities of computers.

Brian Bolland recalls that, in the wake of The Killing Joke, he received plenty of work offers, but didn't feel ready to make a long commitment.

The first 63 issues of Animal Man featuring Brian Bolland's artwork covered the tenures of writers Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Tom Veitch and Jamie Delano, with Brian Bolland's images maintaining a continuity of style and imagery while the interior work underwent several changes of style and storyline.

Brian Bolland would find a scene from the interior art that appeared to make for a good cover, or use a hook on the cover that outlined the plot of the issue.

Coincidentally, when a time travel story arc saw Brian 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.

Generally, Brian Bolland recalls she was excited for his ideas, although Morrison had approval on all designs as the series creator.

Newly embracing the use of a computer, Brian Bolland cites The Invisibles Vol 2 No 11 as his earliest computer-assisted piece of artwork.

The covers for the third volume of The Invisibles were done using a computer, in part because Vertigo had requested "painted" covers and Brian Bolland felt that line and flat color wouldn't suffice.

Brian Bolland's style includes the initial 'rough' outline stage, making it easy for the publisher to "sign off" on his designs.

Brian Bolland contributed a large number of covers to Wonder Woman, beginning with William Messner Loebs's first issue after that author took over writer George Perez's 1987 post-Crisis relaunch.

Brian Bolland recalls his time drawing Wonder Woman fondly, as one of the few occasions he actually sought work rather than being sought for work.

From 2007 to 2011, Brian Bolland was the cover artist on Vertigo's Fables spin-off Jack of Fables, replacing previous cover artist James Jean.

Long-standing familiarity with DC characters and staff, coupled with high demand have combined with other factors to mean that the vast majority of Brian Bolland's work has been for DC Comics.

Brian Bolland 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, Brian 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.

Brian Bolland recalled that the cover of the tenth issue would've had the style of Herge's The Adventures of Tintin, but it was cancelled after eight issues.

Brian Bolland is noted by some for his use of bondage imagery, although in a humorous self-referential comment, he quotes this "fact", and states that he is unsure of the sentiment's accuracy.

Brian 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, resembling a hedgehog, although Brian Bolland acknowledges that Armenian-American film director Rouben Mamoulian likely provided an inspiration on the name front.

Brian Bolland wrote in 2006 that Nick Landau of Titan Books was impressed by Mr Mamoulian and became Brian Bolland's unofficial agent.

Brian Bolland was approached by Garry Leach and Dave Elliot, who were publishing a new comic anthology series, A1.

Actively seeking to write a story that wouldn't be classified as any particular genre, Brian Bolland found the description 'Whimsy' reached by Leach and Elliot to be very apt, and "rooted in the Englishness" of the artists life.

The Art of Brian Bolland covers all of the artist's work to date, under an introduction from close friend Dave Gibbons, an autobiographical essay and sections ranging from his "Influences", through each of the decades from the 1960s to the present.

In May 2008, Brian Bolland announced on his website that he had begun making a photo book of a week he spent in Burma in 1988.

Brian Bolland's 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.

Brian Bolland has produced posters for local theatre groups' amateur stage productions, most notably for his local "village panto" production of Beauty and the Beast in 2004.

Brian Bolland married his girlfriend, illustrator and sometime-collaborator Rachel Birkett in 1981.

Brian Bolland later gave up illustration and became a cook for a vegetarian restaurant, although she has since assisted her husband with his work, acting as colourist, inker, co-artist and ghost.

Brian Bolland was awarded the "Best Newcomer" award by the Society of Strip Illustration in 1977.

In 1992, Brian Bolland won an Eisner Award after being named "Best Cover Artist," an honour he received three years in a row, and twice subsequently for various works.

In 2007, Bolland added to his Eisner Award wins when The Art of Brian Bolland won the "Best Comics-Related Book" award.