Spearheading the British Invasion
Bolland was among the very first comics creator 'discovered' by the American comics industry, spearheading the so-called "British Invasion" in 1979/80. Bolland recalls that his big break came when Joe Staton attended the Summer 1979 Comicon, and, needing somewhere to work (on
Green Lantern) while in the UK, stayed with the Bollands. Staton called his editor Jack Harris and said 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. 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 Perez 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."
Camelot 3000
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.
Batman
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.
Batman: The Killing Joke
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
- "by the time Alan had finished Watchmen 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 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 "surplas to requirement" in the wake of Frank Miller's groundbreaking
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
Black and White
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
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
Batman: Gotham Knights
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."
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.
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."
Animal Man
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
The first 63 issues of
Animal Man 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.
Bolland brought these tactics to bear right through his issues of
Animal Man, and also to Morrison's next big project:
The Invisibles.
The Invisibles
Bolland's covers adorn the whole second and third volumes of Grant Morrison'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 symbolism 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."
Wonder Woman
Bolland also contributed a large number of covers to
Wonder Woman, beginning with William Messner Loebs's first issue (#63, June 1992) after that author took over writer (and artist) George Perez'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 Phil Jimenez. 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."
Other
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'
The Flash (from roughs by series editor Joey Cavalieri) and the Batman anthology series
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.)