A prolific figure in the comic book community, Brian Bolland descended upon Central SAINT Martins to give a talk on his life as a comic book artist. I wont deny the fact that I had maybe the slightest of fangasms when finding out i got the chance to meet a living legend. This great man gave an interesting insight into what he calls, “not a proper grown up job.”

 Brian was once himself a student of the Central School of Art and Design, on a post graduate course in Graphic design between 1973-1974, and has since moved onto working with some of the most well known writers and publishers. Winner of the Eisner Ward for best cover art three times in a row 1992-1994, as well as one for best artist for his work on Batman: The Killing Joke.

 His one-hour talk, which included a commentary of some of his artwork, documenting his early years as an underground illustrator, to his well-known works including his collaboration on the hit Batman graphic novel The Killing Joke. Brian’s presentation also gave attendees a rare glimpse at early production sketches, as well as pencil and inked line art from comics ranging from Britain’s 2000AD to American comic giant DC.

  What many people wanted to know is how involved in the creative process Brian had with the comics that he writes for. Brian Bolland created the designs for various characters in 2000AD, including the notorious Judge Death of Judge Dredd fame, a character created with little direction or conference with the story creators, “the script described a scary guy, like Judge Dredd only scary.” Judge Death, as well as the other Dark Judges Bolland helped design, have become iconic and some of the most loved characters in Comics.

 The event also served as a great Question and Answer session for fans of the artist. Brian talked of his desire to be a comic artist from a very early age, and his fascination with dinosaurs, which ultimately ended up with him discovering a plethora of Comics from DC with the purchase of Tomahawk due to, “the whacking great monster on the front cover.”

 As one of the leaders of the surge of British Artists to move to America in the late 70s, Brian Bolland has gained international notoriety and has world renowned for his cover work on title such as Batman, Green Lantern and Animal Man. Although shying away from internal comic art due to a reluctance to have others ink and colour his work, and wanting to illustrate his own stories, Bolland has been continuously penning his own short stories and single page strips, which have recently been collected in the book, “Bolland Strips!” Brian is also gearing up for an eight-page “The Spirit” comic in the near future.

 With the dawn of the digital age, gone are the days of using pens and brushes to ink and colour pieces. Nowadays all of Brian’s work is done using the magic of Photoshop, a prime example of this being the covers that he made for the comic series The Invisibles. Although some purist would say that this takes away some of the organic feel of the art, it has allowed Brian to become more experimental with his art, evident with many of his covers now featuring digital colouring and photo-montage. This new direction allowed for some rather hypnotic and subliminal covers that helped count down to the millennium with The Invisibles third series, comics twelve to one.

 Of course a man can’t be expected to stick to the convention all his life, and Bolland’s forays into personal projects have been both weird and wonderful. Trained as a true artist the classic way (lots of life drawings), its no surprise that Brian has drawn many nudes in his career (many of whom popped up in the talk), though the dabbling with more risque poses, evident with many pieces of art featuring characters in Bondage, shows a dark side of the artist just waiting to come out. Bolland’s almost autobiographical Mr. Mamoulian is testament to this, following Robert Crumb-esque stream of consciousness that reveals some of Bolland’s inner thoughts and feelings. 

 An eye opening talk from some one as influential as Brain Bolland, it is with great hope that he comes back in the near future to talk once again.

Words by James Ridler

The Joker is (C) DC Comics

Art by Brian Bolland