Brian Bolland - DC Comics

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 Staton 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 ," after which he produced "a trickle of covers ] 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 ."

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 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... 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 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.

Bolland drew a pinup for Superman #400 (Oct. 1984) and its companion portfolio. 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 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 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... 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 "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... 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 first ideas for covers being turned down." Eventually, Bolland was "told 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 some time), Bolland "said I'd go right away."