Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.61: Brian Bolland

No.61: Brian Bolland

Bolland is a British comic artist whose work has been shaped by the likes of DC’s Silver Age masters Carmine Infantino, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth and Gil Kane.Words: Joel Meadows…

photo by Luigi Novi

It was during the late 1960s when he was in his teens that he discovered British fanzines like Oz and International Times. His first paid work was on London listings magazine Time Out, creating a portrait of blues guitarist Buddy Guy. It was his attendance of the British Comic Art Convention at the Waverly Hotel in Holborn, London where he met many of the future movers and shakers in British comics including fellow future superstar Dave Gibbons, Dez Skinn, who went on to found Warrior and Nick Landau, who still runs Titan Books to this day. Bolland drew African superhero Power Man with Gibbons which led to his work on 2000AD at the title’s inception.

He drew AD’s iconic figure Judge Dredd and his early work was influenced by fellow 2000AD artist Mick McMahon but he soon moved away, creating his own niche as an illustrator.

Bolland drew the iconic Judge Death Lives storyline in 1981 which included the now infamous ‘Gaze into The Fist Of Dredd’ panel.

His work at 2000AD got him noticed at DC where he began to create covers for its Green Lantern series. This led to him collaborating with writer Mike W Barr on epic fantasy series Camelot 3000 also at DC. 

Bolland worked on DC’s Justice League of America 200 and Batman 400 anniversary issues and in 1988 he teamed up with writer Alan Moore on Batman: The Killing Joke, a one shot that attempted to tell the origin of the Dark Knight Detective’s most lethal foe, the Joker.

During the 1980s,1990s and 2000s, he spent much of his time creating covers for books like Vertigo’s Animal Man, DC’s Wonder Woman and Vertigo/ DC’s Invisibles book written by Grant Morrison.

It is rare to see interior work from him these days but he continues to be an artist with a huge international following. Bolland is a rarity in that he is an adept storyteller but also a very talented cover artist as well. His work embodies the spirit of comics offering a classic yet contemporary approach to four-colour pages and his covers manage to be iconic and eyecatching. 

Here’s links through to the other entries in our 101 Greatest so far as well

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.62: David Mazzuchelli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo

https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-100/

https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-101/