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Bolland, Brian

Entry updated 25 December 2023. Tagged: Artist, Comics.

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(1951-    ) UK Comic-book artist highly regarded for his smooth line and meticulous, sculptural drawing style. His first strip work appeared in the underground magazine Oz in 1971. In 1975-1977 he drew Powerman, a Black Superhero, for the Nigerian market, his episodes alternating with those by Dave Gibbons, and then he began producing covers for 2000 AD. His most lasting contribution to date has been his development of Judge Dredd: Bolland's first Judge Dredd strip appeared in 2000 AD #41 (26 November 1977), and in all he drew 40, the last appearing in #244 (26 December 1981); he also provided a run of 40 covers for Eagle Comics's 2000 AD and Judge Dredd reprints 1983-1986.

He began to produce cover artwork for DC Comics with Green Lantern #127 (April 1980). For DC he also drew a number of short sf strips as well as a 12-issue series, Camelot 3,000 (December 1982-April 1985; graph 1988) written by Mike W Barr. He produced Batman – The Killing Joke (graph 1988), a very successful 48-page quality comic book written by Alan Moore (see Batman). Since then he has concentrated on artwork for covers, including 48 (to early 1992) for Animal Man and those for the Titan Books editions of the Wild Cards graphic novels in 1991, as well as literally hundreds of titles since that time. He has received the Best Cover Artist award in the Will Eisner Awards five times (1992, 1993, 1994, 1999 and 2001).

He has also written and drawn 48 12-panel strips featuring Mr Mamoulian, a mournful middle-aged man with a hangdog expression who seems to be permanently seated on a park bench. These have been published in the UK in Escape as well as in Spain (Cimoc), Sweden (Pox) and the USA (Cheval Noir). Of his other strip, The Actress and the Bishop, written in rhyme, two sections appeared (in A1) before finally the entire series was collected in the book Bolland Strips (graph 2006).

Bolland was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2023. [RT/JP]

see also: Illustration.

Brian John Bolland

born Butterwick, Lincolnshire: 26 March 1951

works (selected)

nonfiction

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