Bolland also contributed " A Miracle of Elisha " to Knockabout Comics ' Old Bailey OZ Trial Special, written because Old Testament history had piqued the interest of Bolland when living near the British Museum.

As well as the DTWAGE adverts, Bolland also contributed ( alongside most of his peers ) artwork to advertise, and / or feature in programme booklets for the UK Comicon, starting c. 1976.

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.

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.

Along with Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon he contributed to two of the character's most popular epic-length stories, " The Day the Law Died " and " The Judge Child ".

Bolland also drew the cover for Vertigo's first Doom Patrol issue and for the entire second and third volumes of Morrison's Invisibles ( 1997 – 2000 ) ( and in addition provided artwork for the TPB collections of Morrison's Doom Patrol run, and all volumes of The Invisibles ).

From the 1970s to the present, Bolland has also produced one-off pieces of artwork for use as record ( including one for The Drifters in 1975 ), paperback book ( including the UK Titan editions of George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards anthologies ) and magazine covers ( including Time Out and a every major comics publication ).

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.

" 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.

Comics including Turok, Son of Stone and DC's Tomahawk soon followed, and it was this burgeoning comics collection that would help inspire the young Bolland to draw his own comics around the age of ten with ideas such as " Insect League.

" He did however enjoy UK comics, including newspaper strips such as " Syd Jordan's Jeff Hawke David Wright's Carol Day, " and Valiant which featured " Eric Bradbury's Mytek the Mighty and Jesus Blasco's Steel Claw " Despite such a variety of inspirations, Bolland credits his eventual pursuance of art as a hobby and then vocation to a primary school art teacher, who " evidently said all the right things to me.

Growing up as " and only child in a house without culture ," ( Bolland says that his " mother and father had no use for art, literature or music "), he embraced the late 1960s pop culture explosion of " pirate radio stations, music ( particularly Frank Zappa ...), drug taking, psychedelia, " peace and love ," " dropping out ," the underground scene, Oz Magazine ," and other aspects of hippy culture epitomised by underground comix such as Robert Crumb's Zap Comix.

Other artists, such as Ian Gibson and Brian Bolland, followed his lead, putting their own spin on the way McMahon was developing the character and his world.

While both Bolland and McMahon chose to draw features of the Judge's uniform such as his gloves, boots, shoulder armour and elbow and knee pads in quite an exaggerated over-size fashion, Smith's depiction of Dredd's pads were more modestly sized and understated in appearance.

** “ Judge Death ,” written by John Wagner, art by Brian Bolland, in 2000 AD # 149 – 151 ( 1980 )

** “ Judge Death Lives ,” written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, art by Brian Bolland, in 2000 AD # 224 – 228 ( 1981 )

** " Judge Death Lives " ( by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Brian Bolland, 2000 AD # 224-228, 1981 )

** " Judge Death " ( by John Wagner and Brian Bolland, 2000 AD # 149-151, 1980 )

** " Judge Death Lives " ( by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Brian Bolland, 2000 AD # 224-228, 1981 )

Bolland writes that starting with Powerman he " found regular employment drawing comics, one of which, Judge Dredd, in 1977-80, turned out to be quite a hit ..."

Already familiar with Nick Landau ( acting editor ), when another artist dropped out, Bolland was called directly to complete a Judge Dredd story in Prog 41 ( 03 Dec 77 ) and soon was established as a regular artist on the series.

As well as honing the look of the character and contributing to the highest-profile early storylines, Bolland also created the look of two of the wider Dredd universe's most enduring characters: Judge Death ( and the other three Dark Judges ) and Judge Anderson.

Bolland " drew the first three episodes of the Judge Death story over the winter of 1979-80 ," as " just another villain in just another excellent John Wagner script.

Bolland was, he acknowledges, " by far the slowest of the rotating Judge Death artists ," opting to " take as long as I needed and do a half-way decent job " rather than rushing.

Created for light relief, Bolland notes that " he great thing about the Judge Dredd strip was it's ability to slide seamlessly between gritty sci fi adventure, nasty gothic horror, spoofery, all the way to daft comedy.

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

He drew the bulk of the first long-form Judge Dredd story, " The Cursed Earth ", with the slower, more meticulous Brian Bolland contributing occasional episodes.

He returned to Dredd the following year for the next long story, " The Judge Child ", with a different, more considered style, and rotated with Bolland and Ron Smith.

When Titan Books first started reprinting 2000AD stories in the early 80s, the Judge Dredd stories it focused were those created by Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon, artists who have always ranked at the top of fans ' lists of favourite illustrators, awarding the pair volumes of their own work.

" From that point on ," writes Bolland, " either he or his successor Steve MacManus called me direct whenever they wanted me to do a Dredd story.

" Dredd stories started as traditional UK comic stories, i. e. " six page one-offs ... Pat Mills and John Wagner seem to spurn the American comic idea of continuing stories or, worse, the idea of a 2000AD continuity between characters ," Bolland seeing this as a " strength ... hav one great new idea each week.

" As the Dredd stories rose in popularity, they " were moved so they started on the middle pages " with a colour double-page spread, which Bolland " always struggled with " finding it " very difficult ... to fill that space most effectively.

Bolland thought McMahon was " terrific, the real ideas man on Dredd ," but noted that McMahon's approach was " very impressionistic ," while the " average comics reader, certainly at the time, does tend to prefer realism.

In between Dredd assignments Bolland drew horror strips for Dez Skinn's House of Hammer, having been introduced to the comic through another of the " fanboy in-crowd ," Trevor Goring, who drew " a comic strip version of the movie Plague of the Zombies ," and asked Bolland to ink it.

As the artist Brian Bolland revealed in an interview with David Bishop: " The picture of Dredd ’ s face – that was a 1940s actor called Rondo Hatton.

When American comics began to be imported into England, c. 1959, Bolland says that it " took a little while for me to discover them ," but by 1960 he was intrigued by Dell Comics ' Dinosaurus !, which fed into a childhood interest in dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes.

Learning to draw comics, however, was " more a self-taught thing ," with Bolland eventually writing a 15, 000 word dissertation in 1973 on Neal Adams-an " artist teachers had never heard of.

In 1971, his friend Dave Harwood " took his first step into printed mass production with his RDH Comix ," for which Bolland provided a cover ( featuring Norwich Cathedral ).

In 1972, Bolland attended a comic convention at the Waverley Hotel in London, and met " a lot of the people who were key in the comics scene of the time ," including Dez Skinn, Nick Landau, Richard Burton, Angus McKie and-crucially-Dave Gibbons.

" Bolland therefore states that he " aped Mike's genius ... and then reinterpreted in a style which actually borrowed a lot from the work of the American artists ," retaining McMahon's " granite-jawed " look but bringing a level of realism and fine detail to the character, which Mark Salisbury says " finally cemented the iconic image.

For the sequel, a " massive ( for me ) 30 pages ," 2000AD < nowiki >'</ nowiki > s editorial banked one-off stories to give Bolland long enough to draw it all.

" By this point, " although the Express owned the rights to the strip, they were not printing it ," but since it had a strong European following, these new episodes ( Bolland believes ) " got collected in anthologies in French and Spanish ," but not in the UK except briefly in " the fanzine Eureka.