It's a boon to the artform that Brian has been so generous with Cartoonist Kayfabe. Sharing his time and memories is entertaining and it's important for posterity. He's a singular artist, and this is valuable. Thank you all!
As a young teen I went to a 200AD signing above the Forbidden Planet on Denmark St. Well before they had their megastore. Not sure what exactly the event was, but it was early 80s. I brought with me both #1 and #2 2000ADs, and the entire team signed them. They got a chuckle looking through them. I was in awe of the talent back then as a kid.
He's easily my favourite guest that you have on cartoonist kayfabe...i love how he goes off at tangents when hes asked a question and the tangents end up being as interesting as the original question. It's always rewarding when someone I've admired nearly all my life turns out to be such a cool, interesting person.
I remember the first time I came across Bolland's work as a teen in the early 00's through one of the Dredd colored reprints. It was the story of the Dark Judges and it haunted me. It was also the first bit of body horror I'd ever seen
More awesomeness! I grew up reading Judge Dredd so this is very special to me! One of those inspirational comics that brought something special and unlike and different from the rest. Thanks for this! Motivates me to keep on inking on a page this evening.
By far Brian Bolland was my favourite artist. I met him a couple of times, most memorably at the first ever London Comic Con when he showed me his Camelot 3000 art, and drew me a Judge Giant. Amazing artist, and my only regret is not getting the chance to buy some of his artwork in the 90’s.
PS The vehicle was called the Landraider and the detachable bit called the Killdozer. Matchbox did a series of vehicles called Adventure2000 that was a tie-in, I assume there was money involved and I'm fairly certain they ran adds for the toys in the comics. I remember them and mates of mine had the toys, they came with plastic space soldier things.
If I remember rightly, the Killdozer is the back half and the front half is called the Land Raider. That said, when they're combined the composite vehicle is ALSO referred to as the Land Raider. Which is bloody confusing.
This is brilliant stuff! Thanks for this. One of my biggest mistakes was selling away all my Dredd albums. Things we do in teens…In Finland these stories were published in European album size.
Incidentally if CK ever want to explore British Horror Comics of the 1970’s, the Dez Skinn stories Brian Bolland refers to have been released in hardback. I would post a photo from my copy of the page mentioned but I don’t see any way to post a picture here. The panel you reference is part of a series of Hammer film adaptations to comics. th-cam.com/video/XGHxEYWZcAw/w-d-xo.html
I discovered your channel about a year ago while searching up vids on Alex Toth, and more recently I've been obsessively bingeing your video and I absolutely love 'em! You've totally reawakened my love of drawing and my appreciation of draftsmenship, and I've spent far too much money buying books on the greats: Foster, Wood, Kirby, Crumb... Top work gents, you've got my major back for my own art too!
This is by far the best comic book related interview i have seen thus far. I have only just discovered this channel so maybe there is more too come. This was brilliant. I am a fan of David Choe which i also loved
The food company parody material was left out of any reprints for several decades but a few years back UK law was changed to more closely reflect the US one on use of parody. I sent a twitter message to 2000ad pointing that out and got slapped down that it was irrelevant and nothing to do with them reprinting that material. A year or so later they reprinted the Burger Wars and Jolly Green Giant material saying it was because the laws on parody were changed. Which is a bit annoying after being told the contrary when I was trying to be helpful but there you go.
For a Brit Londoner like myself who was picking up his weekly 2000AD back in the day with his American comics, seeing these pages again with Bolland talking over them is a real treat. He was always one of my favourite Dredd artists along with Ezquerra, Bisley, Jock, Macneil, Flint. Bolland really nailed the anarchy and the satire in those stories. Listening to Bolland, I keep forgetting how posh he is;-))) Because his work is so punk! The fact that he is a Londoner always comes out in his art though- the dreary darkness and the English faces. Even the Killing Joke feels that it takes place in London somehow. Its no wonder he saw The Killing Joke in muted colours- very much like London itself in the 80s. Thank God for Higgins colouring- as Im not a fan of Bollands recolouring of a masterpiece. Aside from that and his insistence of always working in digital- I absolutely adore Bolland.
BRILLIANT. I know you were going to do it anyway, but Ed, Jim, thanks for this. I've always wanted to sit down with Bolland, with his art, and ask him how he managed to get the feathering so damned perfect. A series 6, Windor Newton 3? Holy frejoles, the mans hand must have been as steady as a rock. I've been a 2000ad fan for as long as I can remember and Brian, Mick McMahon, Dave Gibbons, Carlos, Kevin O'Neill and those other amazing artists have been heroes of mine.
Brian Bollands Judge dredd is a gem of the eye . Judge dredd is truthful and righteous to the very end, and what makes him a Hero . I also like it as a comedy with Walter the Wobot ! Brilliant stuff, hard boiled justice . He also have justice for the Mutants, and have mercy on them . I also like the professionalism of others like the Phantom, Modesty Blaise, Spirou et Fantasio and Asterix, Luckey Luke and the early graphic novels, Camelot 3000, beautiful lines, and wonderful cross hatch, perfekt ink . Brian Bolland is one of my very favorits
I have been reading Judge Dredd from the beginning via the Case Files books (on book 5 now)... the art, esp. Brian's, has always been exceptional. Looking forward to hearing this conversation. Keep the hits coming guys!
John Howard was one of John Wagner's pen-names. Chris Lowder wrote under the name of Jack Adrian, who scripted some Cursed Earth episodes - one of the banned ones, actually.
Even the original Forbidden Planet on Denmark St did not like to stock 2000AD because of the paper. It wasn’t until around 1981-2 that they started to have more 2000AD comics in there.
Brian Bolland is my favourite artist. Carlos Ezquerra and Dave Gibbons a close second. I have a couple of his Eagle cover transparencies. I have this and the McMahon Apex editions, fantastic. I think I've got every issue of 2000AD from 1-500 ish and all the reprints done over the years. I have one page of original art, a page from Flesh book II by Massimo Belardinelli. Looking forward to the Kevin O'Neill Apex and hope they continue the series.
Thanks for the great video, i followed along with my copy of the book and it made it even more special. I hope you can arrange a similar one with the Mike Mcmahon book too?
Bolland has taken a liking to you boys haha. The Killing Joke was the first graphic novel I ever bought, so I really enjoy hearing from one of the artists who lit a fire under my ass to put a pencil to paper.
Every cover I’ve drawn always pans out that way. Last one I’m not even sure the editor and publisher really read the script they approved. Did a cover comp that matched the tone of the script. Crickets on the editorial end.
My mum and dad let me have a standing order for 2000AD at the local newsagent. Got my copy every week and read them to destruction. Wasn't hard, given the paper quality.
I always said too that someone needs to make a book out of the eagle covers, I'd pre-order it right now if I could, I have issue 15 (umpty candy) and 22 (that end paper image) framed and hanging on my wall
Are there really people out there who don't get that this is satire, with a decent amount of absurdity? I got it right off, and I was only in 14 in '87 when I was introduced to Judge Dredd (I'm Canadian). Went crazy and started buying whatever I could find, mostly the Eagle Comics run. I absolutely love Brian's artwork, especially for Dredd. Been awesome seeing him here with you guys.
It's an example of "Kirk Drift" (the name of an oft-referenced article on how Star Trek's Captain Kirk is perceived falsely as a rash, shoot-first womanizer) - popular culture has a habit of rewriting characters and stories after the fact into normalized archetypes. Paul Verhoeven's Robocop and Starship Troopers, similarly satirical and perhaps influenced by Dredd, were both read in this way. But when he made "Showgirls", which is the same thing, but for a different type of Hollywood story - he left no room for popular misinterpretation, and thus it was simply unpopular. It may actually go all the way back to ancient philosophers, and used to train critical thinking, if you read Leo Strauss's theory on Aristotle's "The Republic" being an esoteric piece - a puzzle to work through that on its surface sounds like a serious proposal. Arthur Melzer generalizes on this in "Philosophy Between the Lines", suggesting evidence that the ancients often presented popular ideas in such a way that a careful reader would see arguments by contradiction.
That Punisher war zone movie Is arguably damn good. The dude he punches is a big coke head POS who helped take a family hostage. And Frank very bluntly walks into frame and absolutely caves in the coke heads face. And the actor playing Frank has a GREAT grimace the entire movie almost lol
All of the comments here about this video are fantastic, but I just popped in to say, I agree with Brian. Ya'll need to watch Last Of Us and as a gamer Ed, you really need to PLAY Last of Us. Cheers fellas!
While i watch this...in the side column there are other suggestions of vids with titles like "how a comic book lost everything" and shit like that. Which is using comics to sell something else. Thanks for stick with the art and craft side of it. You guys are Miles away from anything in this platform. Never compromise!
'John Howard' is one of many Pen Names used by John Wagner (also T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark, and Brian Skutter). He and Alan Grant did it at times so it didn't look like they were writing nearly everything in some of the Progs (issues).
When I watched the original video looking at the Brian Bolland Apex Edition I didn't think it could be improved upon. I'm happy to have been proved wrong. Outstanding work, my thanks to all involved.
![โรงเรียนดัดสันดาน นักเรียนเถื่อน..!! [โรงเรียนไดเม่]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vRKPeXn4Fl4/mqdefault.jpg)
It's a boon to the artform that Brian has been so generous with Cartoonist Kayfabe. Sharing his time and memories is entertaining and it's important for posterity. He's a singular artist, and this is valuable. Thank you all!
1:06:15 I love how excited Brian gets to show the sheep skull he used for Judge Mortis. What a cool artifact to still have!
I can’t believe that Bolland AND Giordano both used brushes. That’s a crazy amount of precision on hundreds of pages.
So fucking cool. Such a cool and generous man. So talented and humble. It's amazing that this is all put on the record for all to appreciate.
As a young teen I went to a 200AD signing above the Forbidden Planet on Denmark St. Well before they had their megastore. Not sure what exactly the event was, but it was early 80s. I brought with me both #1 and #2 2000ADs, and the entire team signed them. They got a chuckle looking through them. I was in awe of the talent back then as a kid.
I loved when Brian was excited to find out who the guest was going to be.
He's easily my favourite guest that you have on cartoonist kayfabe...i love how he goes off at tangents when hes asked a question and the tangents end up being as interesting as the original question. It's always rewarding when someone I've admired nearly all my life turns out to be such a cool, interesting person.
I remember the first time I came across Bolland's work as a teen in the early 00's through one of the Dredd colored reprints. It was the story of the Dark Judges and it haunted me. It was also the first bit of body horror I'd ever seen
Brian is so much fun on the channel love hearing him talk with you about anything
More awesomeness! I grew up reading Judge Dredd so this is very special to me! One of those inspirational comics that brought something special and unlike and different from the rest. Thanks for this! Motivates me to keep on inking on a page this evening.
By far Brian Bolland was my favourite artist. I met him a couple of times, most memorably at the first ever London Comic Con when he showed me his Camelot 3000 art, and drew me a Judge Giant. Amazing artist, and my only regret is not getting the chance to buy some of his artwork in the 90’s.
PS The vehicle was called the Landraider and the detachable bit called the Killdozer. Matchbox did a series of vehicles called Adventure2000 that was a tie-in, I assume there was money involved and I'm fairly certain they ran adds for the toys in the comics. I remember them and mates of mine had the toys, they came with plastic space soldier things.
If I remember rightly, the Killdozer is the back half and the front half is called the Land Raider. That said, when they're combined the composite vehicle is ALSO referred to as the Land Raider. Which is bloody confusing.
This is brilliant stuff! Thanks for this. One of my biggest mistakes was selling away all my Dredd albums. Things we do in teens…In Finland these stories were published in European album size.
I enjoy these Bolland interviews so much, can't wait to watch this one...
oh man, I would have asked him so many things on the details, the drawing is just insane, so expressive and clean in the same time
There's something about his attitude, he's just a very warm and down to earth guy.
Incidentally if CK ever want to explore British Horror Comics of the 1970’s, the Dez Skinn stories Brian Bolland refers to have been released in hardback. I would post a photo from my copy of the page mentioned but I don’t see any way to post a picture here. The panel you reference is part of a series of Hammer film adaptations to comics. th-cam.com/video/XGHxEYWZcAw/w-d-xo.html
Soon as Brian sent pics depicting that head wound I realized the strips were reprinted in Brian Bolland's Black Book from Eclipse comics.
I discovered your channel about a year ago while searching up vids on Alex Toth, and more recently I've been obsessively bingeing your video and I absolutely love 'em! You've totally reawakened my love of drawing and my appreciation of draftsmenship, and I've spent far too much money buying books on the greats: Foster, Wood, Kirby, Crumb... Top work gents, you've got my major back for my own art too!
This is by far the best comic book related interview i have seen thus far. I have only just discovered this channel so maybe there is more too come. This was brilliant. I am a fan of David Choe which i also loved
The food company parody material was left out of any reprints for several decades but a few years back UK law was changed to more closely reflect the US one on use of parody. I sent a twitter message to 2000ad pointing that out and got slapped down that it was irrelevant and nothing to do with them reprinting that material. A year or so later they reprinted the Burger Wars and Jolly Green Giant material saying it was because the laws on parody were changed. Which is a bit annoying after being told the contrary when I was trying to be helpful but there you go.
Brian is such a great guest and just an amazing artist. Thank you for this.
For a Brit Londoner like myself who was picking up his weekly 2000AD back in the day with his American comics, seeing these pages again with Bolland talking over them is a real treat. He was always one of my favourite Dredd artists along with Ezquerra, Bisley, Jock, Macneil, Flint. Bolland really nailed the anarchy and the satire in those stories. Listening to Bolland, I keep forgetting how posh he is;-))) Because his work is so punk! The fact that he is a Londoner always comes out in his art though- the dreary darkness and the English faces. Even the Killing Joke feels that it takes place in London somehow. Its no wonder he saw The Killing Joke in muted colours- very much like London itself in the 80s. Thank God for Higgins colouring- as Im not a fan of Bollands recolouring of a masterpiece. Aside from that and his insistence of always working in digital- I absolutely adore Bolland.
Agreed.Bolland isn't a Londoner,though.He's from Lincolnshire.
BRILLIANT. I know you were going to do it anyway, but Ed, Jim, thanks for this. I've always wanted to sit down with Bolland, with his art, and ask him how he managed to get the feathering so damned perfect. A series 6, Windor Newton 3? Holy frejoles, the mans hand must have been as steady as a rock. I've been a 2000ad fan for as long as I can remember and Brian, Mick McMahon, Dave Gibbons, Carlos, Kevin O'Neill and those other amazing artists have been heroes of mine.
Amazing interview (and artwork, of course). Highlight for this Philly boy has gotta be the WEEN love. DECENT.
Definitely looking forward to going through Camelot 3000 ! Also glad to see Actress&the Bishop finally being compiled !🎯👍😎❤️
Cartoonist Kaybabe... the talent that still cares the most about the artform!!!!!
Amazing artist, fantastic interview. Bought a copy of The Actress and The Bishop, thanks for the reminder, Mr Bolland.
Brian Bollands Judge dredd is a gem of the eye . Judge dredd is truthful and righteous to the very end, and what makes him a Hero . I also like it as a comedy with Walter the Wobot ! Brilliant stuff, hard boiled justice . He also have justice for the Mutants, and have mercy on them . I also like the professionalism of others like the Phantom, Modesty Blaise, Spirou et Fantasio and Asterix, Luckey Luke and the early graphic novels, Camelot 3000, beautiful lines, and wonderful cross hatch, perfekt ink . Brian Bolland is one of my very favorits
So happy to spend my Sunday morning with this interview.
I have been reading Judge Dredd from the beginning via the Case Files books (on book 5 now)... the art, esp. Brian's, has always been exceptional. Looking forward to hearing this conversation. Keep the hits coming guys!
OMG Brian Bolland one fav artists back in the day. His art i could gawlp at for hours
Superb. These BB interviews are fantastic. You really should do the Mick McMahon edition. He is a giant of a talent.
I loved the Land Raider and it shows his perfectionist streak that he thought his work on vehicles was difficult.
Oh the memories. I must be getting old but this gets me right in the feels. wouldn't swap this for any other heritage in comics...
That vehicle IS called the KILLDOZER !
Any chance of a follow-up with Mick McMahon and his "Judge Dredd" Apex Edition?
Oh Mick would be FASCINATING to hear because of his style shifts.
This was magic. Thanks guys.
One of the best Comic Book artist EVER!! Glad i got to tell him personally he in the top 5 list of greats!
Top guy, met him twice in London at Gosh comics, he happily signed several comics for me
Lads. I'm not even THAT into comics, but I watched this whole thing.
Thanks.
John Howard was one of John Wagner's pen-names. Chris Lowder wrote under the name of Jack Adrian, who scripted some Cursed Earth episodes - one of the banned ones, actually.
Best comic book artist the UK ever crafted. Love you work BB
Even the original Forbidden Planet on Denmark St did not like to stock 2000AD because of the paper. It wasn’t until around 1981-2 that they started to have more 2000AD comics in there.
Brian Bolland is my favourite artist. Carlos Ezquerra and Dave Gibbons a close second. I have a couple of his Eagle cover transparencies. I have this and the McMahon Apex editions, fantastic. I think I've got every issue of 2000AD from 1-500 ish and all the reprints done over the years. I have one page of original art, a page from Flesh book II by Massimo Belardinelli. Looking forward to the Kevin O'Neill Apex and hope they continue the series.
brian Bolland is one of my favorite artists and it was great to see this.
BB is such a Monster. I have the JD Eagle series and I can stare at it for hours.
Thanks for the great video, i followed along with my copy of the book and it made it even more special. I hope you can arrange a similar one with the Mike Mcmahon book too?
Awesome! Another great interview. Thank you.
judge death issues are absolute masterpieces, frame by frame
I noticed the rack moving to and thought oh that’s cool a motorized spinner rack 😂
Bolland has taken a liking to you boys haha. The Killing Joke was the first graphic novel I ever bought, so I really enjoy hearing from one of the artists who lit a fire under my ass to put a pencil to paper.
Jolly good stuff! Mr. Bolland and your selves thank you gentleman.
there is a heaven after all, and this is it. Thanks guys, just so great!
Every cover I’ve drawn always pans out that way. Last one I’m not even sure the editor and publisher really read the script they approved. Did a cover comp that matched the tone of the script. Crickets on the editorial end.
I collected 2000A.D everyweek as a kid, The Dark Judges were my favourite Bad Guys.
My mum and dad let me have a standing order for 2000AD at the local newsagent. Got my copy every week and read them to destruction. Wasn't hard, given the paper quality.
I always said too that someone needs to make a book out of the eagle covers, I'd pre-order it right now if I could, I have issue 15 (umpty candy) and 22 (that end paper image) framed and hanging on my wall
I lost my mind when Brian pulled out the actual Mortis skull
The best Judge Death artist for sure. I still have my Forbidden Planet artwork by BB as well
God this is so cool. Seeing him run off to get the sheep skull was delightful 😊
Wow! This is gold.
Amazing work!
jfc what a talent! a king of linework.
Are there really people out there who don't get that this is satire, with a decent amount of absurdity? I got it right off, and I was only in 14 in '87 when I was introduced to Judge Dredd (I'm Canadian). Went crazy and started buying whatever I could find, mostly the Eagle Comics run. I absolutely love Brian's artwork, especially for Dredd. Been awesome seeing him here with you guys.
It's an example of "Kirk Drift" (the name of an oft-referenced article on how Star Trek's Captain Kirk is perceived falsely as a rash, shoot-first womanizer) - popular culture has a habit of rewriting characters and stories after the fact into normalized archetypes. Paul Verhoeven's Robocop and Starship Troopers, similarly satirical and perhaps influenced by Dredd, were both read in this way. But when he made "Showgirls", which is the same thing, but for a different type of Hollywood story - he left no room for popular misinterpretation, and thus it was simply unpopular.
It may actually go all the way back to ancient philosophers, and used to train critical thinking, if you read Leo Strauss's theory on Aristotle's "The Republic" being an esoteric piece - a puzzle to work through that on its surface sounds like a serious proposal. Arthur Melzer generalizes on this in "Philosophy Between the Lines", suggesting evidence that the ancients often presented popular ideas in such a way that a careful reader would see arguments by contradiction.
Brian Bolland is a true living god 💙
I don't have a bean head.
Love for the boognish!
all these brits are so good
That Punisher war zone movie Is arguably damn good. The dude he punches is a big coke head POS who helped take a family hostage. And Frank very bluntly walks into frame and absolutely caves in the coke heads face. And the actor playing Frank has a GREAT grimace the entire movie almost lol
Bolland is an absolute master. THANK YOU for a wonderful interview!!
snap into it oooohhhh yeeeeahhhhh 😎!!!
All of the comments here about this video are fantastic, but I just popped in to say, I agree with Brian. Ya'll need to watch Last Of Us and as a gamer Ed, you really need to PLAY Last of Us. Cheers fellas!
Brush!?!?!!?!!!?!!!?!!!
another banger
It was a good interview, wasn't it?
While i watch this...in the side column there are other suggestions of vids with titles like "how a comic book lost everything" and shit like that. Which is using comics to sell something else. Thanks for stick with the art and craft side of it. You guys are Miles away from anything in this platform. Never compromise!
Let him cook
'John Howard' is one of many Pen Names used by John Wagner (also T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark, and Brian Skutter). He and Alan Grant did it at times so it didn't look like they were writing nearly everything in some of the Progs (issues).
John Wagner was a force back then. So prolific!
I remember meeting Alan Moore at one of the gatherings in the early days, and then saw him at a pub on New Oxford street with John Wagner.
When I watched the original video looking at the Brian Bolland Apex Edition I didn't think it could be improved upon. I'm happy to have been proved wrong. Outstanding work, my thanks to all involved.
never clicked faster. thnx boys
Now to hide from my family for 2 hours