EXTRACTS: Brian Bolland (illustrators special issue) © 2019 Book Palace Books (144 PAGES in Full edition)

12 We, especially Dave, were expert at identifying the Marvel and DC artists, even before their names were clearly identified on the printed page. At the time I was a huge fan of Gil Kane in Green Lantern and the Atom and attempted to draw like him. Soon we discovered the Rotring Rapidograph. Sid Greene had been a penciler-inker in Julius Schwartz’s Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space but by now he was inking Gil Kane’s pencils. He was my newest inspiration and for a while my work featured Greene-like fine Rapidograph lines and spacey clusters of dots sprayed by flicking ink from a toothbrush. Dave was much better than me at networking. He was in touch via snail- mail with others in '60s comic fandom. Other artists, fanzine publishers and a fellow called Dave Shack who was selling old comics. One US fanzine publisher, Leo R. Masiuch, was responsible for the first of my work to be seen in print 'Unknown Quantiti' in his fanzine 'Golem'. Other new artists popping up in fanzines included Paul Neary, Barry Smith andDave Gibbons. Dave and I (and a couple of other local friends) were enthusiastically collecting LPs by bands of the time. Top of the list were Frank Zappa and ABOVE: 'Two Loos Lautrec' and 'Piano Tuna' were responses to a brief around the number 2, when Brian was attending Norwich School of Art. RIGHT & FACING PAGE: More influences, including Jesus Blasco's rendition of Steel Claw and a galaxy of covers from the plethora of underground comics that blossomed in the late '60s and early '70s.