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

16 interrogated. They suspected I’d made him up as some sort of prank. PR: What were your early influences? BB: I could give you a cross section of my influences and it would seem rather pretentious. SalvadÓr Dali? René Magritte? I was hugely impressed by both of them and remain so. Ingres. I sat in the school library for hours looking at his plump dimpled nudes! But, of course, in comics – well, just about everybody. I tried to draw like Gil Kane early on. I grew up with DC Comics before Marvel came along, before super-heroes became the dominant meme. So: Murphy Anderson, Bruno Premiani (who I try to plug at every opportunity) and the master – Alex Toth. Over here in the UK I was loving Eric Bradbury and, my fave, Jesus Blasco in Valiant . Also Syd Jordan and David Wright, all of whom achieved what they achieved without colour. PR: Did drawing come easily to you? BB: If you were to look at my earliest efforts in 1961 aged 10 with my Insect League you’d conclude – hell no! BELOW: A page from on of Brian's earliest efforts; Insect League from 1961. Even though he is endearingly dismissive of the drawing skills he had amassed at the tender age of 10, it is worth noting his awareness of form and composition underpinned with solid drawing, expressive figure-work and bold use of dropped shadow. BELOW RIGHT: David Wright's strip Carol Day [see IQ issue 2] made a big impact on the young artist and Wright's moody use of lighting was to inform much of Brian Bolland's mature work. FACING PAGE: Many years later Bolland would return to his earliest influences as in this dramatic and noir-tinged rendition of Steel Claw .for a bound collection published by Titan Books. As Brian remarks the head is a blatant swipe from Jesús Blasco. Text continued from page 8