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

19 PR: You and Dave Gibbons were contemporaneous, working on very similar briefs and shared the same agent, did you know Dave and were you aware of his work before joining Bardon? BB: I knew of Dave’s work through comics fandom. Dave Harwood was more attentive to fandom than me. There were other artists – Paul Neary, Barry Smith. And other names responsible for publishing fanzines and distributing comics who became major players later. PR; Was it Barry Coker that introduced you and Dave to 2000AD? LEFT: Powerman , a strip that Brian and Dave Gibbons shared production duties on in the early days working with Bardon. The artists would each produce two strips a month, along with the covers for each respective instalment. Such was the quality of the work that the talented duo produced that Dave was invited to produce work for the still nascent 2000AD . Brian continued to produce Powerman until he too joined the ranks of the 2000AD creative team. ABOVE: The artist in 1973.