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

4 BB: My mother Lillie Bolland (then Lillie Sharp) did a few little paintings of flowers and greeting cards. This would have been in the 1920s when she was in her teens. Apparently she learnt the piano too and we had one where we lived but I never saw her draw or paint in my lifetime. PR: Where did you train? BB: Well, I guess you’d have to start with Conway School. At 11 I failed my 11+ and went to Giles Secondary Modern School where I took 6 O-Levels, one of them art. Then Boston Grammar School where I did art A-Level under teacher “Banger” Grimble. This is going FACING PAGE: 'The Actress and the Bishop', Bolland's mastery of dynamic composition, beautifully lit and exquisitely rendered is well to the fore in this image which he created for a portfolio of six plates published by a small Paris based comics store come publisher, Éditions Déesse in 1985. RIGHT: The Joker, drawn for a tip-in plate for the signed edition of, 'Cover Story - The DC Comics Art of Brian Bolland'. FAR RIGHT: 'The Indian Giant' for the cover of Animal Man Volume 5, 'The Meaning of Flesh', written by Tom Veitch.