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

88 There aren't many classic superheroes, or in the case of Will Eisner's Spirit , non-superheroes, that haven't been the subject of one of Brian's cover illustrations. BELOW: Brian discusses the finer points of graphic storytelling with the legendary Will Eisner at the 1982 ComicCon. Eisner, who by this stage had been drawing the Spirit for well over fifty years, remained an active participant on the comics scene. PR: How do you set about creating your art? BB: If you’d have askedme before 1997my answer, in brief, would have been: A4 sized pencil rough, a thing full of life and spontaneity, which I would fax to my editor for approval. At one time I would have drawn up to three ideas but often the editor would choose the one I liked the least. Eventually I cut it down to one and hoped he or she would like it. Sometimes my editor and I were on the same wavelength. Other times not. On approval I’d put the rough in an Artograph projector and blow it up to artwork size and pencil the darned thing again. Photo by Jackie Estrada The Spirit © 1935-2019 DC Comics