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133-625: SSI members included Brian Bolland , Dave Gibbons , John Bolton , Kevin O'Neill , Paul Neary , Jim Baikie , Arthur Ranson , Tony Weare , Keith Watson , Alan Davis , Mark Farmer , Alan Grant , Bryan Talbot , David Lloyd , Alan Moore , Neil Gaiman , Dave McKean , Mark Buckingham , Nicholas Vince , and John Maybury . For a while in the 1970s, the SSI met at the London Sketch Club in Dilke Street, Chelsea. In November 1980,

266-469: A Francis Bacon inspired "fleshy mass [dubbed "The Blobby Man"] with a typewriter" for Entropy in the UK . Having convinced Karen Berger (Editor in chief of Vertigo) and Roeberg that it was a good idea, the artist recalls that "Shelly rang up and, rather than telling me how wonderful I was, said that when she saw it she nearly lost her lunch! I was asked to turn his skin color from flesh to blue to tone him down

399-469: A "formal invitation" at an SSI meeting, which saw " Dave Gibbons , Kevin O'Neill ... [t]hen Alan Davis and Mark Farmer ," following the artists " Alan Grant "went across" and, at some point, a certain tall hairy writer from the Midlands ." In 1982, DC editor Len Wein chose Bolland to be the artist on DC's Camelot 3000 12-issue maxi-series , with writer Mike W. Barr . The story, dealing with

532-416: A 75-cent Vertigo Preview comic featuring a specially written seven-page Sandman story by Gaiman and Kent Williams . In addition, a 16-page Vertigo Sampler was also produced and bundled with copies of Capital City Distribution 's Advance Comics solicitation index. Vertigo publications generally did not take place in a shared universe. However, several of the early series which had begun as part of

665-433: A bit." For the final Invisible Kingdom TPB cover, Bolland produced a cover featuring 12 small alternative Invisibles covers, which had been very time consuming. Likening the process to creating "a mini comic strip," Bolland says that "if any detail made any sense it had to be changed to something that didn't." Bolland's style includes the initial 'rough' outline stage, making it easy for the publisher (and, in some cases,

798-481: A continuity of style and imagery while the interior work underwent several changes of style and storyline. Initially, he recalls that his cover images derived directly from the script. He would find a scene from the interior art that appeared to make for a good cover, or use a hook on the cover that outlined the plot of the issue. This included the incorporation of photographs into the later covers of Morrison's tale of metafiction and deus ex machina author-input. With

931-635: A cover artist, producing the majority of his work for DC Comics. Bolland created cover artwork for the Animal Man , Wonder Woman , and Batman: Gotham Knights superhero comic book series. In 1996, he drew and self-penned a Batman: Black and White story, "An Innocent Guy". For DC's Vertigo imprint, Bolland has done covers for The Invisibles , Jack of Fables , and a number of one-shots and miniseries . In addition to interior and cover art, Bolland has also produced several comic strips and pin-ups as both writer and artist. His most notable are

1064-489: A fenland farmer, and Lillie Bolland. He grew up in a small village near Boston, Lincolnshire until he was 18 years old. When American comics began to be imported into England, c.  1959 , Bolland hadn't read any comics before the age of ten, but by 1960 he was intrigued by Dell Comics ' Dinosaurus! , which developed into a childhood interest in dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes. Comics including Turok , Son of Stone and DC Comics' Tomahawk soon followed, and it

1197-425: A few pages." This knowledge – "that Dave could produce a page a day... and that I was going to have to do the same" – was a shock, but proved to be "the very best kind of training ground." With comics purportedly being new to Nigeria, Bolland recalls this work being created specifically to be "really simple; six panels on a page and [all] the panels had to be numbered." Not only was this work "[t]he best way to learn

1330-438: A gun on the cover of the last issue." Bolland admits "I don't know exactly why. I just supplied it." Vertigo Comics Vertigo Comics (also known as DC Vertigo or simply Vertigo ) is an imprint of American comic book publisher DC Comics started by editor Karen Berger in 1993. Vertigo's purpose was to publish comics with adult content , such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and graphic violence, that did not fit

1463-402: A hit..." In early 1977, Bardon agent Barry Coker called Gibbons and Bolland to the office and showed them "mock-ups from a new science fiction comic IPC was planning to publish." Gibbons joined Carlos Ezquerra in "jumping into 2000AD feet first with issue 1 (or Programme, later Prog 1)... but meanwhile [Bolland] would have to keep drawing Powerman on [his] own." Powerman dropped to

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1596-499: A line of comics written by Alan Moore , including a Batman Meets Judge Dredd one-off by Moore and Bolland. After watching the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs , which features a character named Gwynplaine (played by Conrad Veidt ) whose rictus grin inspired the visual design of the Joker, Bolland conceived of the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke . The book was written by Alan Moore to great critical acclaim, winning

1729-439: A living, though. Covers are a safe place for me. If someone else's colors swamp my work then, who cares. It was only one page. I can move on... Bolland had expressed some dissatisfaction with the final book, regretting that its impending schedule for release meant he could not colour the book himself, with John Higgins instead being the colorist. In March 2008, the twentieth anniversary hardcover edition of The Killing Joke saw

1862-504: A long commitment. So, instead [a]fter Killing Joke , DC asked me to do the covers on Animal Man , and I said fine, expecting it to be maybe ten or so. I ended up doing sixty-three. It became almost habitual, and it did mean that there would at least be something new of mine out there to look at. The first 63 issues of Animal Man featuring Bolland's artwork covered the tenures of writers Grant Morrison , Peter Milligan , Tom Veitch and Jamie Delano , with Bolland's images maintaining

1995-631: A mix of existing DC ongoing series and new series. The first original Vertigo series was Death: The High Cost of Living , a Sandman spin-off featuring the character Death . Although its initial publications were primarily in the horror and fantasy genres, over time Vertigo published works dealing with crime, social commentary , speculative fiction , biography, and other genres. Vertigo also adopted works previously published by DC under other imprints, such as V for Vendetta and Transmetropolitan . The imprint pioneered in North America

2128-513: A monthly schedule, and Coker soon got Bolland "a cover on 2000 AD in May '77 with Prog 11" (7 May 1977; signed "Bollo"). Bolland recalls of those early days that: You'll be surprised to hear that even though Judge Dredd had been in 2000AD since Prog 2 the editors weren't sure which of the interior characters would sell the comic best if that character was on the cover. Artists like me just came up with cover ideas and, if they liked them, we'd draw

2261-427: A recreated cover from an alternate angle to shed new light on an initially inconsequential image. Bolland's covers adorn the whole second and third volumes of Grant Morrison 's The Invisibles and his depictions of the main characters are widely reprinted as the definitive images, despite them all having been realised by other artists – and often drawn by several before Bolland entered the picture. With this title,

2394-536: A relaunch of Vertigo, independent from DC Black Label. Vertigo originated in 1993 under the stewardship of Karen Berger , a former literature and art-history student, who had joined DC Comics in 1979 as an assistant editor. Berger edited proto-Vertigo titles from the start of her time with DC, beginning in 1981 with House of Mystery . She took over editorship of Alan Moore 's Swamp Thing run from Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein in 1984, and in 1986 "became DC's British liaison", bringing to DC's pre-Vertigo titles

2527-536: A roommate with a modern-day superhero – blasphemous and offensive. The series was cancelled before the first issue was published; Russell and Pace later published the series through Ahoy Comics . Safe Sex by Tina Horn and Mike Dowling was also cancelled before its debut, and later published as SFSX by Image Comics . DC Comics discontinued Vertigo imprint in January 2020. The DC Zoom and DC Ink imprints for children and young adolescents were also eliminated. Under

2660-565: A second location in London, Bolland "did ads for both of them." Bolland was among the first British comics creators to work in the American comics industry, spearheading the so-called " British Invasion " in 1979/80. Bolland recalls that his big break came when Joe Staton attended the Summer 1979 Comicon, and, needing somewhere to work on Green Lantern while in the UK, arranged to stay with

2793-553: A sophistication-driven sensibility the comics fan media dubbed "the Bergerverse". In a 1992 editorial meeting with Levitz, publisher Jenette Kahn , and managing editor Dick Giordano , Berger was given the mandate to place these titles under an imprint that, as Berger described, would "do something different in comics and help the medium 'grow up'". Several DC titles bearing the age advisory, such as Green Arrow , Blackhawk , and The Question (the last two cancelled before

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2926-658: A third design going unpublished. Bolland also contributed "A Miracle of Elisha " to Knockabout Comics ' Old Bailey OZ Trial Special , written because Old Testament history had piqued the interest of Bolland when living near the British Museum . This page was later reprinted in the Outrageous Tales From the Old Testament volume, which included works from Moore , Hunt Emerson , Gaiman , Gibbons , and Dave McKean , although Bolland's name

3059-743: A title whose "sensibilities echo crime genre fiction ". Joining it was J. M. DeMatteis and Paul Johnson's 64-page one-shot Mercy . New series that began in the months that followed include Kid Eternity (ongoing) by Ann Nocenti and Sean Phillips (continuing from the earlier Morrison-penned limited series), Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell 's three-issue steampunk limited series Sebastian O (another ex-Touchmark project), Skin Graft by Jerry Prosser and Warren Pleece , The Last One by DeMatteis and Dan Sweetman , Jonah Hex : Two-Gun Mojo by Tim Truman and Sam Glanzman , Black Orchid (ongoing) by Dick Foreman and Jill Thompson (continuing from

3192-711: A variety of inspirations, Bolland credits his eventual pursuance of art as a hobby and then vocation to a primary school art teacher. Growing up as an only child with parents that had no interest in art, literature, or music, he embraced the late 1960s pop culture explosion of pirate radio stations, experimental music , recreational drugs, psychedelia , Oz Magazine , " dropping out " and other aspects of hippy culture epitomised by underground comix such as Robert Crumb 's Zap Comix . Having taken both O-Level and A-Level examinations in art, Bolland spent five years at art school beginning in 1969, learning graphic design and art history . Learning to draw comics, however,

3325-604: Is now far more commonly seen as 'just' a cover artist – although he notes that he has never decided to actually solely create covers, having merely explored other jobs from strip work. He admits that he works slowly, and consequently finds covers easier to supply than whole story artwork. He also noted simply that he began to focus on covers simply because they were the assignments he was offered. He adds that for artists like him that are well known for covers, editors will usually ask for pin-ups instead. Bolland has contributed covers – in many cases to complete runs/arcs – to comics since

3458-465: Is strongly associated with the imprint for his work on Swamp Thing and his creation of John Constantine, but he never produced work for the Vertigo imprint, having refused to work for parent company DC in the late 1980s. His Swamp Thing work and the V for Vendetta reprint-maxiseries were retroactively collected as Vertigo-issued TPBs. Grant Morrison left Animal Man and Doom Patrol before

3591-471: The Comics Code Authority . Following the success of two adult-oriented 1986 limited series , Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen , DC's output of mature readers titles, edited by Karen Berger , grew. By 1992, DC's mature readers' line was editorially separate from its main line and Berger was given permission to start her own imprint. Vertigo was launched in January 1993, with

3724-502: The Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album, and has been regarded as one of the all-time best Joker stories, and one of the greatest Batman graphic novels ever. Director Tim Burton has named The Killing Joke as an influence for his 1989 film adaptation of Batman , specifically the origin of the Joker. It would also prove to be highly influential on future Batman and Joker stories, though it has also been met with criticism for

3857-520: The Express owned the rights to the strip, they were not printing it," but since it had a strong European following, these new episodes (Bolland believes) "got collected in anthologies in French and Spanish," but not in the UK except briefly in "the fanzine Eureka ." In 1985, as a known fan, Bolland was approached by Nick Landau to select stories and draw covers for two Titan collections of the strip, with

3990-492: The Fighting Fantasy book Appointment with F.E.A.R. In 1977, Bolland was approached by Syd Jordan to ghost some episodes of Jordan's newspaper strip Jeff Hawke , after fellow fandom-pro artist Paul Neary had already done a fair number of them. Bolland drew 13 episodes, and "Syd touched up some of the faces, a few details here and there, to make them look a bit more like him." By this point, "although

4123-544: The Paradox Press "Big Book" series as well as several other non-comics works. He edited Harvey Pekar 's Vertigo work: The Quitter hardcover and eight issues of Pekar's American Splendor autobiographical series. His other Vertigo editing credits include The Exterminators , Douglas Rushkoff 's Testament , novelist Denise Mina 's run on Hellblazer , Incognegro by Mat Johnson , and The Alcoholic by novelist and essayist Jonathan Ames . Alan Moore

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4256-560: The " Season of Mists " storyline, and Gaiman's own return to the mythos with the hardcover Sandman: Endless Nights collection of short stories spotlighting the seven members of the Endless (an eight-page Endless Nights Preview issue was also released before the hardcover). Berger oversaw the entire Vertigo line, and was promoted to the position of "Senior Vice President—Executive Editor, Vertigo" in July 2006. Her promotion came as Vertigo

4389-550: The " direct market " of fans and collectors. For editor Julius Schwartz , Bolland drew covers around which writers would craft stories, which included two Starro covers for Justice League of America No. 189 and 190 and Superman No. 422 (Aug. 1986). Among his earliest interior work for DC was a chapter in Justice League of America No. 200 (March 1982) alongside Joe Kubert , Carmine Infantino , Gil Kane , Jim Aparo , George Pérez , and Dick Giordano . This gave

4522-450: The "Vertigo Voices" titles in 1995, as well as Shadows Fall , Ghostdancing , Egypt , Millennium Fever and both Tank Girl miniseries. Young's last editorial credit for Vertigo was Flex Mentallo #1 (June 1996). Shelly Bond was Vertigo's executive editor until 2016. Berger hired her as an assistant editor in the winter of 1992, making her the last of the original Vertigo team to join. Bond worked on many of Vertigo's top titles over

4655-512: The ' British Invasion ' of the American comics industry, and in 1982 produced the artwork alongside author Mike W. Barr on Camelot 3000 , which was DC Comics ' first 12-issue comicbook maxiseries created for the direct market . Bolland illustrated the critically acclaimed 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke , an origin story for Batman supervillain the Joker , with writer Alan Moore . He gradually shifted to working primarily as

4788-488: The (post-Morrison) move of Animal Man to DC's new 'Mature Readers' imprint Vertigo , Bolland notes that the covers moved to full color paintings with issue No. 57. These of his covers were "a mixture of ink linework, color washes, airbrush and then, eventually, areas painted in poster color by my wife, Rachel," which ultimately saw her have significant input on some covers, with Bolland acknowledging that some of his final Animal Man covers were mostly her work. Describing

4921-399: The 1990s, with his photo-realistic work on the titles for which he works as the primary external reference image. Bolland now draws on a computer, eschewing pencil and paper. He cites the influence of Dave Gibbons , who was himself enthusiastic about the capabilities of computers. Noting also that some colorists were increasingly using computer effects on a whim, he decided if he did not do

5054-788: The Arts . While at art school, Bolland drew and self-published a couple of fanzines and his work was published in British underground magazines Frendz , International Times and OZ . In 1971, his friend Dave Harwood entered printed mass production with his RDH Comix , for which Bolland provided a cover (featuring Norwich Cathedral ). Also in 1971, Time Out – an underground magazine rapidly reinventing itself into "the biggest weekly listings magazine in London" – gave Bolland his first compensated work producing an illustration of blues guitarist Buddy Guy . While in Norwich , Bolland produced

5187-702: The Bollands. Staton called his editor Jack Harris and told him that Bolland, a big Green Lantern fan, would like to draw a Green Lantern cover; Harris agreed. He drew several covers for DC Comics , starting with Green Lantern No. 127 (April 1980), as well as some fill-in stories. These stories included, in 1980-1981, "Certified Safe" in Mystery in Space and "Falling Down to Heaven" in Madame Xanadu , DC's first attempt at marketing comics specifically to

5320-640: The Central School of Art's Galloping Maggot , the college newspaper. In 1972, Bolland attended the British Comic Art Convention at the Waverley Hotel in London, and met several influential figures in the current British comics scene, including Dez Skinn , Nick Landau , Richard Burton , Angus McKie and – crucially – Dave Gibbons . Bolland and Gibbons became firm friends. After finishing his college course, Bolland

5453-600: The Changing Man (starting with #33), The Sandman (#47), Hellblazer (#63), Animal Man (#57), Swamp Thing (#129), and Doom Patrol (#64, with new writer Rachel Pollack ). The first comic book published under the "Vertigo" imprint was the first issue of Death: The High Cost of Living , a three-issue series by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo . The second new title was the first issue of Enigma , an 8-issue limited series initially planned to launch Touchmark, written by Peter Milligan (also author of Shade,

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5586-460: The Changing Man vol. 2, fantasy series The Sandman vol. 2, and horror titles Hellblazer and The Saga of the Swamp Thing . She also edited limited series such as Kid Eternity , Black Orchid (Gaiman's first work for DC) and The Books of Magic limited series. These six ongoing titles, all of which carried a "Suggested for Mature Readers" label on their covers, shared

5719-403: The Changing Man ) and drawn by Duncan Fegredo , the artist from Grant Morrison's earlier Kid Eternity limited series. The following month saw the debut of Sandman: Mystery Theatre by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle , and illustrated primarily by Guy Davis , described as "playing the '30s with a '90s feel... haunting, film noir -ish...", and starring original Sandman Wesley Dodds in

5852-442: The Changing Man . He later edited Doom Patrol , Animal Man , Kid Eternity , and Black Orchid , as well as two "Vertigo Visions" one-shots. Peyer left editing behind in 1994, returning to DC as a writer. Stuart Moore edited a wide range of Vertigo titles between 1991 and 2000, including Swamp Thing , Books of Magic , Hellblazer , The Invisibles , Preacher and Transmetropolitan . One of his most important contributions to

5985-527: The Cutting Edge of Comics was a 2000 collection of artwork from various Vertigo titles, with commentary by Alisa Kwitney. The Vertigo Voices featured creator-owned "distinctive one-shot stories". The short-lived "Vérité" line, evoking the realism of Cinéma vérité , "was a 1996–98 attempt to promote new Vertigo projects devoid of the supernatural qualities that had gotten to define the publisher". The " fifth-week event " brand V2K (Vertigo 2000),

6118-579: The Dark Knight Detective. Drawing inspiration from a cover by Alex Toth , and intended as an homage to the Silver Age Batman , Bolland wrote in 2006 that "If anyone were to ask me what is the thing I've done in my career that I'm most pleased with, it would be this." Approached by Batman-editor Mark Chiarello , Bolland was asked whether he would like to draw Batman covers for a new title, Batman: Gotham Knights . Excited by

6251-538: The Law Died ", " The Judge Child Quest " and " Block Mania ". As the Dredd stories rose in popularity, they "were moved so they started on the middle pages" with a colour double-page spread, which Bolland "always struggled with" finding it "very difficult... [trying] to fill that space most effectively." Ultimately the weekly deadlines meant that Bolland was unable to produce all episodes of the epic storylines himself, and

6384-637: The Regent Centre Hotel, London. In October 1982, the SSI sponsored a "Teach-In and Work-In" at the Westminster Comic Mart , with a number of creators from 2000 AD and Warrior talking about and presenting their work. David Lloyd was chairman of the SSI, and editor of the newsletter, at this time. A later chairman was Mark Buckingham . The SSI became the Comics Creators Guild in 1992; Nicholas Vince

6517-504: The SSI hosted a conference which resulted in the publication of Strips '80 , an introduction to the Society and a directory of its members. According to Brian Bolland , in the early 1980s, scouts from DC Comics came to SSI meetings to recruit British creators to work on DC titles, leading to the so-called British Invasion . The 1981 Society of Strip Illustration Awards were distributed on Saturday, October 31, at Comicon '81, held at

6650-596: The Vertigo imprint celebrated its 10th anniversary by branding its books cover-dated April 2003 to February 2004 (i.e. released between February and December 2003 ) with the label Vertigo X . This special subtitle was debuted on the Vertigo X Anniversary Preview (April 2003), a 48-page special previewing Vertigo's upcoming projects and featuring a short Shade, the Changing Man story by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred. Other projects highlighted included Death: At Death's Door , Jill Thompson 's first manga -ized version of

6783-408: The Vertigo launch. His Shade, the Changing Man was launched in 1991, pre-Vertigo, and ran 70 issues until 1996, by which time it was under the Vertigo imprint. He also wrote the creator-owned eight-issue miniseries Enigma (1993). Milligan and Brett Ewins 's 1989 mini-series Skreemer was subsequently collected by Vertigo. Milligan also wrote both a Human Target mini-series and ongoing series,

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6916-725: The arch-enemy of the British comic book hero Dan Dare ). When the SSI became the Comics Creators Guild in 1992, the award name was again changed, this time to the Comics Creators Guild Award . Brian Bolland Brian Bolland ( / ˈ b ɒ l ə n d / ; born 26 March 1951) is a British comics artist . Best known in the United Kingdom as one of the Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD , he spearheaded

7049-430: The art chores on The Cursed Earth were split between Bolland and Mike McMahon . Bolland's early work on Judge Dredd was much influenced by McMahon, a talented newcomer whose idiosyncratic style was fuelling the interest in the new character. Bolland thought McMahon was "terrific, the real ideas man on Dredd," but noted that McMahon's approach was "very impressionistic ," while the "average comics reader, certainly at

7182-413: The art of good covers, Bolland remarks that [y]ou really have to be constantly thinking of ways that the image on the cover will intrigue and lure in the potential punter. It helps to try and imagine your cover is in a whole bank of thirty or more and you need it to stand out. Coincidentally, when a time travel story arc saw Bolland's work coincide with the plot in such a way that he was able to produce

7315-467: The artist his "first stab at drawing Batman ." Bolland felt that "after my cover [ GL #127] worked out the people at DC turned their gaze on London... and particularly on the group of artists at 2000AD who had been weaned on the DC characters." He recalled that, "after I was settled in at DC, scouts from that company came to our " Society of Strip Illustration " meetings to win over a few more of us," making

7448-463: The artist remarks the complicated subject matter necessitated his "working a lot of strange symbolism and subliminal messages into the cover designs" to create "an image that puzzles to a degree and is layered with elements of surrealism ." Asked to take over from Sean Hughes on the covers for volume two by editor Shelly Roeberg, Bolland found her to be an ideal editor, effusive with praise and specific in requirements. Generally, Bolland recalls she

7581-505: The backwards N enough to keep it from that day on. Camelot 3000 had lengthy delays between its final issues. Bolland recalled that he and DC spoke often about how long the series would take to complete, and because the series was inked by other artists, he started off enthusiastically working on issues. As the series continued, however, Bolland became increasingly meticulous, always trying to improve upon his pages. The added details he introduced into his artwork caused significant delays in

7714-543: The basic building blocks of our "Art form". And there were the Europeans... Moebius , Manara , Breccia . Later the Filipinos— Alex Niño , Nestor Redondo , Alfredo Alcala , all were inspirational. None of this stuff was to be found in the art schools. During my five years in three art schools I never learnt a single thing about comics from any of my tutors. Bolland studied graphic design at Norwich University of

7847-484: The books did not have a consistent " house style " of art, the cover designs of early Vertigo series featured a uniform trade dress with a vertical bar along the left side, which included the imprint logo, pricing, date, and issue numbers. The design layout continued with very little variation until issues cover-dated July 2002 (including Fables #1) which introduced an across-the-top layout ahead of 2003's "Vertigo X" 10th anniversary celebration. The "distinctive design"

7980-480: The brand " Eagle Comics ". Bolland provided many of the covers for these compendium issues. Bolland "drew the first three episodes of the Judge Death story over the winter of 1979–80," as "just another villain in just another excellent John Wagner script." He does not "remember doing any sketches to get him right," the "outfit was described somewhat in the script... and details of it were heavily inspired by

8113-965: The characters from Neil Gaiman's series, written by other creators. Other long-running series have been The Invisibles by Grant Morrison and various artists (1994–2000); Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (1995–2000); Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson (1997–2002); 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (1999–2009); Lucifer by Mike Carey , Peter Gross , and Ryan Kelly (2000–2006); Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (2002–2008); Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (2010); DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli (2005–2012); and Fables by Bill Willingham , Mark Buckingham , and various other artists (2002–2015), which launched spin-offs including Jack of Fables by Willingham, Lilah Sturges (credited as "Matthew Sturges"), and various artists (2006–2011), and Fairest by Willingham and various artists (2012–2015). In 2003,

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8246-425: The colouring himself, the effects would produce covers that didn't resemble his work. Starting in 1997, Bolland bought a lot of software and spent ten frustrated months learning the ropes and ultimately finding the liberating ability to adapt his now-solely-onscreen artwork. He states categorically that, in his opinion, drawing on his Wacom tablet is no different from drawing on a pad of paper. Having fully embraced

8379-545: The coming year, under Doyle's editorship. These included a new sub-imprint based on Neil Gaiman's Sandman with four new ongoing series, announced in March, and seven new series announced in June. The relaunch experienced a number of complications. Border Town by Eric M. Esquivel and Ramon Villalobos dealt with immigration and Latino identity, for which Esquivel received death threats in advance of its publication. The series

8512-405: The course of her tenure, including The Sandman , Shade, the Changing Man , Sandman Mystery Theatre , iZombie , Paul Pope 's Heavy Liquid , Fables , Ed Brubaker 's Deadenders , David Lapham 's Young Liars , Mike Carey 's Lucifer , and The Invisibles . She was promoted to executive editor and vice president of Vertigo Comics in 2013, taking the place of Berger. In April 2016, Bond

8645-504: The cover and they would write a one-page text story based on it to go inside. These early covers of mine fall into that category. Other covers followed for nearly a third of the first 30 progs, as well as stand-alone pages and some inking duties on Gibbons' Dan Dare . Already familiar with Nick Landau (acting editor), when another artist dropped out, Bolland was called directly to complete a Judge Dredd story in Prog 41 (3 Dec 77) and soon

8778-453: The covers cluttered and the paper quality crude. His appreciation of the artwork of Jack Kirby , he says, only materialised much later. He did however enjoy UK comics, including newspaper strips such as Jeff Hawke by Syd Jordan and Carol Day by David Wright , and Valiant which featured Mytek the Mighty by Eric Bradbury and Steel Claw by Jesus Blasco . Despite such

8911-533: The covers look different in some way, and when DC decided to number the issues backwards [from 12 to 1; to count down to the Millennium ], that set me thinking. I remember seeing Peter Greenaway 's film Drowning By Numbers , in which they had these numbers placed subtly in every scene, and I really liked that idea. So I began to include elements of the issue number... always trying to think of ways to hide it, or make it an integral design element. The covers for

9044-461: The earlier Gaiman/McKean limited series), The Extremist by Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever , Scarab by John Smith with Scot Eaton and Mike Barreiro, and The Children's Crusade , a crossover involving several of the imprint's ongoing series. The Books of Magic limited series was relaunched as an ongoing series written by John Ney Rieber , and illustrated by Peter Gross (later also writer), Gary Amaro, and Peter Snejbjerg . Although

9177-537: The final issues of the limited series, causing issues #8–11 to be released on a quarterly rather than monthly status, and the final issue to be cover dated nine months later than the penultimate issue. Bolland drew a pinup for Superman No. 400 (Oct. 1984) and its companion portfolio. In 1986, Bolland was one of several artists who contributed pages to the anniversary issue Batman No. 400 (Oct. 1986), his offering featuring villains Ra's al Ghul and Catwoman . Around this time, Titan Books were trying to launch

9310-578: The first episodes of an adult Little Nemo in Slumberland parody entitled Little Nympho in Slumberland , and when he moved to the Central School of Art and Design in London in 1973, he continued to produce (mostly full-page) Little Nympho strips for a 50-copy fanzine entitled Suddenly at 2-o-clock in the Morning. He also contributed a smaller, strip entitled "The Mixed-Up Kid" to

9443-510: The first two Camelot 3000 covers, he chose to ignore [the Andru design] completely and come up with my own unapproved design. Len Wein rejected it and told me to do the Ross Andru one. Grudgingly I drew the number one cover that made it onto the issue – but as a protest I reversed the letter N in my signature as a code to remind myself that my "artistic integrity" had been despoiled. I liked

9576-512: The four-issue DC/ Helix miniseries Bloody Mary (1996–7) – have had collections released under the Vertigo label. Rachel Pollack , who was writing Doom Patrol when Vertigo launched, continued on that title until #87 (Feb. 1995), the final issue. She is known for creating the first openly trans superhero, Coagula . She also penned two "Vertigo Visions" specials — 1993's The Geek and 1998's Tomahawk . Nancy A. Collins , who wrote Swamp Thing #110–138 (Aug. 1991 – Dec. 1993), also wrote

9709-839: The future artist to "trawl... round some of the more remote backstreet newsagents" for comics to store on an overflowing wooden bookcase he'd built in school. As early as 1962, aged 11, Bolland remembers thinking that " Carmine Infantino 's work on the Flash and Gil Kane 's on Green Lantern and the Atom had a sophistication about it that I hadn't [previously] seen." He would later cite Kane and Alex Toth as "pinnacle[s] of excellence," alongside Curt Swan , Murphy Anderson , Sid Greene , Joe Kubert , Ross Andru , Mike Esposito , Nick Cardy , and Bruno Premiani , whose influences showed in his "early crude stabs at drawing comics." The young Bolland did not rate Marvel Comics as highly as DC, feeling

9842-433: The general character of Vertigo, have been reprinted under this imprint. This has included V for Vendetta , earlier issues of Vertigo's ongoing launch series, and books from discontinued imprints such as Transmetropolitan (initially under DC's short-lived sci-fi Helix imprint) and A History of Violence (originally part of the Paradox Press line ). Two of the new ongoing series did not last long; Kid Eternity

9975-647: The gore" for his first Hammer horror adaptation – although he found much of the "blood painted out" in the printed version. From the 1970s to the present, Bolland has also produced one-off pieces of artwork for use as record (including one for The Drifters in 1975 ), paperback book (including the UK Titan editions of George R. R. Martin 's Wild Cards anthologies ) and magazine covers (including Time Out and every major comics publication). He continued to produce work for fanzines, including for Nick Landau's Comic Media News , and Arkensword and even "drew

10108-491: The hazard cards" for a board game called Maneater . He later "got to know the Games Workshop guys, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone ," and produced various "games related drawings" including a cover or two for Fighting Fantasy Adventure Game Books, and RPG scenario pamphlets. His cover work for Games Workshop includes the role-playing game Golden Heroes and its only adventure Legacy of Eagles , and

10241-414: The head of Vertigo was filled by Shelly Bond , who had begun editing for the imprint in 1993. However, in 2016, DC "restructured" Vertigo, eliminating Bond's position, and oversight of Vertigo was placed under Jamie S. Rich , until May 2017 when Mark Doyle became the new editor. In 2018, DC Comics announced a "line-wide relaunch and rebranding" as "DC Vertigo", including 11 new ongoing titles planned for

10374-474: The highstreet," opening the first Forbidden Planet comics shop, for which Lake asked Bolland to produce the now-famous "People like us shop at... FORBIDDEN PLANET" adverts. Bolland's artwork would also feature on the shop's plastic bags, as well as T-Shirts and "covers for their SF, comic and TV & film catalogues," among other places. Later, when a branch of Forbidden Planet was opened in New York, and at

10507-517: The idea of a 2000 AD continuity between characters," Bolland seeing this as a "strength... hav[ing] one great new idea each week." Soon, though, the writers began to craft serials, and Bolland's distinct abilities with subtle facial expressions, dramatic lighting and the dynamic composition of page layout made him the perfect choice to draw the ongoing sagas, starting with " The Lunar Olympics ". Bolland contributed artwork to such Judge Dredd story-arcs as " Luna Period ", " The Cursed Earth ", " The Day

10640-494: The imprint's publishing plans with the limited series Enigma , Sebastian O , Mercy , and Shadows Fall . Vertigo was launched in January 1993 with a mixture of existing ongoing series continued under the new imprint, new ongoing and limited series, and single-volume collections or graphic novels. Their publishing plan for the first year involved two new titles – whether ongoing/limited series or one-shots – each month. The existing series (cover date March 1993) were Shade,

10773-566: The imprint: Art Young started out as Karen Berger's assistant and worked on pre-Vertigo issues of Animal Man , Hellblazer , Swamp Thing , The Sandman , Doom Patrol , Books of Magic , Skreemer , and Kid Eternity . He then left DC in 1991 to work for Disney in setting up Touchmark, before returning with those projects to Vertigo in early 1993, when he edited debut title Enigma , and later miniseries and one-shots such as Sebastian O , The Extremist , Mercy , Rogan Gosh , The Mystery Play , and Tank Girl: The Moovy . He edited all four of

10906-500: The individuals who would be instrumental in the creation and evolution of Vertigo seven years later, including Neil Gaiman , Jamie Delano , Peter Milligan , and Grant Morrison . She "found their sensibility and point of view to be refreshingly different, edgier and smarter" than those of most American comics writers. Berger edited several new or revived series with these writers, including superhero / science fiction series such as Animal Man , Doom Patrol vol. 2, and Shade,

11039-411: The latter style. Bolland drew all bar a couple of Walter's adventures, which appeared between Progs #50–61; #67–68 and #84–85 (with Ian Gibson drawing the first two episodes and Brendan McCarthy the last two), and says that he "was usually able to complete one in a day." He namechecks "the great Don Martin " as an artist he "shamelessly ripped off" for the human supporting characters, drawing most of

11172-438: The launch of The Sandman for DC Comics, a title that became the backbone of the initial Vertigo line-up. His Death mini-series was part of the Vertigo launch, and his work on the first The Books of Magic miniseries (also released as a DC title, 1990–91) laid the groundwork for the long-running Vertigo Universe series of the same name, which featured young wizard Timothy Hunter . Peter Milligan contributed two titles to

11305-430: The launch of Vertigo), did not make the transition to the new imprint. Meanwhile, Disney Comics and former DC editor Art Young had been developing an imprint to be called Touchmark Comics, analogous to Disney's mature-audiences Touchstone Pictures studio. This project was abandoned following the so-called "Disney Implosion" of 1991 . Young and those works were brought into the Vertigo fold, allowing Berger to expand

11438-634: The launch of Vertigo, but their work on those titles was similarly retroactively branded as "Vertigo" when collected. They wrote three volumes of The Invisibles between 1994 and 2000 . In addition, they had produced a number of one-shots and miniseries including Sebastian O (1993), The Mystery Play (1994), Kill Your Boyfriend (1995), the Doom Patrol spin-off Flex Mentallo (1996), The Filth (2002–03), Seaguy (2004), Vimanarama (2005), We3 (2004–05) and Joe The Barbarian (2010). Neil Gaiman came to prominence four years pre-Vertigo with

11571-430: The line was hiring Garth Ennis to write Hellblazer . He helped start the DC imprint Helix , and brought Transmetropolitan to Vertigo after Helix's demise. Axel Alonso began his editorial career at Vertigo editing titles like Hellblazer , Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso 's 100 Bullets , and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon 's Preacher . He left Vertigo for Marvel Comics in 2000 and eventually ascended to

11704-559: The look of Kevin O'Neill 's Nemesis the Warlock . Bolland was, he acknowledges, "by far the slowest of the rotating Judge Death artists," opting to "take as long as I needed and do a half-way decent job" rather than rushing. For the sequel, a "massive (for me) 30 pages," 2000 AD 's editorial banked one-off stories to give Bolland long enough to draw it all. When Nick Landau began (in 1981) Titan Books ' reprints of Judge Dredd material, he "used this story non-chronologically" to begin

11837-413: The look of the character and contributing to the highest-profile early storylines, Bolland also created the look of two of the wider Dredd universe's most enduring characters: Judge Death (and the other three Dark Judges ) and Judge Anderson . Later, Landau's Titan "decided they could repackage the Judge Dredd stories in an American comic format with new covers and sell it to America," and did under

11970-460: The main DC Universe had a "crossover" in 1993-94: The Children's Crusade . The event "did not yield smashing results" or garnered many positive reviews, in large part due to its "gimmicky" nature, which ran counter to Vertigo's quirky, non-mainstream appeal and customer-base. The event was defended as "no marketing ploy" by one of the event's editors, Lou Stathis, who wrote of his dislike of

12103-513: The monthly comics in volumes, which were also sold in general-interest bookshops. Vertigo's success in popularizing this approach, beginning with Sandman , led to a wider take-up in the American comics industry of routinely reprinting monthly series in this format. Vertigo Visions was an irregular series of self-contained short stories featuring characters from the DC Universe, reinterpreted or recontextualized. Vertigo Visions: Artwork from

12236-454: The new plan, all of the company's comics were published under the "DC" brand, and categorized by intended reader age: DC Kids (8–12 years), DC (13+), and DC Black Label (17+). The Sandman -related titles retained their new branding as " The Sandman Universe ". In October 2024 at New York Comic Con , DC announced the Vertigo imprint would be returning after its discontinuation in 2020. Chris Conroy, editor of DC Black Label, confirmed not only

12369-413: The often "crass manipulation" of crossover events, defending The Children's Crusade as having come not from marketing, but the writers' minds, and therefore being "story-driven" rather than manipulative. The crossover did not become an annual event, however — indeed, "annuals" linked to Vertigo series rarely reappeared after this event. Works previously published by DC under other imprints, but which fit

12502-430: The one-shots The Eaters and Face for the "Vertigo Voices" sub-imprint, and a number of other miniseries, including The Extremist , Tank Girl: The Odyssey , Egypt , Girl , The Minx , and Vertigo Pop!: London . Jamie Delano was the original writer of Vertigo's flagship series Hellblazer , which spun-off from Moore's run on Swamp Thing . Moore himself recommended Jamie Delano for Hellblazer . Delano left

12635-466: The opportunity, he remarks that a misunderstanding resulted in his being unaware of the first issue being scheduled, resulting in Dave Johnson drawing No. 1 instead, and Bolland joining at issue No. 2. Bolland's first two covers were coloured by editor Chiarello, but from issue No. 5 to No. 47 (his last) they were coloured by the artist himself. As his run progressed, the cover art on Gotham Knights

12768-581: The pages in Chiswick , 1978. In between Dredd assignments Bolland drew horror strips for Dez Skinn 's House of Hammer , having been introduced to the comic through another of the "fanboy in-crowd," Trevor Goring , who drew "a comic strip version of the movie Plague of the Zombies ," and asked Bolland to ink it. Soon, Bolland was asked to draw " Vampire Circus " (dir. Robert Young , 1972; comic version scripted by Steve Parkhouse ), and "pile[d] on

12901-433: The proto- and early Vertigo titles Sandman , Shade , Kid Eternity , Books of Magic , Death: The High Cost of Living and Sandman Mystery Theatre . As the imprint's initial ongoing series came to their ends, new series were launched to replace them, with varying degrees of success. The Sandman was replaced following its completion by The Dreaming (1996–2001) and The Sandman Presents , which featured stories about

13034-548: The publishing model in which monthly series sold through comic book shops are periodically collected into editions which are kept in print for bookstore sale. As DC's most popular and enduring imprint, several Vertigo series won the comics industry's Eisner Award , including for "best continuing series", and were adapted to film and television. The imprint began to decline in the 2010s, as certain properties like Hellblazer and Swamp Thing were re-integrated into DC's main comic books, while Berger departed in 2013. Berger's departure

13167-489: The relaunch of the imprint, but also that he would also be running Vertigo as well. In addition, James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno's series The Nice House by the Sea was announced to be switching from releasing under DC Black Label to releasing under Vertigo. Similarly, The Sandman Universe line of books will be folded back into the imprint as well. In addition to Berger, several other editors have become linked to

13300-410: The release of the artwork as Bolland intended it, and is completely recoloured by Bolland himself. The book made The New York Times Best Seller list in May 2009. In 1996, Bolland wrote and drew the story "An Innocent Guy" for the anthology Batman: Black and White , in which an otherwise normal inhabitant of Gotham City documents his plan to carry out the ultimate perfect crime and assassinate

13433-422: The restrictions of DC's main line, thus allowing more creative freedom. Its titles consisted of company-owned comics set in the DC Universe , such as The Sandman and Hellblazer , and creator-owned works, such as Preacher , Y: The Last Man and Fables . Vertigo grew out of DC's mature readers' line of the 1980s, which began after DC stopped submitting The Saga of the Swamp Thing for approval by

13566-578: The return of King Arthur to save England from an alien invasion in the year 3000, not only the largest body of work in a single series by Bolland – and his only attempt to draw a monthly title – but was also the first maxi-series from DC or any other publisher. Bolland was not familiar with the Arthurian legends, and initially conceived Merlin as a comical character. The series was graced with considerable media hype, and Bolland found himself invited to San Diego Comic-Con and other conventions. Bolland

13699-413: The role of editor-in-chief, a title he held until 2017. Will Dennis attended film school with Bond, who later recruited him as an assistant editor. He was promoted to editor a few months after Alonso departured for Marvel. Dennis took over the editing of 100 Bullets and later edited Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra 's Y: The Last Man and Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad graphic novel. Dennis

13832-622: The semi-autobiographical humour strip Mr. Mamoulian and the whimsical rhyming strip The Actress and the Bishop . All strips of both projects were included in the Bolland Strips! collection book, published in 2005. In 2006, he compiled the art book The Art of Brian Bolland , showcasing all of Bolland's work to date and also his work as a photographer. Brian Bolland was born in Butterwick, Lincolnshire , England, to Albert "A.J." John,

13965-401: The series in 1991, before the launch of Vertigo, and was writing the imprint's Animal Man series at the time. His other Vertigo works included Outlaw Nation , Ghostdancing , and two Hellblazer miniseries, The Horrorist and Hellblazer Special: Bad Blood . Garth Ennis took over Hellblazer from Delano and wrote it at the time of Vertigo's launch. Ennis's best-known Vertigo work

14098-519: The series. Landau spent time paginating the book at Bolland's flat, and discovered that "[s]ome stories started or ended on the wrong page thereby leaving blank pages," as it was set to be "in effect, the first book exclusively of my work" the artist "gladly offered to add three full page pictures for the Cursed Earth volume and a new back cover for the first Judge Dredd volume. Walter the Wobot

14231-681: The simple rules of comic book storytelling," but "better still, it was going someplace where nobody I knew could see it." He "drew around 300 pages of that very straightforward, simple-to-follow work, and I guess the storytelling flowed naturally from that." Even so, he "was always struggling to get the last eight or ten pages finished," and was occasionally helped by friends, both from his "Norwich School of Art days," Gibbons and future- 2000 AD and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kevin O'Neill . Bolland writes that starting with Powerman he "found regular employment drawing comics, one of which, Judge Dredd , in 1977–80, turned out to be quite

14364-479: The technology, Bolland has also produced a number of lessons/tutorials on his official website demonstrating his complex techniques. He states that, while this leap means that he no longer produces any paper-based artwork (a profitable sideline for many artists who sell on their original work to collectors), he was certain on abandoning pen and paper. Bolland recalls that, in the wake of The Killing Joke , he received plenty of work offers, but didn't feel ready to make

14497-415: The third volume of The Invisibles were done using a computer, in part because Vertigo had requested "painted" covers and Bolland felt that line and flat color wouldn't suffice. The experimental nature of the twelve covers was assisted by the fact that neither Bolland or Roeberg saw the issue script. For the trade paperback covers, Bolland "was determined to make each one weirder than the last," and so created

14630-401: The time, does tend to prefer realism." Bolland therefore states that he "aped Mike's genius... and then reinterpreted [Dredd] in a style which actually borrowed a lot from the work of the American artists," retaining McMahon's "granite-jawed" look but bringing a level of realism and fine detail to the character, which Mark Salisbury says "finally cemented the iconic image." As well as honing

14763-414: The violence inflicted on the character Barbara Gordon . Speaking circa 2000, Bolland said that since The Killing Joke he has only drawn comics that he also wrote. Six years later he clarified that Since then I haven't wanted to draw comics that anyone else has had a hand in. I'd rather not work on a story I haven't written myself or one that will ultimately be colored by someone else. I have to earn

14896-404: The writer) to "sign off" on his designs. In the case of The Invisibles , however, although Morrison officially had final approval on cover art, Bolland described him as generous to the work Bolland came up with. In selected cases, however, Bolland would ask for ideas, and in one specific case " Shelly [Roeberg] , the editor... did once relay that Grant wanted an arm coming out of the water holding

15029-458: Was a "much hyped concept" whose titles were designed to "usher...in the new millennium" and, as such, several of them were limited series rather than one-shots. The Vertigo Pop limited series were designed "to be about pop culture around the globe in some vaguely defined way". At the 2008 Comic-Con International Karen Berger outlined plans for a new "sub-imprint" called Vertigo Crime, a line of graphic novels, in black and white, hardcover. It

15162-437: Was allowed to pick between two inkers, but opted to ink his covers himself. Bolland was uncomfortable with having a third party ink his pencils, and later admitted that he put a high level of detail into his art for the series to leave as little room as possible for the inker to creatively reinterpret his work. However, he was satisfied with the finished results. Reacting indignantly to being presented with Ross Andru layouts for

15295-402: Was an android with a speech impediment who served as Judge Dredd's personal servant robot. Created for comedic relief , Bolland notes that "[t]he great thing about the Judge Dredd strip was it's [sic] ability to slide seamlessly between gritty sci fi adventure, nasty gothic horror , spoofery , all the way to daft comedy." Walter's solo adventures – "Walter the Wobot, Fwiend of Dwedd" – were

15428-497: Was an art he self-taught, with Bolland eventually writing a 15,000-word dissertation in 1973 on Neal Adams – an "artist [his teachers] had never heard of." He would later recall: It was during this time that I discovered the sheer range of comics and their history. All the British stuff I'd missed was there to be discovered. I found the American greats, Foster , Herriman , Alex Raymond and Winsor McCay ... Noel Sickles , Milt Caniff , Roy Crane , had all, I discovered, put down

15561-492: Was cancelled after 16 issues, and Black Orchid continued for only 22. Sandman Mystery Theatre and most of the pre-existing series continued for several years, including Sandman which reached its planned conclusion with #75. Hellblazer was the last of the original ongoing series to be canceled, ceasing publication in February 2013 with #300. Berger won Eisner Awards for her editing in 1992, 1994 and 1995 for her work on

15694-534: Was commissioned by future- Titan Distribution and Forbidden Planet co-founder Mike Lake (who was "working there at the time") c. 1976. As well as the DTWAGE adverts, Bolland and most of his peers also contributed artwork to advertise, and/or feature in programme booklets for the UK Comicon , starting c.  1976 . In 1978, Nick Landau, Mike Lake and Mike Luckman "took their comic distribution business into

15827-407: Was established as a regular artist on the series. "From that point on," writes Bolland, "either he [Landau] or his successor Steve MacManus called me direct whenever they wanted me to do a Dredd story." Dredd stories started as traditional UK comic stories, i.e. "six-page one-offs... [Writers] Pat Mills and John Wagner seem[ing] to spurn the American comic idea of continuing stories or, worse,

15960-456: Was excited for his ideas, although Morrison had approval on all designs as the series creator. Finding that he had a rapport with, and the trust of, his editor, Bolland thinks that these factors led to some of his most experimental work. Newly embracing the use of a computer, Bolland cites The Invisibles Vol 2 No. 11 as his earliest computer-assisted piece of artwork. For the third series, we [Bolland and Morrison] talked about trying to make

16093-459: Was fired by DC Comics after restructuring. "Shelly will never get full credit for all of the amazing things she did at Vertigo", Mike Allred wrote in 2016 in a tribute to Bond that featured many of the creators she worked with over the years. Tom Peyer was a founding editor of Vertigo. Tom was editor in 1990 with Karen Berger what would become the pillars of Vertigo: Hellblazer , Sandman (taking over from Art Young), Swamp Thing and Shade,

16226-430: Was followed by a series of editorial restructures, culminating in the imprint's relaunch as DC Vertigo in 2018, but the relaunch suffered a multitude of setbacks, including numerous cancellations. Vertigo imprint was discontinued in January 2020 by DC Comics as part of a plan to publish all the company's comics under a single banner, with DC Black Label taking its place as DC's mature readers' imprint. In 2024, DC announced

16359-573: Was his and artist Steve Dillon 's creator-owned Preacher , which ran for 66 issues and six spin-off specials between 1995 and 2000. Ennis has also written several miniseries for Vertigo, including Goddess (1995–96), Pride & Joy (1997), Unknown Soldier (1997), and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (2001–02), as well as eight one-shot War Stories between 2001 and 2003. Two of his pre-Vertigo works — True Faith (serialized in Crisis) and

16492-663: Was hit with "the stark reality of unemployment" and on the advice of Gibbons joined art agency Bardon Press Features. He soon found work doing a number of two-page strips for D.C. Thomson resulted, but Bolland would refer to this period as his "lowest time." Bardon did however produce a client called Pikin which was "planning a bi-weekly comic about an African superhero," Powerman , which was to be sold in Nigeria . Gibbons and Bolland were to draw alternate issues, with Bolland first drawing Powerman No. 2. Bolland recalls that "soon Dave had drawn his entire story and I had produced just

16625-461: Was increasingly done by Chiarello and other artists, and Bolland's first ideas for covers were rejected more often. Eventually, Bolland was told that he'd be done on the title within a few issues, but after discovering that upcoming covers featured Bane prominently (and not the Joker or Penguin as he had been hoping for some time), Bolland offered to leave immediately. Although his forays into interior artwork are almost universally acclaimed, Bolland

16758-434: Was intended to be used on "all Vertigo books except the hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and graphic novels". Berger noted that DC was "very" committed to the line, having put a "lot of muscle behind" promoting it, including a promotional launch kit made available to "[r]etailers who order[ed] at least 25 copies of the February issue of Sandman [#47]", a "platinum edition" variant cover for Death: The High Cost of Living #1 and

16891-509: Was launched in 2009 with two titles: Brian Azzarello 's Filthy Rich and Ian Rankin 's Dark Entries , the latter featuring John Constantine . Each volume features a cover illustration by Lee Bermejo . Vertigo Crime ended as a sub-imprint in 2011. The following original graphic novels have been published under the Vertigo Crime imprint (in order of publication): Karen Berger left the company in March 2013. Berger's position at

17024-462: Was left off the cover. Bolland produced a considerable amount of advertising work, initially because his agent "Barry Coker kept putting advertising jobs my way," including a number of ads for " Palitoy 's Star Wars toys." He also drew some of the earliest pieces of advertising artwork for the science fiction and comic shop Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed , which ran in various fanzines , convention programmes, and magazines such as Time Out and

17157-427: Was responsible for bringing writers Brian Wood ( DMZ ) and Jason Aaron ( Scalped ) to Vertigo and teamed writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock on their breakout series The Losers . He was the editor who presided over the Vertigo Crime line of graphic novels. Jonathan Vankin was hired as an editor at Vertigo in 2004 after previously writing two of the line's Vertigo Pop miniseries and several entries in

17290-402: Was said to be equivalent to "the fourth largest American comic book publisher" in 2005, with Paul Levitz praising her personally as having "built Vertigo into an imprint which is simultaneously one of comics' leading creative and commercial successes". The financial success of many Vertigo titles relied not on monthly issue sales, but on the subsequent "trade paperback" editions that reprinted

17423-461: Was secretary and then chairman of the Guild from 1992 to 1993. The Guild's newsletter became known as Comics Forum ; it was published quarterly from 1992 to 2004, and then annually until c. 2008. The Guild appears to have dissolved some time after 2008. The SSI distributed awards from 1977 until at least 1989; in 1988 the awards were renamed The Mekon Award (in honor of The Mekon of Mekonta,

17556-631: Was this burgeoning comics collection that would help inspire Bolland to draw his own comics around the age of ten with ideas such as "Insect League." He recalls that "[s]uperheroes crept into my life by stealth," as he actively sought out covers featuring "any big creature that looked vaguely dinosaur-like, trampling puny humans." These adolescent criteria led from Dinosaurus! and Turok via House of Mystery to " Batman and Robin [who] were [often] being harassed by big weird things, as were Superman , Aquaman , Wonder Woman [etc]," Bolland recalled. Soon, family outings to Skegness became an excuse for

17689-492: Was well received by critics, but after four issues were published, Esquivel was accused of sexually and emotionally abusing a former partner. Villalobos and colorist Tamra Bonvillain withdrew from the project, and DC cancelled the series, including issues that were ready for publication. Meanwhile, Second Coming by Mark Russell and Richard Pace came under criticism from Christians and conservatives who considered its announced premise – in which Jesus Christ returns and lives as

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