Comics Interview: Dissected – Issue #19

Welcome to the latest instalment of our Dissected feature here on Nerdly, where one of our comic gurus, Ian Wells, delves into comics history and looks back at Comics Interview, the long-running journal of interviews and criticism from David Anthony Kraft (DAK).

I Am The Law

This issue belongs to Brian Bolland. He even draws himself on the cover, squaring off against Judge Dredd, the character he is most associated with. I have never really been a fan of British comics, despite being British. So I came to his work much later and via his American work. Now I’ve matured, his work is a thing of beauty. It is instantly recognisable, and when you see it in the context of this interview, it feels like there is nothing in American comics like it.

Brian Bolland’s name has been cropping up in the pages of CI frequently in recent issues. It is usually in the artists’ interviews where he is cited as an inspiration and a favourite. At this stage, it feels like he is an ‘artist’s artist.’ Someone the cool kids call out to get more credibility. The British comics scene also has had a spotlight in CI, so it makes sense that this issue is billed as a special edition, as Bolland is the focus of the largest interview seen in the magazine so far. The timeline of the interviews, with the American reprints of Judge Dredd hitting the stands thrown into the mix it makes Bolland’s rise in American comics seem like an overnight success. The introduction points out that it has, in fact, been a three-year journey, so hopefully this interview will put more meat on the bones of his story. The first thing of note is that Bolland admits not necessarily liking Judge Dredd as a character, but he is a lot of fun to draw. At the time of the interview, he was still providing Dredd covers for the Eagle Comics editions of reprints for the American audience. Part of not connecting with the character is down to his seeing Dredd as two-dimensional. Then you have the dichotomy of having your main character be part of a fascist police state! This then links into Bolland’s feeling that British comics can pack more story into six pages than American comics can do in twenty-five. The obvious rebuttal to this is British comics being on a weekly basis and pretty much always in anthologies. So Dredd would get six pages a week to tell a part of a story.

Mike McMahon is another artist whose name has come up in CI a few times, another example of an artist’s artist. He and Bolland are the two standout names linked with Dredd, with the former having contributed more work to the title. Bolland says artists of his generation are influenced by Kirby, Gil Kane and Milton Caniff. This influence often leads to a form of imitation. But he says McMahon is like no one he has ever seen. “There’s almost a kind of madness in there somewhere. I think he’s one of the great stylists.” The interview gets into how Bolland came to work in American comics. I find a nice quirk of comics history that both Bolland and Dave Gibbons, two hugely successful British artists, got their breaks in America on Green Lantern. It is a journey that takes him to Camelot 3000, a series that has been referenced as good comics many a time in many a CI interview. When he got the gig, he explains how he wanted to draw it like a DC comic to repay the faith shown in him. But he then felt he was overcompensating, and after a pep talk with Joe Orlando, he stuck to his style for the story. He gets into the story a bit, and this is the first time, despite all the creators talking it up in previous interviews, where Camelot 3000 actually sounded half appealing to me! It is a twelve-issue series that took three years to complete, which would have infuriated me if I were reading it as it came out. Maybe now I’ll track down a reprint collection.

On the cover of this issue, there is a banner at the top stating readers can help make a Batman vs Judge Dredd comic happen. Bolland reveals talks are already underway, and Alan Moore is already plotting. The reference to the banner comes from interviewer Frank Plowright giving out the address for IPC so fans can bombard them with requests. The first such crossover didn’t actually happen until 1991 and was by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Simon Bisley. On the subject of unrealised projects, he also mentions a Batman graphic novel with Mike Barr, then admits the Batman corner of the DCU is overpopulated with Batman stories. In 1986, he would contribute to the anniversary Batman #400 before, of course, doing The Killing Joke two years after that. There is plenty to unpack in this interview. If you are a bigger fan of Bolland, Camelot 3000 and Judge Dredd than me, then you will probably get more out of it. The biggest disappointment is that we didn’t get much on his own influences and process.

Don & Maggie Thompson

The intro to this interview by Lou Mougin builds the Thompsons up as the power couple of comic fandom. Their current venture sees them take the reins as co-editors of The Comics Buyer’s Guide. A publication that has been around since the early 70’s and is reaching a new level of popularity. To put some context to some themes in this interview, the term ‘fandom’ and the act of participating in fandom have been around since the 60’s. The Thompsons have pretty much been a part of it since the beginning. They started out as sci-fi fans, and in the early days, there was a big crossover between the sci-fi crowd and the comic crowd. With this crossover, they suggested the idea of a sci-fi fanzine with a comic tilt to it. They soon found the market had a few competitors in the comic zine zone. What time to be alive, really, you had Alter Ego, Comic Reader, CBG and the Thompsons’ second project, Newfangles. Do you think every new fanzine was greeted like everyone trying to do a comics YouTube or TikTok today? They balanced working at Cleveland Press whilst contributing 150 instalments of ‘Beautiful Balloons’ in CBG. They then had the rug pulled out from under them when Cleveland Press went out of business. Long story short, they are in the position we find them today, co-editors of CBG. Now that we have their backstory established, the topic changes to how they view the current fandom after 20 years of helping to establish it. And from here, things get interesting with their response. “…now you have fans who like to show their superiority by insulting and heckling the people turning out comics…” I had to double-check the date of this interview; it could have been conducted last week! Don continues with “There’s a sort of hostility and wise-guy attitude… If you don’t like comics, go do something else.” It may seem ironic that I’m sitting writing a blog about comics, where I’m talking down to people doing such a thing. If anyone has read any of my columns on Nerdly will know that even if my writing style isn’t for them, everything I do is from a positive place. There are so many good comics podcasts, blogs, YouTubes and whatnot that they should be regarded with the same respect as these Bronze Age fanzines. It just seems though, the bad ones get the headlines and then the world views modern fandom as every ass hole has a keyboard!

Ad Space

I was left a little confused by one ad that ran in this issue. The are two full-page ads for back issues of Comics Interview. Here’s the confusing part: it goes up to #60. Obviously, I understand things being solicited months before release, which explains the cover images, but having them as part of the back issue advertisement seems a little odd. Was CI ever reprinted with new ads, and this explains the amount of back issues available far, far past the current issue? Any help on this would be great. Also advertised are Comics Interview Specials for Batman, X-Men, Watchmen and John Byrne. I would be interested in picking up physical copies of these at some point.

NEXT: Cockrum! Giffen! T.H.U.N.D.E.R!