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

10 In 1965 or ‘66 I was a pupil at Giles Secondary Modern School in Old Leake in Lincolnshire. I’d been expanding my collection of DC Comics and Famous Monsters of Filmland and attempting my earliest drawings since ‘61. In my class at school there was a lad called Jeff Harwood. He told me his elder brother Dave had a similar collection which, if anything, was bigger than mine. Including Marvels. He was also a keen drawer. Dave lived in the next village from mine in a semi-detached house along with Jeff and their profoundly deaf dad Jim. I got on my bike and headed to Benington. Dave and I became great friends and, with him now 70 and me 68 at time of writing, remain so today. He drew his own set of super-hero characters (one was called 'Nova'), I drew mine the 'Insect League'. I used a blue and then black biro for my efforts. Soon we were creating amateur one-off comic books which we called 'Epic' containing one of my characters, one of his and a DC and a Marvel character. Cross-overs long before those companies contemplated the idea. In the case here of Epic #4 we were aping Marvel’s Not Brand Echh! The drawing is by me and the colours are meticulously crayoned by Dave. ABOVE: The wraparound cover to Epic issue 4 from one of Brian's youthful comic collaborations with fellow artist, comic enthusiast and lifelong friend Dave Harwood. In this instance Brian provided the biro rendered Dynamic Duo and Dave added the painstakingly applied colour pencils. Brian &Dave rian recalls his early creativ collaborations with fellow comics enthusiast and artist, Dave Harwood.