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BOLLAND STRIPS

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Brian Bolland is in on the jokes. He gets them, and he knows how to tell them to others. He understands what is funny and what is tragic. And he understands what is funny in what is tragic.

The book "Bolland Strips!" is a collection of his more controversial, and arguably less commercial artworks. The artworks constantly discuss topics that polite society does not discuss, such as; torture, prostitution, unrequited love, sexuality, and the absurd cruelty of some Biblical stories.

Bolland's art is the opposite of abstract. He does not intend to hide, soft focus, or airbrush the appearance of things. He does not hide unpleasant or difficult things from view. His work is about removing rose-colored glasses. As an artist, his intents appear to be to not only tell narratives, but to also reveal often unseen and unspoken things.

Many artists in the comic medium seek to idealize human proportions. Bolland appears to be more intent on drawing the human form as a means of revealing human emotions, frailties, and ethical conflicts.

The title "Bolland Strips!" has many likely intentional meanings (What would a burlesque show be without double entendres?). The book is a collection of his diverse and eclectic comic strips. The book is also an artistic exercise in stripping away cultural facades. And the book is an exercise in Mr. Bolland stripping off his own exteriors to reveal his more intimate, internal dialogues on issues that appear to have bothered him from time to time.

The book is not often farce. The book is, like Bolland's artistic style, often stark and plain meaning. Bolland may pull some punches in his introductory prose, but he respects his graphic arts and he does not waste anyone's time in the care and thought he puts into his visual communications.

The first series of strips is a visual exploration of the evidently British line of humor about "The Actress and The Bishop." It examines the juxtapositions of sexuality vs. supposed abstinence, temptations vs. controls, flirtations vs. chastisements, and seductions vs. strict forms and traditions. The images and dialogue regularly pair "opposites" in behavior and perspective to bring out wit inherent in common choices made in both conservative and liberal directions.

The second section of the book is full page sequential 8 to 12 cell cartoons. They are frank and dynamic examinations of universal patterns of attraction, sexual politics, self-perceptions, desire, rejection, and loneliness.

In the third section in the book, Bolland creates a twist on the classic tale of "The Princess and The Frog" that works as an allegory on many levels. In particular, it works as an allegory for religions whose followers spend a great amount of time and energy waiting for their messiahs to return.

The fourth section in the book, "The Kapas," is the most traditional comic format in the book. It is a multi-page travel narrative that uses a detached, almost journalistic, tone to describe horrific and yet socially accepted public torture. Among many other things, the narrative implies the question: Is law, order, & control worthwhile if it is achieved by means of notorious & government-approved torture?

No one should read this review and infer they have a clear understanding of all this book contains. I have given singular interpretations of some of Bolland's possible intents. But as the comic art form is so capable of doing, especially in Bolland's capable hands, each story has many alternate allegorical interpretations.

The book concludes with a series of gorgeous narrative full page illustrations. These illustrations prominently compare feminine sexuality with harsh or absurd environments of war, fantasy, foreignness, or nationalism. To me, the illustrations beg the viewer to make comparative value judgments, asking questions like: Should we obey our nation's requests, asking us to kill our supposed enemies? How does propaganda use sexuality to glamorize state-sponsored violence? Might our time be better spent nurturing the beauty, kindness and fragility of our creative drives instead? In the illustrations, there is sometimes one character, breaking the illusion by looking straight at the viewer, straight at the camera, as if the illustration is aware it was created to be observed, judged, and considered. It is as if Bolland is letting us all inside of the jokes.

The book as a whole is an extraordinarily intelligent work of art. Brian Bolland cares about humanity, education, compassion, and expressing controversial views. He is a well-deserved multiple Eisner Award winning artist (at least 7 awards so far). This book, both written and drawn by Bolland, reveals some of the ideas and sensibilities behind his exquisite and thought-provoking renderings.

Most modern audiences probably know of artist Brian Bolland either from his recent work designing covers for Vertigo Comics' Jack of Fables or variant covers for DC Comics' ongoing Zatanna titles, as well as completing covers for a variety of DC deluxe hardcovers or prestige one-shots. Lately, some American readers are lucky enough to experience Bolland's earliest sequential art through 2000AD's rerelease of Judge Dredd strips in prestige softcover editions through their partnership with Simon & Schuster. For the truly hardcore Bolland fans who have enjoyed his work from Camelot 3000 by DC in the early 1980s to his creating the memorable covers of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, the forthcoming Brian Bolland: Cover to Cover later this year is a welcome addition. Fortunately, Last Gasp Publishing has secured the North American rights to distribute a collection of Bolland's intimate, witty pieces that reflect not only his strengths in visual storytelling that many have come to recognize and acknowledge, but also his diversity in style, design, and wordplay.

Bolland Strips! collects his entire "The Actress and the Bishop" strips, along with a nearly complete run of "Mr. Mamoulian" and shorter vignette pieces. "The Actress and the Bishop" represents Bolland's first attempt at both writing and drawing a comic. Originally appearing as a set of prints in the mid-1980s, the central characters found life again on the pages of the A1 comic published by Atomeka Press in 1989. The first three-page strips--"Go Boating" and "Throw a Party"--appeared in A1 #1 and #3 in 1989 and 1990. Interestingly, the stories seem to represent the important shift in Bolland's workflow from traditional pencil and ink toward adopting a completely digital platform in the early 1990s. Akin to Bolland's work on Camelot 3000 or even Batman: The Killing Joke, the linework on these early strips lacks the polished, digital quality contemporary readers have come to recognize as Bolland trademarks. In no way is this either a detriment or a fault with the work. In fact, the scratchier, more unrefined quality gives both strips a grainier, rugged, and rougher edge that signifies an important evolution and growth in Bolland's artistic process. Compare the first two pieces to the longer, more developed "The Thing in the Shed," also reprinted in the 2009 The Actress and the Bishop one-shot by Desperado Publishing. Amazingly, even when Bolland goes fully digital, as it appears he does in this last strip, he maintains the same level of quality and power his traditional line art holds.

Written in a metered, ABCB rhyme scheme, all of "The Actress and the Bishop" tales appear at first as some bawdy, degenerate play between a sex-addicted, older Bishop, and his semi but not often fully clothed Actress companion. The ensuing humor that emerges from the strip is rooted in a misperception of sexual congress and misconduct between the lead figures, an interpretation even Bolland dismisses. With sequential art, the involvement of the reader as an active participant in the story is key not only to forge a connection between the writer, the text, and the audience, but also for the cultural baggage the reader unintentionally or even unconsciously brings to the dialogue. As Bolland himself identifies, any actual smut in the strips is purely within the mind of the reader--sometimes a plunger is just a plunger; however, Bolland evokes such a torrid, deviant image in the mind of the readers through his selection of characters living in suburban London bliss. Part philosophical treatise, part morality play and completely amusing in the process, "The Actress and the Bishop" defies convention and comic genre classification.

Similarly, the majority of "Mr. Mamoulian" episodes collected here previously appeared in Negative Burn by Caliber Comics between 1993 and 1997; however, since then, Bolland has written five additional adventures for the quirky, alternative comics-styled character in the 2006 relaunch of Negative Burn from Image Comics and Desperado. Freer than anything in Bolland's lengthy canon, "Mr. Mamoulian" possesses a decisively underground feel and atmosphere as the somewhat neurotic line art is reinforced by the softer, fluid panel borders. Based on his love of Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County, Bolland's loveable figure comes across as both insightful and honest in his expressions that read as if Bolland was handing you the pages as he completed them. Whacky characters and dry silliness mixed with elements of thought-provoking introspection and even sadness help the strip blend in aspects of Bolland's crisper comic book linework at times.

Additionally, readers who purchased Vertigo Resurrected #1 in late 2010 or the original in 1999's Strange Adventures #1 will have already experienced Matt Hollingsworth's fully colored version of "The Kapas," which is stripped down to black and white in Bolland Strips! Rounding out the collection are also reprints of Vertigo's 1999 Heartthrobs #1 "Princess and the Frog" and "Prince and the Witch," and a few other, shorter strips.

Although the majority of entries in Bolland Strips! have been published elsewhere, the addition of Bolland's commentary and forewords to each selection gives the book an even greater value to the reader beyond the mere enjoyment and pleasure of the illustrations and story work. Last Gasp deserves credit as well for distributing this alongside numerous other non-US releases for the American market and making them available to an even wider audience.


-- Nathan Wilson

Bolland is a truely great artist and if you enjoy his work you'll throughly enjoy this book.Camelot 3000 Deluxe Edition