Both an announcement and a plea today from Rebellion about the upcoming Brian Bolland: The Apex Edition. This sounds like it’s going to be a gorgeous product but they need our help in locating original 2000 AD art first. Full details in the press release below. Spread the word!
The Judge Dredd art of Brian Bolland, one of the most influential British comic book artists of all time, is to be unleashed in a stunning new collection from 2000 AD.
Acclaimed as one of the greatest artists of his generation, Bolland’s work on Judge Dredd is to be showcased in a deluxe, over-sized facsimile edition featuring new high-resolution scans of his original art from 2000 AD.
Brian Bolland: The Apex Edition will be released in 2022. Full details and pre-order will be announced at a later date.
Bolland is one of the definitive 2000 AD artists, his work on Judge Dredd helped catapult the series and his unique style to international attention, not least thanks to his co-creation of the arch alien superfiend Judge Death.
As well as his slick, highly-detailed linework on stories such as ‘Punks Rule’ and ‘The Cursed Earth’, the inventiveness and sardonic humour of his covers for 2000 AD and the Eagle Comics reprints for North America confirmed him as one of the industry’s greatest, who has influenced a huge number of today’s comic book superstars.
Brian Bolland: The Apex Edition follows Rebellion’s successful Zenith Apex Edition, which collected Steve Yeowell’s stunning artwork from his and Grant Morrison’s superhero series.
It will feature high-resolution scans of original art, showing Bolland’s delicate inking brushwork in unprecedented detail, as well as the titles and word balloons placed over it at the time by IPC’s art team. It promises to be an unmissable collection for fans of comics and of fine art.
Co-edited by Masters of British Comics author and artist David Roach and Rebellion graphic novels editor Oliver Pickles, many pages of Bolland’s 2000 AD work has already been located and scanned, brought together from private collections in the US, UK, France, and beyond.
However, editors are still seeking a number of pages to scan and include in this special collection, many of which have not been scanned since their original publication. They are interested to hear from anyone who has the following original art:
2000 AD Prog 110 (‘Punks Rule’) pages 5, and 6
2000 AD Prog 120 (‘Forever Crimes’) pages 1, 2, and 5
2000 AD Prog 182 (‘Block War’) pages 3, and 5
2000 AD Prog 224 (‘Judge Death Lives’) pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
2000 AD Prog 225 pages 1, 2, 3
2000 AD Prog 226 pages 1, 2, 3, 6
2000 AD Prog 227 pages 1, 2 and 4
2000 AD Prog 228 pages 1, 2
2000 AD Prog 244 (‘Block Mania’) pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
All artwork will be securely returned after being carefully scanned and appropriate credit given in the collection. If you have any of these pages, please contact Rebellion on press@2000AD.com
