Education
Bolton"s introduction to comics came about quite casually after he graduated from East Ham Technical College (whose former alumni include Gerald Scarfe, Barry Windsor-Smith and Ralph Steadman) with a degree in graphics and design.
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God Save The Queen Sc (MR)
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John Bolton
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He was one of the first British artists to come to work in the American comics industry, a phenomenon which took root in the late 1980s and has since become standard practice. His first works in Great Britain were for magazines like Look In (alongside other British talents such as Arthur Ranson, Angus P Allan and Jim Baikie), The House of Hammer and Warrior (edited by Dez Skinn). In 1981 Marvel Comics" editor Ralph Macchio noticed his work and called him to work for an adaptation of Kull of Valusia for Epic Comics.
After illustrating two Kull stories, Bolton began working on the historical-fantasy character Marada, written by Chris Claremont (author of X-Men).
This was published by Epic Illustrated one year later. After another fantasy series, Black Dragon (1985), the duo Claremont & Bolton produced some short stories about X-Men"s lives for X-Men Classic.
This represented the first introduction of Bolton to the world of superheroes. In this period Bolton worked on covers for Eclipse and Pacific publishers, and on the graphic novel Someplace Strange, written by Ann Nocenti (1988).
Horror
From 1989 Bolton devoted himself to horror, his favourite genre.
Apart from a great number of covers for Dark Horse Comics and adaptations of horror movies, the main work of this period is his collaboration with writer Clive Barker (including the Hellraiser comic book version). In 1990 Bolton worked on the first episode of The Books of Magic for District of Columbia Comics, written by Neil Gaiman. The physical appearance of the protagonist, Timothy Hunter, is that of Bolton"s eldest son.
In 1995 Bolton produced art for the Manitoba-Bat mini-series, written by Jamie Delano for District of Columbia Comics.
Bolton said he accepted only because the story pivoted on a villain, instead of Batman, who he considered too winning a character. Later Bolton worked on another Batman book, Batman/Joker: Switch.
His latest works include User, written by Devin Grayson, Menz Insana, a mad trip by Christopher Fowler, and Gifts of the Night by Paul Chadwick. In 2003, author Neil Gaiman directed A Short Film About John Bolton where the painter (played by John O"Mahony) is interviewed by a reporter seeking to answer "Where do your ideas come from?" The artist is portrayed as very soft-spoken and reclusive, somewhat of a reluctant local celebrity in Crouch End, London.
Bolton himself plays a guest interviewed at a gallery showing.
