Born 23 May 1951 in
London, England, 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. 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
Bizarre Adventures #26 (May 1981). 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 in
Epic Illustrated in black-and-white, and then coloured as a
Marvel Graphic Novel. 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 issue of
The Books of Magic for
DC Comics, written by
Neil Gaiman. The physical appearance of the protagonist,
Timothy Hunter, is that of Bolton's eldest son. In other comic books he has also portrayed his wife and sons. In 1995 Bolton painted the
Man-Bat mini-series, written by
Jamie Delano for DC 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 other media ==