In 1985, Nick Landau of Titan Books was finding considerable success with "Judge Dredd" and other 2000AD collections, and obtained the rights to publish some Jeff Hawke collections, and with them "7,000 [copies of episodes in a huge ungainly pile" from the "Express" offices. He approached artist and fan Brian Bolland, who suggested "Overlord" as the first story to be collected, and duly produced a cover for the collection. A second collection followed soon after, subtitled "Counsel for the Defence," also under a newly commissioned cover from the popular "Dredd" and "Camelot 3000" artist, Bolland. Bolland notes, though, that "ales of the "Jeff Hawke" collections were obviously disappointing, so there were only two." Plans were already afoot for a third collection, and the shelved book, Bolland reports, would have "contained another great story "The Ambassadors"."