musicmeta Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Artboy99 said: I love those early BWS Conans! I have some cool stuff to share: This is awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidTheDavid Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 48 minutes ago, namisgr said: Well, most of us were when we were much younger. For me, the non-muscle bound version depicts the young Conan best. When he got older and more bulked up, and became a King, he needed to be rendered differently. I wish someone would render me differently, but seems you need to be king for that to happen, no matter how old or bulked up you are. I love how you can see BWS's art grow in skill and maturity across this short span of work. It's like Nick Cardy on Aquaman, but packed into a tighter time-frame. namisgr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westy Steve Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 Arguments about the artist are interesting. But the writing. Oh the writing! Genius! kav 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaylam Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 This is my favorite cover from the run. Love the composition and the colors. ComicConnoisseur, ADAMANTIUM and Ken Aldred 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 2 hours ago, Jaylam said: This is my favorite cover from the run. Love the composition and the colors. Many of the pages from Hawks was printed from copies of Barrys' pencils as the inker couldnt make deadline. You can see that some of the pages look blurry. Here's Barry on Liefeld: Rob Liefeld has nothing to offer. It’s as plain as bacon on your plate. He has nothing to offer. He cannot draw. He can’t write. He is a young boy almost, I would expect, whose culture is bubble gum wrappers, Saturday morning cartoons, Marvel comics; that’s his culture. Somebody was at his house and came back with a report: There is not a single book in his house — only comic books. I see nothing in his work that allows me to even guess that there’s any depth involved in that person that might come to the fore given time. I look at Jim Lee’s work, and the guy’s learning how to draw. He has some craft to what he does. Tony S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 Barry Smith on his last Conan Book #24: I knew it was my last book of the series. Push had come to shove and I hated everything about Marvel Comics' policies toward their creators. Once again Dan Adkins was slated to ink the work (he had just done an excellent job on the previous story, "Black Hound of Vengeance"), but I decided that I wasn't going to risk the possibility of a screw-up on this, my final Conan. I inked it myself whilst I was back in London for some months —it is inked entirely with a Mont Blanc fountain pen and I wrecked the pen in the process. I have been complimented over and over again for "Sonja"'s color work yet, as it happened, I had photo-copied the artwork just slightly smaller than the correct size for the hand-separators we used in those days and, as a result, the separators could not trace my work onto the film as usual. They had to "eyeball" the placements of the color and simply could not follow the intricate patterns I had created with the use of white and black as color entities unto themselves. The result was not bad and hard won by the crew of separators but, unfortunately, the multi-toned flesh passages, that became a bit of a trade-mark for me, were never reproduced at all. Tony S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 Barry Smith on Stan and the Marvel Method re Doctor Strange" [Marvel Premiere #3]: Not only did Stan dialogue the story after I had created it but, marvel of marvels, he ignored my plot and wrote another story entirely over my staging. Remarkable feat, actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 Sample page Barry sent to Marvel in 1968. An encouraging letter from Linda Fite (Stan's then-assistant/writer/future Herb Trimpe wife) prompted Barry to fly to the U.S. with friend Steve "BoJefferies Saga" Parkhouse and camp out at Marvel's door. Artwork ©1998 BWS. Captain America ©1998 Marvel Entertainment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE_BEYONDER Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 6 minutes ago, kav said: Sample page Barry sent to Marvel in 1968. An encouraging letter from Linda Fite (Stan's then-assistant/writer/future Herb Trimpe wife) prompted Barry to fly to the U.S. with friend Steve "BoJefferies Saga" Parkhouse and camp out at Marvel's door. Artwork ©1998 BWS. Captain America ©1998 Marvel Entertainment. Channeling Kirby? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 48 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said: Channeling Kirby? and that, is why Stan hired him. THE_BEYONDER 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westy Steve Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 19 hours ago, kav said: Barry Smith on his last Conan Book #24: I knew it was my last book of the series. Push had come to shove and I hated everything about Marvel Comics' policies toward their creators. Once again Dan Adkins was slated to ink the work (he had just done an excellent job on the previous story, "Black Hound of Vengeance"), but I decided that I wasn't going to risk the possibility of a screw-up on this, my final Conan. I inked it myself whilst I was back in London for some months —it is inked entirely with a Mont Blanc fountain pen and I wrecked the pen in the process. I have been complimented over and over again for "Sonja"'s color work yet, as it happened, I had photo-copied the artwork just slightly smaller than the correct size for the hand-separators we used in those days and, as a result, the separators could not trace my work onto the film as usual. They had to "eyeball" the placements of the color and simply could not follow the intricate patterns I had created with the use of white and black as color entities unto themselves. The result was not bad and hard won by the crew of separators but, unfortunately, the multi-toned flesh passages, that became a bit of a trade-mark for me, were never reproduced at all. Coincidently, my favorite cover and I didn't realize there was a backstory behind it. I just bought this one a few months ago. It's a masterpiece. Yeah, it's raw, and it's not a 9.8. Looks fantastic in Mylar. Artboy99, kav and Ken Aldred 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 36 minutes ago, Westy Steve said: Coincidently, my favorite cover and I didn't realize there was a backstory behind it. I just bought this one a few months ago. It's a masterpiece. Yeah, it's raw, and it's not a 9.8. Looks fantastic in Mylar. one of my favorite covers as well. I own the cgc 9.4 from the Maggie Thompson pedigree F For Fake and Tony S 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namisgr Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 (edited) Smith's Conan didn't always look lean - sometimes he looked up to the physical challenge of battle: He was also terrific at coloring his own work. Edited June 18, 2019 by namisgr delekkerste, Tony S, musicmeta and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...