Somebody Cares About Conan!! 0

[comix4fun]

On 12/19/2023 at 2:04 AM, The Voord said:

 

Arnie's clearly beating Chuck . . . well, not beating him in 'that' way   

 

You've unfortunately stumbled into the  "conversation piece/freudian double entendre" wing of my collection:

[Bronty]

its all fun n games until a seal gets raped.

[comix4fun]

On 12/19/2023 at 11:22 AM, Bronty said:

its all fun n games until a seal gets raped.

I WILL find that original art one day. 

 

[alxjhnsn]

Frost Giant's Daughter and Red Nails are both so beautiful. 

[Unca Ben]

On 12/18/2023 at 5:21 AM, delekkerste said:

What's crazy to me is that The Frost Giant's Daughter story was first published in Savage Tales #1 (May 1971), with only the cover and new title page (along with some minor censoring edits) being added for its re-publication in Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972).

So, that means that BWS drew this story at about the same time or even slightly earlier than Conan the Barbarian #5 (also published in May 1971). And yet the art is just sublime, better than anything Smith did in the first 15 issues of the Conan run. Of course, much of that is due to BWS inking himself, and also being drawn for a B&W publication which caused him to experiment a lot more with light, shadow and shades of grey.

In any case, it does suggest that he had more of a developed style even from fairly early on in the Conan run and that he was capable of more than just aping Kirby - it was either his inkers and/or BWS himself hewing closer to the house style in the main Conan run (for the first 15 issues) that largely disguised this until he broke out in his new style with Conan #19. 

In any case, the FGD pages are just gorgeous - wish I had pursued them more aggressively back in the day.  

Page rate may have had something to do with it, too.  I'm gonna surmise Barry got a better page rate for the Savage Tales story than the comic books.  Though it was a little earlier, Eugene Colan or Steve Ditko's work on the Warren mags was generally superior to the work they did in the color comics.  I believe I read that one (or both) mentioned spending more time on the b&w pages due to a better page rate and more freedom in media.

I dunno. Maybe Barry got paid the same for his ST story as he did the regular book, but it wouldn't  surprise me if it were otherwise. 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Unca Ben

[Unca Ben]

On 12/18/2023 at 12:23 PM, The Voord said:

Agreed.  With the comic-book, BWS was probably limited by color considerations for the finished product (and perhaps held back by unsympathetic inkers?).  B&w (published) art would have allowed an artist to closely judge how the work would look in print, encouraging the experimentation you talk about.

Someone like Steve Ditko could be consistently amazing (no pun intended) with his b&w work for the early Warren mags.

just saw this after my above post.

[grapeape]

On 12/19/2023 at 12:04 AM, The Voord said:

 

Arnie's clearly beating Chuck . . . well, not beating him in 'that' way   

 

It's back, just in time for the holidays.