Artist of the Month for January

I was sitting here this morning trying to work out marketing strategies, preferably I would rather put a pencil in my eye. So I decided to detach, let go so to speak. I always feel as though I am whoring a bit when I push my work. I guess I am old school, the work should speak for itself, but in this digital age that simply is not the case. So I return to what one of my original themes of this blog site is, Artist of the Month.

Now not all Artists of the Month have to be artists I have met and I have never met Barry Windsor-Smith. I always wanted to. I have read several of his interviews, own Opus 2, have a copy of the Studio and collected (which sadly are gone and now all I have are reprints) his Conan comics that he drew for Marvel. I have always wanted to meet him, show him the body of some of my work and tell him, "Here, you are responsible for this." Maybe it is better I didn't meet him, if he rejected my work my inner child would suicide on the spot.

I am choosing Barry Windsor-Smith for Artist of the month for a few reasons. One is that it is January, the start of a new year and also coincides with Machine Man which takes place in 2020. A title Barry worked on.

The other is that Barry Windsor-Smith inspired me like no other artist, not just by his style, but by watching his grow. This growth I witnessed from his early Conans to his work in the Studio and beyond convinced me that one can get better with dedication. Barry Windsor-Smith is the heart of dedication. I can think of no other artist that with determination and belief blossomed as much as he. He also introduced me to the Pre-Raphaelites, which broadened my artistic vision. Watching Barry grow made me believe I could too.

There are the stories of how he sent work to Stan Lee and Lee invited him to come to Marvel, which he did all the way from England and ended up drawing his first strips on park benches in New York. Can you think of the determination it took to do something like that?

Frost Giant's Daugher

I first noticed Barry's work in Conan 1, which was unique but his style was in its infancy and you could see that this was someone trying very hard to define his mark. Then came out one of my all times faves, "The Tower of the Elephant". Barry showed that he was developing his own sense of graphic narrative. One of the pages had no word balloons using only panels to tell the scene. To me, it was magic. Then by issue  # 8, the "Frost Giant's Daughter"inwardly I knew Barry was the man to watch. That was in 1970.

Tower of the Elephant

In 1973, Barry did "Red Nails", in a black and white format and also "Song of Red Sonja" which was his last work on Conan. The disappointment in his leaving the series for me personally caused me to drop the Conan titles all together. The replace- ment artists just didn't seem to capture the fantastic as Barry had done. I moved on. The magic had simply gone.

Red Nails

During this era Barry formed Gorblimey Press and began selling prints of his work and then in 1979 he joined Jeffrey (Catherine) Jones, Bernie Wrightson and Micheal Wm Kaluta and created the Studio. Four comic book artists that showed the art world that comic book art should be taken more seriously. This was later vindicated when Barry's Artemis & Apollo sold for $ 75,000 and Bernie Wrightson's illustration for Frankenstein auctioned off for over a million just last year.

Artemis and Apollo

The Studio fired my imagination. Barry's work had opened up a new world for me in the fantastic. All four artists tripped my imagination and fired my desire to create. But behind it all I could see Barry smiling, whispering "take what we do seriously."

Barry's logo for the Studio

Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Wm Kaluta and Barry Windsor Smith

Stan Lee never though Conan would take off. He came close to shutting it down, thought it was a pretty book but would go nowhere. I won't delve into the friction at Marvel that developed between them and Barry. A lot of it is gossip. Barry did continue to do work for Marvel off and on. He wrote and drew the Weapon X backstory and also started his own series for another label, Valiant Comics, Armstrong and Archer and the Story Teller series.

Barry disappeared from the scene for sometime. Apparently he has been working on a new graphic novel entitled Monsters. It is reported to be over 300 pages. Who the publisher is and the publication date is yet to be revealed...but I am anxiously waiting.

Thank you Barry, for your inspiration.