Conan Art

Not to be confused with the infinitely more prestigious Cimmerian Awards given out by the fine folks at The Cimmerian (where you actually win something), I am going to start awarding my own “Barbarian Award” for those demonstrating conduct barbaric in nature.

Congratulations to Michael Phelps, for overcoming the odds and achieving what many thought was impossible! Eight gold medals in a single Olympics!
 
 
I have to admit though… after I saw this picture that at first glance appeared to be Phelps wearing a fancy dress, I just about passed him over for the award. Thankfully it’s just Phelps wearing all the loot he plundered at the expense of the French. Kudos to you Michael Phelps, you’re one of life’s winners.
 
 
 
 
Runner Up
Runner up for this edition of the Barbarian Award is Senator John Edwards, for displaying the truly barbaric behavior of pillaging his interns while raiding. When the cat’s away (or terminally ill), the mice will play, eh John?

There are a lot of crappy comics out there. I consider myself somewhat easily amused, and overall, not that difficult to impress, but man, there are a LOT of crappy comics out there.

Before getting into what comics I have enjoyed the most over the last 18 months, I should put a disclaimer out there that I am not an avid collector of comics. In the 80s and 90s the only titles I collected were The Savage Sword of Conan and Conan Saga, anything outside of those typically didn’t hold my interest. Largely this was because I’ve never really had an interest in “super heroes”, which seemed to be the main things going at the time, and most of the story lines I considered predictable if not juvenile, even as an early teenager.

With the release of the new Conan comic by Dark Horse some years ago, I of course began picking up all things Conan again (the main title, the spinoffs, the one shots, etc), and eventually began to dabble into other comics as well.  I currently collect around 10-20 titles…small potatoes no doubt.  Having said that, my reviews probably lose some cred with those avid collectors, given my relative newness into collecting, and the size of my stash.  Really, my only criteria for my “best” picks, were:

1. Did I enjoy the story
2. Did I enjoy the art

Personally, I don’t think that those two criteria should be difficult to meet for “professional” artists and writers, especially when you consider that the average story is probably only 20-30 pages long, and mostly art (as opposed to a novel of hundreds of pages, with no art).  Is it really that hard to keep a readers attention over such a short period… for a “professional”? Stupid question no doubt, I’m sure it’s very hard… in fact it must be terribly difficult, because a large percentage of the comics I receive are pretty close to crap.

Every month I’m continually reminded of how poorly the comic industry has done in maturing with its readers.  Half the books I read are dumbed-down, poorly-written tripe.  The comic industry has failed to mature at the same rate that their readers have.  The success of the new Batman movie illustrates this point more than I ever could with words.  Those same small boys that collected books in the 70s-90s are all grown up now, and interested in comics that are much more mature (e.g. The Dark Knight), yet comic book publishers continue to publish material that would make an 10 year old smack the cover shut saying, “I’m too old for this”. I just don’t get that… anyway, here are the comics I enjoyed (or am currently enjoying) the most out of my stack.

My Best Picks (In no particular order)

The Other Side

Jason Aaron / Cameron Stewart

The Other Side was a short run comic portraying the Vietnam war from both the perspective of an American and Vietnamese soldier.  The art was well done, but the script, which switches back and forth from the G.I. to the V.C. was the carrier of this series.  Highly graphic, and suggested for mature readers, it was one of my favorites of 2007, I’ve gone back to read this one a few times, which is not something I will typically do.
 
 

Various Roy Thomas Adaptations

Roy Thomas et al.

I like Roy Thomas’ writing. I consider his The Ultimate Guide to the World’s Most Savage Barbarian one of the coolest non Howard Conan books that I own. As I mentioned above, in the 80s and 90s I enjoyed the Savage Sword comics a lot. His recent adaptations of Treasure Island, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Man in the Iron Mask I thought were first rate.  The art was well presented in these series as well, especially on the covers.  Of course, everyone should read the originals of these as well.
 
 

Conan

Tim Truman, Kurt Busiek, Tomas Giorello, Cary Nord, et al

There have been too many names working on the Conan title to list them all, but overall, the comic, and most of the spin offs have been very good in terms of meeting the two criteria of being entertaining, and having quality art. Truman and Giorello have really taken this title to the next level with the relaunch of Conan The Cimmerian a few months ago. It’s gritty, people die, and the art is knockout. Of course that’s not to say that the Busiek/Nord combo didn’t do a splendid job as well, as Nord draws some of my favorite Conan sketches ever (… must get him to do a gallery picture for us).
 
 

LoveLess

Brian Azzarello

Loveless was by far one of my most favorite titles of 2007, exceeding even Conan some months in my anticipation to receive and tear through the title. Well written with plenty of engaging events and cliff hangers, it was a great addition to Western comics. The art could occasionally be difficult to determine which character was which, but overall a very strong title. Unfortunately it was canceled a few months ago which hurt my already dwindling pile of quality monthly reads.
 
 

Jonah Hex

Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray

Jonah Hex is a title that I always look forward to. It has on occasion had issues were the art was a near miss for me, but overall the title is still strong. Jonah will generally take an ass whoopin’ just about every issue before he pays someone back. A recent issue featuring the art of Rafa Garres was exceptionally nice and I hope to see more of his work on future Hex titles, and other titles as well (and add a commission from him to the Images of the Hyborian Age gallery).
 
 

Fear Agent

Rick Remender & Tony Moore

I’m not much of a sci-fi fan.. aliens and laser guns never did do much for me…. but shotguns do… and Fear Agent has to be one of the top titles of last year. Surprisingly serious when it needs to be, while still having enough humor and wit to not take itself too seriously and to laugh-out-loud about… it’s the perfect mix of a flawed hero kicking some alien ass. The art isn’t half bad either.
 
 

The Lone Ranger

Brett Matthews & Sergio Carriello

I didn’t have high hopes for The Lone Ranger, but I gave it a shot, and so far, I’m glad I did. The story has matured substantially over what you might remember from the old T.V. show, making it into a strong contender as a comic featured in the Old West. This is an engaging comic suited for people that don’t prefer their heroes and villains to be black and white.
 
 
 

Northlanders

Brian Wood & David Gianfelice

NORTHLANDERS! Probably my favorite comic right now. Northlanders is the perfect mix of a great story coupled with nice art and tailor made for comic readers looking for a mature read. Lots of sword swinging, it’s Conan 9000 years later. Tough to put down, the covers and interiors are are always very nice.
 
 
My worst picks later.
 

I’ve been away awhile, but I’ve had a good reason.  A few weeks ago my wife gave birth to our first child, a little boy.  We named him Thoth-Amon.  Ok ok… so not really.  While I did try to convince the wife that the middle name Robert would suite him, she saw through the ploy relatively quickly and ‘wouldn’t have none of that’, or something to that effect.  In the end, the poor little fellow had the misfortune of being named after his father.

But the other night after a bath, as he was crying after being taken out of his warm water, I was reminded of a fantastic cover illustration done by Greg Ruth for Dark Horse’s Conan comic.  I had the wife indulge me a bit and help me recreate the piece with a modern approach (curtains in the background).

Mr. Ruth, in my opinion, did fantastic work on the covers and interiors of that Dark Horse spin off.  Others enjoyed his work as well, as can be seen in this conan.com thread where, among those that contributed so far, each has listed one of Mr. Ruth’s covers as a particular favorite, among all the covers.

More art coming
In the weeks that I haven’t posted, I’ve received a lot of art, that I’m just itching to share with you. Contributions from Luis Sierra, Jed Raven (who puts a spin on Conan and Red SonJa that we haven’t seen before, but that’s really really good), and Edbon Sevilleno as newcomers as well as additional submissions from some that have already contributed, including Atula Siriwardane illustrating Conan during his pirating years, Benito Gallego illustrating The Frost Giants Daughter, and Dave Simons giving us a particularly nice piece that illustrates Thoth Amon. Look for the first of those pieces to show up starting next week. For now though, I’ll leave you with a little teaser that Edbon sent me as concept art for his commission. It was never named, but it reminded me when I saw it of a Hyrkanian/Khitian general.. a real treat:

Staz Johnson’s version of Conan holds a particular fondness to me. To start with, it’s the first piece of artwork I’ve ever solicited, and really it’s the piece that lit the fire under me to get Border Kingdom and the Images of Hyboria Gallery going.

Staz is one of a few artists that I stumbled on after they posted in the conan.com forums with samples of their Conan illustrations. In fact, Staz has, in my opinion, one of the coolest sketches of Conan I’ve ever seen. You can see it here: Staz Johnson Conan. If not the coolest ink sketch, it has to take the cake for the coolest sharpie sketch.

Staz cites in his bio at www.stazjohnson.com that as a kid he was a big fan of Conan and John Buscema… aren’t we all. It’s amazing the influence that John Buscema has had.

Marvel Madness

Staz’s stint in comics has been really impressive, and he’s drawn some of the cream-of-the-crop when it comes characters we all love to read about. Spider-man, Batman, Avengers, Wolverine, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc. Staz is not to be trifle with when it comes to illustration.

Staz has some sweet artwork available in his Staz Johnson art gallery , including individual galleries of his work for DC and Marvel .

More Stazzines

Staz is currently working for Marvel. He’s also apparently working on a Dracula comic adaptation .

Staz maintains a blog at blogspot, which I routinely see him update with new art all the time.

Staz is unloading art hand-over-fist on ebay. He announces new pieces for sale on his blog. This is high quality stuff from Staz, on main characters like Spider-man and X-men. Check out his ebay auctions for more information on those.

Final Words On Staz

Staz was awesome to work with. His art is detailed and complex and really a treat to own and to look at. Staz’s contribution to the gallery is one of my favorites to go back to and look at.

Make sure you check out Staz’s website for more cool art, and his profile here at borderkingdom.com for more info on him.

There are a couple of commissions that I’ve received so far that really take me back to the old Savage Sword of Conan days. The first one that really took me back, probably because it’s likeness to Buscema, was Benito Gallego’s Streets of Shadizar , the second one though, is Winston Blakely’s Hyrkanian Tracker .

Winston Blakely was one of half-a-billion artists (that’s right, half-a-billion) that responded to a want-ad that I posted a few months ago in some comic groups. I posted a few ads, and the next thing I knew my inbox was full of artists requesting to be apart of the project. It was fantastic, if not unexpected.

Winston was part of the initial group of artist’s that didn’t receive multiple descriptions to choose from when I originally requested the piece from him. I suppose the process was a little more akin to a normal commission solicitation in that I just told Winston what I wanted him to draw, and that’s what he drew (spot on, and great I might add). There really wasn’t any avenue of choice for him to select a particular description that he may have preferred. I’ve revised that process now because I like the idea of artist’s choosing from the descriptions more than me telling artists what to draw, I think multiple choices makes us both feel like their contribution to the project is more personal, and not just some ink on a paper that someone told them to put there.

Winston’s piece is great. I love the creativity in the frame, the footprints left on the ground from the stalked, and of course heads on pikes always do wonders to make a Hyborian Age picture just that much better (i.e. see the header in progress above )

Upcoming Projects and the Art of Winston Blakely

Winston has some nice art online for viewing. You can see a number of his samples at Winston’s Serendipity Art Gallery . His gallery contains several panels, including some rather urm… risque images that we all appreciate from time to time. When I was reviewing Winston’s sample images he sent me, it was actually his work on Little Miss Strange , the world’s first black alien sorceress, that caught my eye the most. Winston teamed up with Luis Sierra (another upcoming contributor to the Images of Hyboria gallery) for a graphic novel of Little Miss Strange that you can find for sale at lulu.com .

PixelStrips also hosts a number of the characters Winston has worked on, including the previously talked about Little Miss Sunshine, as well as other characters like the Sword and Sorcery Kotas the Dragon , which will be featured in an upcoming anthology by Winston, and another story inspired by Jack Kirby called Pozitron .

Another Round of Winston Please

Winston was an all around great guy to work with, and one of the timeliest as well in terms of how quick he was able to complete the project from start to finish. The range of characters that he illustrates and writes for makes his art fun to follow and dynamic. More importantly than that he hosts a lot of his characters online which really makes his work accessible; which I think is a big bonus for attracting fans to your work and continuing to gain exposure.

Winston has agreed to do another piece for the gallery, this time I think I’ll let him choose what he wants to draw and we’ll see what he comes up with.

Check out Winston’s Hyrkanian Tracker in the Images of Hyboria Gallery .

Read Winston’s profile as well, he has some great info in there and it’s always interesting to see how these artists started out in the business.