Dave Simons is awesome. If I were a better man – at least with words – I would write him a song, or perhaps a poem, to express my feelings of gratitude for his exquisite portrayal of one of the roughest taverns this side of the Vilayt, the Maul. But while I’m told that I’m especially verbose, it unfortunately does not translate to quality… so I’ll leave the prose and the songwriting to those who have experience in doing so.
But enough about my man-crush on Dave… lets talk about his picture. First off, one of the reasons Dave is so awesome is that he immediately volunteered to tackle what I felt was the hardest description to date: the infamous Maul from Robert E. Howard’s story The Tower of the Elephant.
Most of the descriptions I’ve sent artists so far have involved 1-2 character layouts with a little bit of background. That’s what I request at least. Luckily the quality of the artists that have thus far participated, and their desire to produce a fantastic piece coupled with their interest in the subject matter have really yielded pieces far beyond what I’ve requested; nice full backgrounds, lots of detail, and lots of “ooh’s” and “ahhs” for us.
Coupled in with those 1-2 character requests was a description and art request for the Maul; the only description I included at the time that was a specific setting in Hyboria. But no one bit. Now granted, the artists solicited at the time didn’t know me or my project from Adam. There really wasn’t any incentive to tackle what was by far the hardest of the descriptions. But Dave did it… no coaxing, no buttering him up.. he just volunteered, and he knew going in that a scene like the Maul required a little bit more to pull off than the other descriptions: A nice background bar scene, maybe some dancing wenches, and a host of ruffians and thugs therein.
That’s the first reason Dave is awesome just a desire to contribute a quality piece to the project for fans to enjoy regardless of what’s required to do it right.
The second reason Dave is awesome is simply the quality of the picture. Read the first few pages of The Tower of the Elephant, and I think you’ll agree that Dave really tried to capture in ink the atmosphere that Howard created with his words. Perhaps the greatest compliment any Howard fan can pay an illustrator is that the artwork is worthy of representing the story. And this one fits the bill.
There’s yet another reason Dave is awesome though too. Dave is working on two commissions for me, and on both, he requested passages from Howard to help set the tone of his pictures. I’ve allowed enough creative freedom in this project that I want the artist’s interpretation, but it’s refreshing to know that the artist cares enough about the source material to at least consult it for inspiration.
Dave Simons’ Conan Resume.
Those of you astute followers of comic art of course probably recognize Dave Simons from his other work including a personal favorite of mine, The Savage Sword of Conan , which was the medium that first introduced me to the Hyborian Age so many years ago as a youngster. Dave’s visited the Hyborian Age a couple of times though, illustrating Conan and King Conan. He also has dabbled in Red Sonja, and even cowrote a Savage Sword of Conan . In issue #95, Dave lays down some airbrush for us in the short story The Hill of Horror . Man.. those comics take me back.
What I Didn’t Expect
What I didn’t expect when I started this project was artists from the days of SSoC (like Dave) being interested in contributing. I’m sure they all have a particular fondness for the barbarian – even moreso than myself – but how do you ask someone that has already made their mark in the Conan world to contribute even more? Well I was wrong about that thought. Dave was interested in the project, took the hardest description of all, and knocked it out of the park. Not only that, but he may not be the only former Conan artist to do so! Stay tuned for more details on that.
Where To See More
You can see more of Dave here at Border Kingdom of course, as he’s doing another one for us that will
hopefully be completed and posted within the next few weeks. Dave also maintains a small gallery over at comicartfans, (Dave Simons Comic Art ). He has some really nice panels in that gallery that are just recently posted for fans of the Hulk. You can see a lot of his Conan examples at his Comic art Commissions gallery, including that second one from the top, which is Conan at his best; wenching.
Not just Conan though, for fans of other genres of comics check out Dave’s other drawings on Citizen , Captain America, Punisher, and of course Spider-Man.
Dave maintains his own website as well at Dave Simons Art, and he’s currently working on a show called Maya and Miguel, which airs on PBS.
He’s also started a new blog, with one of his first posts talking about John Buscema. Check out Simon Sez to read that, it’s always fun to read about other artists thoughts on Buscema.
Don’t miss the larger version of his interpretation of the Maul in the gallery, either. In fact, this piece has enough detail that it can’t be properly illustrated within the confines of what the gallery will hold. As such, make sure you check the first comment in the messages in his gallery for a link to an even bigger version.
Read Dave Simons’ profile and check out some of his other art as well.
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.
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