User:Archiveangel/Barry Windsor Smith

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Archiveangel/Barry Windsor Smith
Born (1949-05-25) May 25, 1949 (age 74)
London, United Kingdom
Notable works
Conan
Red Sonja
Machine Man
Weapon X
Solar
Unity
Archer & Armstrong
Rune
Storyteller
AwardsShazam Award, 1974
Eisner Award 2008

Barry Windsor-Smith, also known as Barry Smith (born 25 May 1949) is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States.

His international acclaim came as the original artist for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, where he rapidly evolved a sophisticated and intricate style, introducing elements from diverse artistic influences to graphic storytelling.

Biography[edit]

Windsor-Smith was born in Forest Gate, London. After spending three years at East Ham Technical College, studying Industrial Design and Illustration, he produced his first published work in 1967-68 - single page 'Powerhouse Pinups' of Marvel Comics characters for 'Terrific' and 'Fantastic' comics, titles published by Odhams Press that included licensed Marvel Comics reprints for the UK market. Following this, he flew out to the U.S.A. in summer 1968 to the offices of Marvel Comics with fellow artist Steve Parkhouse. 'I sent material first, and based solely upon a pleasant return note from Stan's assistant Linda Fite, my pal and me were at Marvel's doorstep in the blink of an eye.' [1] Largely due to his Jack Kirbyesque style, Marvel Comics Editor Roy Thomas gave him the job of drawing both the cover and story of an issue of 'X-Men' 'The Rage of Blastaar' ( 'X-Men' #53, February 1969), credited to Barry Smith as he was then known. Without a studio base, and having been kicked out of his hotel, he was forced to do much of the work sitting on park benches. Nonetheless, the resulting pages secured Windsor-Smith further work with Marvel, in 'Daredevil' #50-52 (March-May 1969), a western short story, 'Half Breed' (probably the story 'Outcast' eventually published in 'Western Gunfighters' #4, February 1971), and issue #12 of 'Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.' (May 1968), both scripted by Steve Parkhouse. However, with his visa having expired and without a work permit, Windsor-Smith was sent home by U.S. Immigration Authorities in December 1968.


Despite this setback, Roy Thomas had sufficient faith in him to give him the art chores on issues #66 and #67 of 'The Avengers' (July-August 1969) after he had returned to the U.K., and he continued to work at a distance for Marvel Comics for several years, providing the art for a number of stories in the horror anthology titles 'Tower of Shadows' and 'Chamber of Darkness'. Heralding things to come, Thomas, a long-time Conan the Barbarian fan, also had Windsor-Smith provide the art for a sword and sorcery story in the Conan style, 'Starr the Slayer' in 'Chamber of Darkness' #4 (April 1970). Soon after, Roy Thomas offered Windsor-Smith the job as the original penciller for Marvel Comics' adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian character, starting with the first issue 'The Coming Of Conan' ('Conan the Barbarian' #1, October 1970). At first drawing in a style clearly derived from Jack Kirby’s work, especially on 'Thor', with inking mainly by Sal Buscema and Dan Adkins, Windsor-Smith rapidly evolved a personal artistic style which, while keeping Kirby’s epic, fluid dynamism, added an instantly recognisable dimension of sometimes ethereal backgrounds and embellished decoration. This style was heavily influenced by the Victorian Pre-Raphaelites movement, influences such as Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti whose inspiration would saturate Windsor-Smith's artwork even more in later years. Probably the earliest full indication of this later style came with 'The Frost Giant’s Daughter' (first published in black and white in 'Savage Tales' #1 May 1971, and reprinted in colour in 'Conan The Barbarian' #16, July 1972), and 'The Dweller in the Dark' , ('Conan the Barbarian' #12, December 1971), the first issue of the title in which his work stood alone as there was no inker or embellisher involved in the finished artwork. Also in 1971, Windsor-Smith moved to the U.S.A., having been granted a work permit.


During his run on the 'Conan the Barbarian’ title, Windsor-Smith was involved in the writing as well as artwork, something he would continue to do throughout his comics output, although often without writing credit. He and writer Roy Thomas adapted a number of R.E. Howard short stories, the aforementioned 'The Frost-Giant's Daughter' , 'Tower of the Elephant' , 'Rogues in the House' , and 'Red Nails' (the last of which was issued as a very limited, pirated, A3-size black and white version on glossy paper in England in early 1974). As well as the art and story contributions, Windsor-Smith provided the covers for most issues. They also worked on original adventures and characters based on R.E. Howard’s characters - most notably the flame-haired warrior-woman, Red Sonja - loosely based on a character from one of Howard's non-Conan stories who has now become a major comics character in her own right - in 'The Song Of Red Sonja' ('Conan the Barbarian' #24, March 1973). That was Windsor-Smith’s last issue of the title. By then he had worked on 21 of the first 24 issues of 'Conan the Barbarian', missing only issues #17 and #18 (both drawn by Gil Kane), and #22 (which was a reprint of issue #1), and both he and the title had won a number of awards. Windsor-Smith would later say that the reason he missed those issues was because he had quit the series a number of times as he was dissatisfied with the work and how the comics business worked, rather than the deadline problems Marvel quoted.


Barry Windsor-Smith also provided the art for a number of other Marvel Comics titles, including the Ka-Zar stories in 'Astonishing Tales' #3-#5 (December 1970-April 1971) and #10 (February 1972), three further issues of 'The Avengers' (#98-100, April-June, 1972) - about which he would later remember the nightmare of drawing 'all those bloody characters that I didn't give tuppence about' [1], an Iron Man story ('Iron Man' #42, June 1972), and two issues featuring Dr. Strange ('Marvel Premiere' #3-4, July-September 1972), both of which were apparently re-scripted by Stan Lee after being drawn to Lee’s original scripts. He was by now becoming disillusioned with the comics industry and the way in which in his opinion the writers and artists were being exploited; 'I needed to be free of constraints and policies that were imposed by the dictates of creating entertainment for children' [1]. Shortly thereafter, Windsor-Smith left comics for the first time, leaving only a couple of inventory items in the Marvel Comics vaults, both stories of R.E. Howard characters: Kull in 'Exile of Atlantis' ('Savage Sword of Conan' #3, December 1974), and Bran Mak Morn in 'Worms of the Earth' ('Savage Sword of Conan' #16, November 1975). Other than a few pages of inking of Jack Kirby pencil work in 1976 for 'Captain America’s Bi-Centennial Battles' (July 1976) - a one-off oversize Marvel Comics Treasury Edition – he produced no more comics work until 1983.


At this point he changed his professional surname to Windsor-Smith, adding his mothers surname to his own, and began to pursue a career in fine art. Granted residential status in the United States in 1974, Windsor-Smith set up Gorblimey Press, through which he released a small number of limited-edition prints of fantasy-based subjects that proved popular. In 1976 Windsor-Smith published 'The Gorblimey Press Catalogue', a high quality index to the work published by Gorblimey Press, with full-page reproductions of each piece. Prior to that, in 1975, together with Jeff Jones, Mike Kaluta and Bernie Wrightson, he was one of four comic book artists-turned-fine-illustrator/painters who formed a small artist’s loft commune in Manhattan known as The Studio with the aim of pursuing creative products outside the constraints of comic book commercialism. By 1979 they had produced enough material to issue a handsome art book under the name 'The Studio', which was published by Dragon's Dream (ISBN 9063325819). By this point, Windsor-Smith had fully embraced a symbolist and Pre-Raphaelitism aesthetic.

1980s[edit]

Windsor-Smith returned to mainstream comics work for Marvel in 1983 with two exquisitely drawn pieces, a short mystical tale of love, 'The Beguiling' and a dark, humorous 2-page black and white story, 'A Path of Stars' , both in 'Epic Illustrated' #16 (February 1983), which also featured a page and a half Windsor-Smith spread accompanying an Archie Goodwin text story called 'The Horde' (which appears to be a drawing of Conan and Red Sonja in battle). Later the same year he produced a short piece in Dave Sims 'Swords of Cerebus' (#5, 1983), followed in 1984 by several Marvel superhero stories; an untitled, though usually referred to as 'that night...', and untypical April Fool’s story of 'The Thing' ('Marvel Fanfare' #15, July 1984), which he wrote and drew and which became something of a fan favourite, 'Lifedeath' a double-sized X-Men story in 'The Uncanny X-Men' #186 (October 1984), and a 4-part Machine Man limited series (October 1984 – January 1985), for which Windsor-Smith was artist and colorist over Herb Trimpe layouts for the first three issues, and drew and coloured alone for the fourth. Although he would return to the X-Men once a year for the next three years, ('Uncanny X-Men' #198, #205, #214), his mainstream comics output remained limited throughout the rest of the 1980’s, amounting to just one issue each of 'Fantastic Four' (#296, November 1986) and 'Daredevil' (#236, November 1986), two issues of 'Iron Man' (#232, July 1988 and #243, June 1989), and two small pieces for the Harvey Award winning comics anthology 'A1' published by Atomeka Press. In 1987 he also returned to his first major success and provided new painted covers for nine issues of Marvels Conan reprint title 'The Conan Saga', all issues which contained black and white reprints of his original 1970’s stories.


1990s[edit]

Together with the X-Men offshoot 'Excalibur' (#27, September 1990), Windsor-Smiths last work directly for Marvel Comics came with the serialized 'Weapon X' feature in 'Marvel Comics Presents' #72-84 (1991), his own, original conception of the origin of the X-Men character Wolverine which he wrote, drew, inked and coloured. In late 1991, Barry Windsor-Smith was approached by Valiant Comics, a new comics publisher founded by former Marvel Comics writer and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, and asked to act as their creative director and lead artist. Valiant had obtained the licenses for a number of characters originally published in the 1960s and 1970s by Gold Key Comics - Magnus Robot Fighter; 'Doctor Solar'; and 'Turok Dinosaur Hunter', and added their own original titles to the roster, including 'Harbinger', 'X-O Manowar', 'Shadowman', 'Archer and Armstrong', 'Eternal Warrior', 'Bloodshot', 'Ninjak' and 'Rai'. Windsor-Smith became the chief designer of the Unity crossover for Valiant Comics, and writer and artist for most of the first dozen issues of the title Archer and Armstrong. Mainly thanks to the thriving comics speculators market of the day and an aggressive marketing policy including special editions and multiple variant covers to pander to that market, Valiant quickly became a considerable success story, selling nearly two million copies of premiere issues and rapidly becoming the third largest comics publisher in the U.S. behind the long-time industry leaders Marvel and DC Comics. However, in 1993 Barry Windsor-Smith once again found himself in opposition to company employment policies when Valiant decided to adopt the same 'work for hire' practices that he had disliked in Marvel Comics, and dissatisfied with his position in the company - 'They needed me as a figurehead just as much as a creator' [2]. As a result he left Valiant soon after Jim Shooter's equally abrupt, and in Windsor-Smith's view, unfair departure from the company. Of his work for Valiant, and the problems he encountered there over legal ownership of titles and characters, Windsor-Smith was to say in 2008, 'In the 1970s I was constantly asked when I would “do Conan again.” In these latter years I receive e-mails imploring me to return to Archer and Armstrong. My short reply is “When pigs fly to the Moon and return home safely.' [3]

Since leaving Valiant, Windsor-Smith has worked for a number of companies. For Malibu's Ultraverse line he co-created Rune with Chris Ulm, including a cross-over one-shot comic titled 'Conan vs. Rune' published by Marvel Comics in 1994 after they took over Malibu. Ironically, as a result he once again came up against legal ownership problems, and the Rune stories have remained un-reprinted as a result. For Image Comics he worked on the crossover event 'Wildstorm Rising', drawing and coloring the first issue ('WildStorm Rising' #1, May 1995) and all eleven of the covers for the interlinked series. Also in 1995 Windsor-Smith created an oversized series, 'Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller' for Dark Horse that contained three ongoing features: 'The Paradoxman', a dark science-fiction tale, 'Young GODS', a homage to Jack Kirby's 'Thor' and 'New Gods' series, and 'The Freebooters', a lighthearted action series about an ageing Conan-like character grown older and heavier and now running a tavern. He cancelled 'Storyteller' after nine issues, even though a tenth issue had been completed; since then Fantagraphics Books has issued hardcover collections of 'Young GODS' , 'The Freebooters' and 'The Paradoxman'. Each of these hardcover volumes includes supplemental features, essays and previously unseen art. Fantagraphics has also published Windsor-Smith's 'Adastra in Africa', a hardcover starring a character from 'Young GODS' in a story originally intended to be published as 'Lifedeath III' for Marvels 'X-Men', with the character Storm. In 1999 Fantagraphics published two volumes of 'BWS - Opus', two hardcover art books featuring Windsor-Smith's work from throughout his career, including an autobiographical story 'Time Rise' , which features details of his extraordinary experiences with seemingly paranormal phenomena.

His last published work was 'UFO POV' an 11-page story in 'Streetwise' (July 2000), a trade paperback anthology published by Two Morrows Publishing. In January 2006, Barry Windsor-Smith announced on the website 'Comic Book Galaxy' that he was in negotiations to publish a graphic novel for Marvel Comics about 'The Thing'.[4]. He has also been quoted as having been working since at least 1998 on a 300-page graphic novel 'Monsters', which 'explores the life and times of two disparate American families fatefully connected by an abandoned Nazi project in genetic engineering that has been covertly revived by the US government'.[5], and completed a Superman story in 1999 that hasn't yet seen print [6]. However, he has produced no further work in mainstream comics since that announcement, and nothing has been produced by Gorblimey Press since the print 'Liberomano' in 1993.


Awards[edit]

  • 1970 - Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Individual Story ("Lair of the Beast Men," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #2) (nominated)
  • 1971 - Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Continuing Feature (Conan the Barbarian) (winner)
  • 1971 - Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Individual Story ("Devil Wings over Shadizar," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #6 & "Tower of the Elephant," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #4) (nominated)
  • 1972 - Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Individual Story Dramatic ("The Black Hound of Vengeance," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #20) (nominated)
  • 1973 - Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Continuing Feature (Conan the Barbarian) (nominated)
  • 1973 - Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Individual Story Dramatic ("Song of Red Sonja," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #24) (winner)
  • 1973 British Fantasy Society Awards Best Comic (Conan the Barbarian) (winner)
  • 1974 - Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Individual Story Dramatic (""Red Nails," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Savage Tales #1-3) (nominated)
  • 1974 - Shazam Award for Superior Achievement by an Individual (nominated)
  • 1974 - British Fantasy Society Awards Best Comic (Conan the Barbarian) (winner)
  • 1975 - Inkpot Award (winner)
  • 1975 - British Fantasy Society Awards Best Comic (The Savage Sword of Conan) (winner)
  • 1976 - British Fantasy Society Awards Best Comic (The Savage Sword of Conan) (winner)
  • 1985 - Haxtur Awards Best Long Story (Machine Man) (nominated)
  • 1985 - Haxtur Awards Best Drawing (Machine Man) (nominated)
  • 1997 - Comics' Buyer's Guide Favorite Colorist (nominated)
  • 1997 - Harvey Award Best New Series (Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller) (nominated)
  • 1998 - Comics' Buyer's Guide Favorite Colorist (nominated)
  • 1990 - Gem Award for Outstanding Service and Product Best Comic under $3 (Deathmate Prologue) (nominated)
  • 2008 - Eisner Awards Hall of Fame (winner)

Quotes[edit]

  • "It shall take a long-term, keenly processed, whole-world paradigm shift in our consciousness to perceive, acknowledge, and accept that all that we see, hear, smell, touch and taste are but five tiny shells on one small dune on the cosmic beach-head of Everywhere Else." - Barry Windsor-Smith [7]
  • "Barry isn't cheating. He's giving you all the pieces and they are in plain sight. No hidden meanings here. No coy tricks. No comic industry in jokes. No names of pals and cohorts sprayed on tenement walls. No TV show or pop culture references glibly thrown in to register high on the Cool-O-Meter. Just story and characterization and damn fine drawing." - Larry Hama[8]
  • Asked to name his favorite Storm stories, Chris Claremont responds, "The two ‘LifeDeaths,’ both collaborations with Barry Windsor-Smith." [9]
  • "[T]he major [comic book] companies’ standard contract, deceptively titled “WORK FOR HIRE,” is a legal but unethical instrument designed to rape and plunder young talents of every possible prerogative they would otherwise possess if they had the fortune to work for more scrupulous, morally invested, publishers." - Barry Windsor-Smith [3]

References[edit]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Alias Barry Windsor-Smith, Interview with Storyteller & Conan Artist: BWS by Jon B. Cooke. From Comic Book Artist #2 May, 1998. http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02bws.html>
  2. ^ 'Barry Windsor-Smith Official Biography' http://www.barrywindsor-smith.com/studio/bwsbio1.html (page 27)
  3. ^ a b text of 2008 Eisner Awards Hall of Fame acceptance speech. http://www.comicbookgalaxy.com/blog/2008/07/barry-windsor-smiths-eisner-awards-hall.html
  4. ^ Preview of Windsor-Smith's The Thing 2006 graphic novel on Comic Book Galaxy http://comicbookgalaxy.com/bwsexclusiveintro.html
  5. ^ 'Monsters' - a graphic novel by Barry Windsor-Smith' http://www.barrywindsor-smith.com/monsters/monstersmenu.html
  6. ^ 'Art or Rock? A visit to Windsor-Smith Studio' by Valarie Jones, published in SUBmedia #1, 1999 http://www.barrywindsor-smith.com/studio/submedia18.html
  7. ^ OPUS Volume 1, "Time Rise", © 1999 Barry Windsor-Smith. A.R.R. Published by Fantagraphics Books
  8. ^ Epilogue text, WEAPON X Hardcover Edition, Oct., 1992, © Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc.
  9. ^ 'The Perfect Storm' by Peter Sanderson in Back Issue Magazine No. 8, Feb 2005, pg. 73, published and © by Twomorrows Publishing.

External links[edit]


Category:British graphic novelists Category:Fantasy artists Category:Eisner Award winners Category:1949 births Category:Living people

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