Barry Windsor-Smith

I am a huge fan of Barry Windsor-Smith. Have been ever since I read Conan #4. While reading that issue I knew that Barry was turning into something special. By Conan #4 Barry's art had developed from the strong Jack Kirby influence still very evident in Conan #1, into a personal, individual style. BWS continued to evolve creating pages that were more ornate, detailed, and romantic. Barry's storytelling developed into a refined cinematography that was both complex and immediate. By the end of BWS's Conan run I was a fanatic. Then Barry left the world of comics, and the fanboy in me hurt. It didn't help that seemingly at the same time Wrightson and Kaluta dropped out of comics also. I ordered every Gorblimey Press item that I knew about either from Steranko's Supergraphics or Bud Plant. I bought back issues of Barry's Conan so that I could get my collection as close to mint as possible. And years later I began buying Barry's original art. One of the most amazing experiences of my art collecting took place during an old downtown San Diego Con. Scott Williams and I were invited to Bob Latimer's hotel room where we were joined by the Czarneki brothers for beers and looking at original art. In Bob's stash, Scott and I were able to look at Frazetta's "Squeeze Play" and as fabulous as that may have been, the fanboy in me was ever more impressed by the thrill of paging through the original art to the complete Conan #24 and the complete "Red Nails." OMG!!!