Barry Windsor-Smith (formerly known as Barry Smith) was born in 1949 in Forest Gate, London. He is a British Cartoonist, Illustrator, Comic Book Artist / Author, and Painter best known for his works in American comics.

In 1968, Windsor-Smith travelled to New York and presented himself at the offices of Marvel Comics. A suitably impressed Roy Thomas gave him the job of drawing an issue of X-Men, but with no studio and having been kicked out of his hotel, Windsor-Smith was forced to do the work sitting on park benches. The resulting pages secured Windsor-Smith further work with Marvel, even though he was sent back to England within the year because he had no work permit.

Windsor-Smith rose to prominence in the early 1970's as the artist for Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian. Along with writer Roy Thomas, Windsor-Smith adapted Howard's short stories "The Frost-Giant's Daughter", "Tower of the Elephant", "Rogues in the House", "Red Nails", and created new stories as well. Some of their stories also featured Howard's flame-haired warrior-woman Red Sonja, albeit in an incarnation in many respects different from Howard's. Shortly thereafter, Windsor-Smith left comics to pursue a career in fine art - although he has returned to the comics field several times since. Now granted residential status in the United States, Windsor-Smith set up Gorblimey Press in 1974, through which he released limited-edition prints of fantasy-based subjects that proved extremely popular.

Windsor-Smith returned to Marvel in the 1980's as the artist of the Machine Man Limited Series and as the writer and artist of the serialized "Weapon X" feature in Marvel Comics Presents. The latter was Barry Windsor-Smith's original conception of the origin of the X-Men character Wolverine. During this period he also produced a well-regarded story featuring The Thing and Human Torch that was published in Marvel Fanfare.

In the 1990's, Barry was at the peak of his powers. He produced his best work for a start-up company named Valiant Comics. Within only two years, Valiant rose to become the third most powerful publisher and Windsor-Smith's design work produced some of the most original and important comic book characters since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Marvel Universe. Windsor-Smith was the chief designer of the historic UNITY Crossover for Valiant Comics. After Valiant was sold to video game giant Acclaim Entertainment for $65 million, Windsor-Smith left Valiant.

He later did some work for Malibu's Ultraverse line as well as for Dark Horse Comics. At Dark Horse, he created an oversized series called Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller that contained three ongoing features: "The Paradoxman," "Young GODS," and "The Freebooters." "The Freebooters" was a lightheartedd action/adventure series about a Conan-like character who has grown much older and heavier, and now occupies his time running a tavern. The comic book was cancelled after nine issues; but Fantagraphics Books picked up the rights and has issued Hardcovers of Young GODS and The Freebooters, and The Paradoxman is expected to be released in 2006.

Fantagraphics has also published Windsor-Smith's Adastra in Africa, a hardcover starring a character from Young GODS who was written as a "Storm" doppelganger (from The Uncanny X-Men). This tells his original version of the "Lifedeath" story, without editorial interference. Fantagraphics has also given Barry the creative freedom to develop a series of Hardcover art books featuring work throughout his career entitled OPUS. These volumes also include his ongoing autobiographical story "Time Rise," which features details of his extraordinary experiences with seemingly paranormal phenomena.

Currently, BWS is in negotiations with Marvel Comics to publish a Graphic Novel about The Thing.

Barry Windsor-Smith has also been recognized for his work with several awards and nominations - in 1974, he was nominated for the Shazam Award for Superior Achievement By An Individual, as well as receiving nominations from the Comics Buyer's Guide for Favorite Colorist Award in 1997 and 1998.

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