Odoric by Kris Verwimp

Kids love chains. Or big Roman-Celtic heroes fighting hundreds and hundreds of barbarians.

A great and rather big painting by Belgian artist Kris Verwimp (who's done art on metal album covers). Back in the 1990s, he and writer Filip Keunen created this one-off story of a Roman-esque hero, Odoric, - with an armor with a lot of spikes - guarding a huge wall, in an everlasting fight with hordes of barbarians. Ten year old me ate it up. I love the painted artwork and the story. It was so simple, yet so effective. And in 48 pages, so much world-building was done. 

That I had an interest in the Roman Empire (which would become more important in my Uni life) only helped my love for the story. Obviously, I now see other influences - the big one being Frazetta -, but when I was a kid, this was just so darn cool.

This one is an acrylic painting with airbrush on A3 (Europe's 11x17) of the titular character. For the deluxe hardcover, Kris did a few of these paintings and now, in 2026, I managed to finally find one. This painting featuring the main character makes it all the better...