Conan Saga #2 ''Devil Wings Over Shadizar'' unused cover concept

Every once in a while, the planets line up and marvellous things happen!

Case in point, this beauty.

Since when I started regularly posting new art on CAF, I started getting offers for various pages, both for purchases and trade.
I don't like selling because money have a way to evaporate for non-fun stuff, but I do trade. Thing is, I pruned my collection thoroughly, so pretty much everything I kept I don't want to let go of so, whenever I get a request to initiate a trade, I must be convinced with something that will most definitely keep me away from trader's remorse. Not an easy task, but it can be done, and it’s gotta be done with a superior page, not a few lesser ones.
This here piece came thanks to a three-party deal and took about a month to gel, because the collector who asked me for a particular page didn’t have anything I was interested in (no, more correctly, he had several pieces I was interested in but they would’ve required me to add more trade or $$$, both things I don’t like/cannot afford to do), so we agreed that if I’d find something I’d be interested in he’d buy it for me instead.

I combed dealers’ websites for a week (word of advice pt.I: keeping all that SOLD stuff on the websites may make you look like big shots, but I guarantee it pisses collectors off to no end! Get the hell rid of it!!!) finding nothing interesting, then started eyeing auction houses and classifieds (word of advice pt.II: man up and put effin' prices on the stuff you're selling on CAF!!!), but still 0 results.
Then, on a fateful day, I received a CAF notification and saw this: an email left my desktop 10” later and in a few minutes, I received confirmation that the piece had been put on hold and a check was on the way to the dealer.

Now, this might even be a rejected proposal for a cover but -DAMMIT!!!- this is BWS at the top of his game. It’s Conan, he’s fierce, there’s a naked damsel in distress and it’s mine. All mine. It’s my preciousss…


A concept study for an unused Conan Saga #2 cover, ''Devil Wings Over Shadizar'', then later rejected after a number of reiterations.
Accomplished in pencil and ink on 12 x 14.75 in. Trimmed vellum tipped to backing leaf. A very finely rendered study by master Barry Windsor-Smith, depicting Conan, sword drawn, holding the semi-nude body of ''Jenna''.
Slight blue pencil visible underneath the ink. Signed in lower left of artwork, ''BWS 1987''.


From https://tinyurl.com/shadizar:
"So, I think I have this sequence right.
At the end of Conan Saga #1, we see this rough of what the next cover will be, then a more completed picture, then a change to the cover being about 'Tower of the Elephant' instead of 'Devil Wings Over Shadizar', then THAT piece gets changed to more what the tower is described as in Robert E. Howard's story, then the published cover (phew!).
While the finished cover is great, it sorta feels like we missed out on two more great covers, and Conan Sagas were all about the covers."

From http://barrywindsor-smith.com/galleria/devilwingsdetail.html:
"This full figure pen and ink drawing of Conan, sword drawn, cradling the sensless, semi-nude body of the beautiful Jenna, is a concept study for an unpublished Conan Saga cover painting, intended for the issue containing the story 'Devil-Wings Over Shadizar'.
Signed BWS, dated 1987. Pen, ink and fine marker. 10 x 12" image on 12 x 14 3/4" heavy vellum."


NOTE: This artwork is no longer subject to the TAR agreement per a letter received by Profiles in History from Barry Windsor-Smith, himself.