Conan Saga #1 (Marvel, 1987)

This fantastic cover painting was penciled, inked, and painted by the great Barry Windsor-Smith. He titled the piece "Conan of Cimmeria" and it is one of the most amazing artworks he ever created! In his book Opus I (1999), Smith said of this painting, "Frank Frazetta classicized his vision of Conan with his cover of The Adventurer, I classicized mine with this Saga cover," and on his website he further states: "I consider this work my definitive Conan. The strange background edifice and the mystical decoration are hallmarks of my early Conan comics stories. The figure itself commands potential for violence, rather than actually swinging a blade or smashing somebody to pulp. I have always preferred the heroic figure in repose or guarded repose: it is the classicism of all mythical figures."
Whether you know him as Barry Smith or Barry Windsor-Smith, you are likely well aware of the impact he has made on the history of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.