{mosimage}When Barry Windsor-Smith began his career as a comics artist in the late-60s, working on Marvel’s new Conan the Barbarian series, the young artist immediately made a name for himself as one of the most exciting stylists ever to arrive upon the scene. Infusing a Pre-Raphaelite influence into comics had never been done before, and Windsor-Smith created many of the most elegant and beloved comics of the 1970s with stints on Conan the Barbarian, The Uncanny X-Men, The Avengers and more.
Then, after he had taken the comics form to new heights in his momentous two-year run on Conan, Windsor-Smith left comics to pursue creation of single-picture, “easel” works, deciding that mainstream superhero comics were not the best medium to foster his widening artistic ambitions. He founded The Gorblimey Press, which released many fine art prints of his own works that reflected a more refined pursuit of his Pre-Raphaelite, Romantic and Symbolist interests (if you can find any of these works of art you’ll likely have to pay “art”-with-a-capital-“A”-prices — they’re more collectible than ever these days).
Since then, BWS has come full circle. After several years of re-exploring and honing his grasp of the comics medium (Weapon X, Machine Man, X-Men: Lifedeath I & II, Solar: Man of the Atom, Rune, Archer & Armstrong, etc.,) Windsor-Smith reinvented comics in a major way in 1995 with his groundbreaking BWS: STORYTELLER series. The funny, charming, ribald, naturalistically scripted and beautifully drawn series earned critical applause from those in the know. Fantagraphics began collecting the STORYTELLER material in 2003 with Young GODS & Friends; the second collection, The Freebooters, arrived in 2005. Each volume includes much never-before-seen material.
Fantagraphics Books is also proud to publish BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH: OPUS, a series of stunningly designed hardcover art books featuring hundreds of the artist’s works from throughout his remarkable 30-year career. These FULL-COLOR editions — chronicling the life and works of one of the most acclaimed artists from the worlds of comics and Romantic Art —present SCORES OF NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED PAINTINGS and DRAWINGS from the artist’s personal collection, while also re-presenting many of his classic works. The extensive texts in the series of books have created excitement and controversy among his legion of fans, while at the same time attracting new audiences through Windsor-Smith’s involvement in, and observations regarding, the paranormal.
Paranormal? Yes. In BWS: OPUS, the author recounts his life’s adventures not so much as a painter, storyteller and comics artist, but in the mysterious realms of cosmic experience.
BWS:OPUS is the most mature work of Windsor-Smith’s career, and is a document of wit, grace and style, exhibiting the same integrity and ambition that has kept BWS at the forefront of the storytelling arts. In each volume the artist explores the new meanings of objective reality in this modern world of quantum physics and its attendant theories of time travel, multi-dimensional life-forms and even extraterrestrial visitors, and shares for the first time ever his personal encounters with Extraordinary Experience.
Featured books by Barry Windsor-Smith (click covers for complete product details & ordering information)
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