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Barry Windsor-Smith (born Barry Smith in Forest Gate, London, on 25 May 1949), is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States. He is best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''Conan the Barbarian'' from 1970 to 1973. ==Career== Windsor-Smith produced his first published work in 1967 and 1968 – single page "Powerhouse Pinups" of Marvel Comics characters for ''Terrific'' and ''Fantastic'' comics, titles published by Odhams Press that included licensed Marvel Comics reprints for the UK market. Following this, he flew to the U.S. in summer 1968 with fellow artist Steve Parkhouse for meetings at Marvel in New York. "I sent material first, and based solely upon a pleasant return note from Stan ()'s assistant Linda Fite, my pal and me were at Marvel's doorstep in the blink of an eye." Largely due to his Jack Kirbyesque style,〔Windsor-Smith in Cooke (1998): "Stan loved my stuff because although it was pretty amateur and klutzy, it had the essence of Jack Kirby about it, and that was what sold Marvel comics in those days."〕 Marvel Comics Editor Stan Lee gave him the job of drawing both the cover and story of ''X-Men'' No. 53 (cover-dated Feb. 1969), credited to Barry Smith as he was then known.〔 and 〕 He drew Marvel's ''Daredevil'' #50–52 (March–May 1969), a Western short story, "Half Breed" (probably the story "Outcast" eventually published in ''Western Gunfighters'' No. 4, Feb. 1971),〔(''Western Gunfighters'' #4 (Feb. 1971) ) at the Grand Comics Database: Special note at the end states "This strip was conceived by Roy Thomas and executed by Smith and Parkhouse nearly Two Years ago!"〕 and issue #12 of ''Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (May 1968),〔 both scripted by Parkhouse. Windsor-Smith later called his early art "amateur and klutzy" and a "less than skillful" Kirby imitation, but Stan Lee liked it enough to give him more work.〔 Despite this, Roy Thomas assigned him issues No. 66 and No. 67 of ''The Avengers'' (July–Aug. 1969) after he had returned to the UK. These stories introduced the fictitious indestructible metal alloy adamantium. He continued to work at a distance for Marvel, providing the art for a number of stories in the horror anthology titles ''Tower of Shadows'' and ''Chamber of Darkness''.〔 Thomas, a long-time fan of Robert E. Howard's 1930 pulp-fiction character Conan the Barbarian, had Windsor-Smith provide art for a sword and sorcery story, "Starr the Slayer", in ''Chamber of Darkness'' No. 4 (April 1970). Soon afterwards, Thomas offered Windsor-Smith the job as penciller for Marvel's adaptation of Conan, starting with ''Conan the Barbarian'' No. 1 (Oct. 1970).〔Sanderson, Peter "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 146: "Writer Roy Thomas and British artist Barry Smith (later known as Barry Windsor-Smith) launched Marvel's sword-and-sorcery comics with ''Conan the Barbarian'', in a series that ran for 275 issues."〕 In 1971, Windsor-Smith moved to the United States, having been granted a work permit. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that Windsor-Smith's "initial efforts were slightly sketchy, but his technique progressed by leaps and bounds. Within a few months he had achieved a style never seen in comics before." During his run on ''Conan the Barbarian'', Windsor-Smith was involved in the writing as well.〔Windsor-Smith in Cooke (1998): "I was always plotting my own stories right from the beginning...To give the scripter some clue as to what was going on, I would write my own dialogue on the edge of the pages. Some scripters would use my dialogue, others would wilfully ignore it. In either case I was never paid or credited for the work. Some of the more amusing dialogue in Conan came from me, Jenna telling Conan he looks like a yak with that dumb helmet he used to wear; the slow-dawn on Conan's face as he realizes he gotten involved with a wizard again. 'Sorcery? No one said aught of sorcery (I signed on for this war )!' Roy was good at picking up the better stuff and letting others go."〕 He and writer Roy Thomas adapted a number of R.E. Howard short stories, the aforementioned "The Frost-Giant's Daughter", "Tower of the Elephant", "Rogues in the House", and "Red Nails". As well as the art and story contributions, Windsor-Smith provided the covers for most issues. They worked on original adventures and characters based on R.E. Howard's characters – most notably the flame-haired warrior-woman, Red Sonja – loosely based on a character from one of Howard's non-Conan stories, who has now become a major comics character in her own right – in "The Song of Red Sonja" in ''Conan the Barbarian'' No. 24 (March 1973), Windsor-Smith's last issue of the title. By then he had worked on 21 of the first 24 issues of the series, missing only issues No. 17 and No. 18, and No. 22 (which was a reprint of issue #1), and both he and the title had won a number of awards. Windsor-Smith would later say that the reason he missed those issues was because he had quit the series a number of times as he was dissatisfied with the work and how the comics business worked, rather than the deadline problems Marvel quoted. In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Thomas and Windsor-Smith's work on ''Conan the Barbarian'' seventh on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels". Windsor-Smith provided the art for a number of other Marvel Comics titles, including the Ka-Zar stories in ''Astonishing Tales'' #3–6 (December 1970 – June 1971) and No. 10 (February 1972),〔Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 147〕 three further issues of ''The Avengers'' (#98–100, April–June 1972) – about which he would later remember the nightmare of drawing "all those bloody characters that I didn't give tuppence about",〔 ''Iron Man'' No. 42 (June 1972), and ''Marvel Premiere'' #3–4 (July–September 1972), which featured Doctor Strange,〔Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 156: "Dr. Strange began a new series of solo adventures. He got off to an impressive start with this story scripted by Stan Lee and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith."〕 both of which were apparently re-scripted by Stan Lee after being drawn to Lee's original scripts. Windsor-Smith was by now becoming disillusioned with the comics industry and the way in which in his opinion the writers and artists were being exploited: "I needed to be free of constraints and policies that were imposed by the dictates of creating entertainment for children"〔 Shortly thereafter, Windsor-Smith left comics for the first time, leaving only a couple of inventory items in the Marvel Comics vaults, both stories of R.E. Howard characters: Kull in "Exile of Atlantis" (''Savage Sword of Conan'' No. 3, December 1974), and Bran Mak Morn in "Worms of the Earth" (''Savage Sword of Conan'' No. 16, November 1975). Other than ten pages of inking of Jack Kirby pencil work for ''Captain America's Bicentennial Battles'' (1976),〔(''Marvel Treasury Special Featuring Captain America's Bicentennial Battles'' #1 ) at the Grand Comics Database〕 a one-off oversize Marvel Treasury Edition, he produced no more comics work until 1983. At this point he changed his professional surname to Windsor-Smith, adding his mother's surname to his own, and began to pursue a career in fine art. Granted residential status in the United States in 1974, Windsor-Smith, along with his partner Linda Lessman, set up Gorblimey Press, through which he released a small number of limited-edition prints of fantasy-based subjects that proved popular. In 1976 Windsor-Smith published ''The Gorblimey Press Catalogue'', a high quality index to the work published by Gorblimey Press, with full-page reproductions of each piece. Prior to that, in 1975, together with Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, and Bernie Wrightson, he was one of four comic book artists-turned-fine-illustrator/painters who formed a small artist's loft commune in Manhattan known as The Studio, with the aim of pursuing creative products outside the constraints of comic book commercialism. By 1979 they had produced enough material to issue an art book under the name ''The Studio'', which was published by Dragon's Dream (ISBN 9063325819). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Barry Windsor-Smith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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