Thursday, April 4, 2019

Barbarians rock! (In fiction and art, at least...)


Couldn't resist taking the "Desperado" character from the other day and casting him in the part of the brooding barbarian --


That's actually a very versatile character. Wonder what he'd look like in a space suit, with a ray gun?! Why don't we try that next? Put him on the cover of "Screamin' Science Fiction," for instance -- remember this:



I know, I know, I've been looking at too many barbarians lately. Blame Mike. He treated himself to one of the biggest books I have ever seen in my entire life. A$250 (yep, you read that right!) for the new Marvel Savage Sword of Conan collection:


It's the size of a brick, 1250 pages, on clay-coated paper, so heavy, you need muscles like the barbarian to hold it! Lift the cover, and...






Is anybody out there old enough (or crazy enough...) to remember these comics when they were new? Ahem. Guilty. Every page is faithfully reproduced -- articles, color covers, the whole deal. It really is an amazing job they've done. The only legendary Conan artist not represented in these pages is Frank Frazetta himself ... turns out, Marvel didn't actually publish his concept of Conan. I thought they did, but ... ah, well.

Speaking of Conan, has anybody been keeping track of the mooted King Conan movie? Oooh, how I wish they would just get this done:



If they wait much bleeding longer, they'll have to do it digitally! We're burning through time here. It'll be 2020 before you know it. Conan the Barbarian was made in something like 1980 ... and yeees, I saw it at the cinema (repeatedly).

Looking at all the monochrome artwork made me remember 8x10 movie stills. Does anybody remember 8x10 movie stills? I used to collect them. I have a huge collection of movie memorabilia ... packed, like so much of my, of course. Need a bigger house. Haven't seen my stuff in six or seven years (sob). And remembering movie stills got me to wondering ...


Yep, that's what they used to look like! That's not half bad, if I do say so myself.

More soon, but right now I have a virus that is ripping through my whole body, from my sinuses to every extremity. 'Scuse me whilst I make away, get a cup of tea, and pick up the last volume in the NARC: Endgame trilogy. I'm enjoying it immensely -- third time I've read it, too. I utterly adore Jarrat and Stone ... must render/paint them again, very soon. New images, new visualizations, using current skills and techniques.

Last note for today: have just posted to the travel blog: Halls Gap: "Under the Mountain" ... well worth a look.