by Duane Spurlock
The Freebooters Collection by Barry Windsor-Smith (Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics Press, 2005.)
Barry Windsor-Smith came to comic book fame as the artist on Marvel’s Conan comic during the Robert E. Howard boom of the 1970s. He left comics for awhile, drew and painted a number of Pre-Raphaelite-influenced posters of sword-and-sorcery and fantasy scenes; then came back to comics a few years ago. A few years back he came up with a big (I mean big, as in oversize — approximately the height and width of an unfolded newspaper [areally big tabloid, like a real newspaper]) monthly comic that he wrote and drew titled Storytellers. Each issue featured one episode in each of three continuing series — “Young Gods,” a heroic fantasy series; “Timerider,” an SF series; and “Freebooters,” an S&S series. Dark Horse published it. But either because DH didn’t market it well enough, or comic shops wouldn’t get behind it, or the odd size just turned off comic buyers (or some other theory you’re likely to hear from any number of folks), the series ended before any of the stories had reached their end, about issue 9 or 10.
Bitter about the whole thing, Windsor-Smith took his marbles and went home. Fantagraphics has published a hardback collecting the extant Young Gods chapters and some unpublished stuff BWS had completed; now Fantagraphics has done a similar volume for The Freebooters.
This is a comic, not a pulp, but I include it here for discussion because BWS’ storytelling in Freebooters harks to the pulp vision of storytelling, not to the spandex-clad superhero-version of comic book narrative one typically encounters from DC, Marvel, or one of their competitors. There’s life and liveliness in Freebooters, of the sort we might recognize in rough-paper magazines titled Adventure or Blue Book or Argosy — just with a lot more pictures, and with word balloons.
Freebooters focuses on a character we might recognize as a semi-washed-up Conan, if Conan had — instead of becoming a king — stayed around one of those cities he saved from a monster and opened a tavern. He’s overweight, not so agile anymore, and the ladies might look at someone else before they looked at him a second time. But his legend as a monster killer and city savior lives on, and the hero — in this case named Axus, not Conan — lives on that legend. But the fire demon Axus killed years ago, AmmonGra, is in the process of being resurrected, so Axus may have to prove his heroic mettle again — whether he wants to or not.
Windsor-Smith uses the expected tropes from sword & sorcery plus humor and excellent characterizations in his storytelling. The art — both the linework and coloring — is flat-out lush and wonderful, nothing like the typical American comic book artwork you’ll usually find in the comic shop.
What is surprising -- for me, at least -- is learning from some of BWS' notes included in the volume is that such flowing lines and detailed drawings were done with drafting pens -- drafting pens! -- such as an architect might use to make primarily straight lines, instead of crow-quill nibbed pens or brushes. The art work is a testament to BWS' artistic skill.
The combined narrative and characterization is a testament to BWS' storytelling skills. He develops his characters carefully over the course of each episode, and the primary cast is quite dynamic and interesting. One wishes the series had continued to see how their relationships would grow. But like with favorite TV shows that don't last an entire season, we're left hanging. Which, in the end, might make our memory of it all the better.
Link:
You can find The Freebooters, and other works by Barry Windsor-Smith, at Amazon. Click here to learn more.
Posted by ds at March 10, 2007 12:18 PM
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