Wow! I had never seen this version of Smith's "Conan" and the fact that Marvel okayed this level of blood, gore and violence is simply astounding. 1995 must have been strange year in Comics.
Hi guys. Thanks for the review. I can recall there was an issue of the Conan series around that time with a cover saying "versus Rune". So, maybe that was not the last of the character. Hard to tell if that issue was made before this BWS one-shot. Still, glad to have it my collection 👍
The indicia gives BWS creator credit but has Malibu as owner of the trademark/copyright to Rune, which ostensibly makes Marvel the owner of both Rune and Conan. They have about five minutes left to do a quality reprint, though, because the Conan rights are shifting to Titan.
Hope worked at Valiant. We didn't use blue line method. It's dyes over black line. The trickiest part about those dyes is that some colors would bleed and some wouldn't, so you needed to put your reds and yellows LAST when working with them.
Picked this up off the rack in the 90s. So glad I own it, knowing it’s a 99.99% chance of never getting reprinted; moreso because of the Marvel/Ultraverse side of things than the Conan. Disappointed Marvel was unable to reprint Red Nails before losing the Conan license again.
@@russworks2882 Yup, the first volume of Savage Sword contained the B&W Red Nails. I was holding out for a standalone reprint, in any format, in color. Derp.
I can't remember where, but I have saw a comparison between a page with direct color by Smith (watercolor I think) and the published page that was a computer version of those colors... with less blood as far as I can remember, and some other diferences....
On the cover of Conan the Barbarian #9 from the seventies is a flying bluish guy that looks kind of like Rune. It isn’t, of course, but maybe the idea stuck in BWS's head as a prototype for later use!?
BWS recognized he need to some way mimic big John Buscema. Look that thick wide nose of conan, BWS used to do a very thin nose for conan. Check his first cona drawings. A master recognize another master.
The coloring was partly done by his hand and what he didn't paint himself he approved - - Eric Hope was part of Barry's BWS Studio on Storyteller and had worked with Barry coloring Rune... but what you see in the comic is printed from what was intended as color guides (painted photocopies intended to guide the computer colorists)... Marvel had people color... but they didn't follow the guides nearly as closely as Malibu's computer color separators did on the Rune book (they would have done a fine job, I'm sure, but after buying Malibu, Marvel laid them off) and it looked awful. Barry complained, and the compromise was to print from the color guides (I think Barry retouched the color guides then, to make it a little stronger)... but then they printed it was too dark and with a strong color shift toward purple - - still better than the weak coloring Marvel's colorists did (all the streaks of blood were turned into soft focus red blotches...I don't know what they were thinking, but it wasn't translating BWS color style to digital). This info is pieced together from several interviews BWS gave over the years and comments on his website, some years back.
Loved, loved Barry's rendition of Conan back in the 70's. This Conan's art is pathetic. It's a mess. Number #20 and #24 of Barry's art in Marvels Conan the Barbarian (early 70s) are in a league all their own. Beautiful and groundbreaking. This art looks like scribble by a six year old with his eyes closed. Barry what happened to you????
There is a rematch in Conan the Savage issue 4 by Chuck Dixon and...Enrique Alcatena! There's a Larry Stroman pinup in there too.
I've always been a big fan of BWS. I am also a huge Conan fan...and I liked Rune. Bought this when it came out...I was pretty excited over it.
Saweet.. Conan is one of the first comics I remember owning and reading the shit out of ...that and the Hulk 272 with Wendigo and Sasquatch!
Wow! I had never seen this version of Smith's "Conan" and the fact that Marvel okayed this level of blood, gore and violence is simply astounding. 1995 must have been strange year in Comics.
Hi guys. Thanks for the review. I can recall there was an issue of the Conan series around that time with a cover saying "versus Rune". So, maybe that was not the last of the character. Hard to tell if that issue was made before this BWS one-shot. Still, glad to have it my collection 👍
The indicia gives BWS creator credit but has Malibu as owner of the trademark/copyright to Rune, which ostensibly makes Marvel the owner of both Rune and Conan. They have about five minutes left to do a quality reprint, though, because the Conan rights are shifting to Titan.
Dang, that splash page! So epic
Hope worked at Valiant. We didn't use blue line method. It's dyes over black line. The trickiest part about those dyes is that some colors would bleed and some wouldn't, so you needed to put your reds and yellows LAST when working with them.
Huge BWS Conan fan and never knew this existed! Hopefully the Kayfabe Effect doesn’t get me and I can find a copy.
Picked this up off the rack in the 90s. So glad I own it, knowing it’s a 99.99% chance of never getting reprinted; moreso because of the Marvel/Ultraverse side of things than the Conan. Disappointed Marvel was unable to reprint Red Nails before losing the Conan license again.
Didn't they at least reprint it in the Savage Sword Omnibus? But I agree it would've made sense to do a standalone Gallery Edition or some such.
@@russworks2882 Yup, the first volume of Savage Sword contained the B&W Red Nails. I was holding out for a standalone reprint, in any format, in color. Derp.
I can't remember where, but I have saw a comparison between a page with direct color by Smith (watercolor I think) and the published page that was a computer version of those colors... with less blood as far as I can remember, and some other diferences....
On the cover of Conan the Barbarian #9 from the seventies is a flying bluish guy that looks kind of like Rune. It isn’t, of course, but maybe the idea stuck in BWS's head as a prototype for later use!?
Can we crowdfund a Rune omnibus?
I'd love to have all the comics in a nice format. Good idea.
BWS recognized he need to some way mimic big John Buscema.
Look that thick wide nose of conan, BWS used to do a very thin nose for conan. Check his first cona drawings.
A master recognize another master.
The coloring was partly done by his hand and what he didn't paint himself he approved - - Eric Hope was part of Barry's BWS Studio on Storyteller and had worked with Barry coloring Rune... but what you see in the comic is printed from what was intended as color guides (painted photocopies intended to guide the computer colorists)... Marvel had people color... but they didn't follow the guides nearly as closely as Malibu's computer color separators did on the Rune book (they would have done a fine job, I'm sure, but after buying Malibu, Marvel laid them off) and it looked awful. Barry complained, and the compromise was to print from the color guides (I think Barry retouched the color guides then, to make it a little stronger)... but then they printed it was too dark and with a strong color shift toward purple - - still better than the weak coloring Marvel's colorists did (all the streaks of blood were turned into soft focus red blotches...I don't know what they were thinking, but it wasn't translating BWS color style to digital). This info is pieced together from several interviews BWS gave over the years and comments on his website, some years back.
Next up: Groo vs. Rune.
The initial colors were a terrible digital job, the watercolor effects were Barry's attempt to fix them
Not sure i would like this style of Conan story telling. great show. thanks
Wackytobbyacky
Read this book a couple of years ago. Wasn't impressed. I think Red Nails is still BWS's best work.
Loved, loved Barry's rendition of Conan back in the 70's. This Conan's art is pathetic. It's a mess. Number #20 and #24 of Barry's art in Marvels Conan the Barbarian (early 70s) are in a league all their own. Beautiful and groundbreaking. This art looks like scribble by a six year old with his eyes closed. Barry what happened to you????