Conan: Kiss of the Undead

Conan and Bart Sears. Many of us Searsians have been dreaming of that combination for many a year now. And seriously, it should have happened years ago; there are few artists who have the skill and artistic bent to really do Conan justice, and Bart is definitely one of those few artists.
So, back in August when Bart started working on the ‘Conan: Kiss of the Undead’ 8-page story, I was rather thrilled at the thought of finally seeing what Bart could do with everyone’s favourite Cimmerian after so many years since last he drew him.
One of the great things about being close to Bart is the fact that he’s happy to show what he’s working on, and I was privileged enough to see all of the 8 pages for the story pretty much straight after they were finished, through all stages from pencils to colours.

And whilst Bart was working away at these pages, an idea came to me that came to fruition only last week. I asked Bart, who is normally a pretty prodigious thumbnail and roughs producer, if he would mind putting all of those pages of sketches and such aside for me. Bart would often simply discard these pages, a truth that has haunted me for years and years, the thought of all of those beautiful pages ending up in a land-fill somewhere – a horrid thought indeed.
So Bart was only too happy to start stacking those pages up, and, boy, did they stack up. The box I received last Tuesday (16/11) contained nearly 200 pages of page layouts, thumbnails, roughs, sketches, revisions, the script and photocopies of the finished pencils. It took me the better part of a week to organise, scan and clean up all of the pages, and it would be remiss of me not to share with you some of the treasures to be found in those 200 pages.

And, yes, 200 pages does sound like a heck of a lot of roughs for a little 8-page story. But as Bart has often informed me, it always takes him a while to get up to speed and comfortable when starting a new project. This mostly has to do with Bart’s ongoing quest to bring a slightly adjusted style to every new thing he does, because the work he has been doing lately for another company would not suit the Conan story, and visa versa.
To further emphasise this point, the first page of the Conan story took some 70 pages of roughs to complete, whereas pages 2-7 took anywhere from 5 to 15 pages. So you can see, once Bart gets cracking, he really gets cracking.

And now, let’s get to the good stuff! I thought it would be fun to not only show you some of the cooler drawings, but to also give you a window into how Bart goes about creating his artwork, and the steps he takes to reach the final piece.

So here’s page 1 pencilled, inked and coloured, but minus the text.
And this is how it started.
As you can see, it is quite different, especially the top panel of Conan, which caused Bart some serious headache for a while. Let’s look at that first panel some more.
Originally, Bart was going to treat that panel as a typical letterbox shaped rectangle, and he began working on figures to fit this idea-
The premise of that panel, as written by Ron Marz, was that this should be a scene of Conan either in the middle of a battle, or just afterward, ideas that you can see Bart was playing with both of. He then seemed to hone in on a particular pose, best drawn here-
But Bart quickly moved on to other ideas than this, creating more rough thumbnails such as these-
He once again found something to explore in further detail, which is not too dissimilar to the previous more detailed rough-
But, once again, Bart discarded this idea and decided to concentrate on a more vertical and design-oriented view of Conan-
This was obviously to Bart’s liking, because he drew several roughs based on these ideas, getting closer and closer to the final rendition as he went.
And here are the final pencils for the entire page.
Pretty cool stuff, huh? What I like most about the way that Bart goes about drawing anything, is the way that he doesn’t care what the roughs and other preliminary work looks like when set on its own. I have found that far too often today, comic artists are treating every little scribble they do as a masterpiece worthy of being sold and put up on a wall. Now, don’t get me wrong, many of Bart’s preliminary drawings are beautiful and will probably end up on a wall, but this fact is simply a product of what Bart is drawing, not necessarily the way he has drawn it. To further explain myself, I would much prefer to have a rough like this on my wall-
-rather than some pretty little sketch by some other artist who fully intended it to be on a wall somewhere. Bart didn’t want this stuff to be pretty, it is a means to an end, you can see that he draws these roughs quickly and, well, roughly. As they should be!
Let’s have a look at some more cool preliminary drawings, shall we?

Here’s a nice one from page 3. Bart had a bit of trouble with the Countess’s face in this panel, to the point where the original pencilled version was redone again, and there are numerous preliminary pages of her facial structure and details.
Here are the rough page layouts for page 5. They’re a good example of how Bart sometimes nails the roughs on the first go, as very little of this page is changed by the time the finished pencils are done. The most notable change being the last panel, in which Bart originally went for a midriff shot of Conan, but opted for a head and shoulders shot in the end.
Next up is the rough page layouts for page 7, another great example of Bart’s ability to get a design he wants with sometimes very few changes needed. I’ve also included a nifty rough of the first panel, drawn in a little more detail. Bart would have blown this panel up to its correct size and drawn the final pencils straight from this piece, with the use of a lightbox.


And finally, because it is such a fantastic shot of our hero Conan, I thought I might bookend this post by showing you how Bart went about producing the final image of Conan on page 8. So here’s the final version, expertly inked by Randy Elliott, and coloured beautifully by relative newcomer, Mark Roberts.
Bart was obviously keen to end the story with a real strong Conan shot, as you can see from these early roughs.
And as he progressed through the designs, he found a pose he liked, and worked it through to finished pencils.
But wait a second! That isn’t the Conan that appears on the published comic! That’s very true, because after Bart did all of that work, even pencilling it up amazingly, he decided he wasn’t happy with the figure and decided to start it all over again. Bart mentioned to me that he didn’t feel he had quite grasped Conan’s persona in the first attempt, but was happy with this second attempt.

So there you have it, a brief enough walk through some fantastic new Bart Sears art and how he goes about creating it. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of actually seeing the Conan: Kiss of the Undead story yet, I suggest you mosey on over to the USA Today site, or just click on the direct link to the comic right here.

As usual, I have a few other posts in the works at the moment, so don’t forget to pop back soon for more Bart Sears goodies.

Guess what the Postman delivered today? #11

Wow, it seems like a very long time since I had a big bunch of Bart Sears goodies arrive on my doorstep. But that's exactly what happened yesterday.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have pretty much bought up all of the Bart Sears items that Mile High Comics has that I still require, so I've been forced to look for alternate sources to get my Bart Sears fix. And while Mile High will always be my favourite place to go, MyComicShop is proving to be a very good place to visit as well. Their prices are often better than MH, and their packaging is just insanely good.

So I placed an order for 11 items with them a few weeks ago, and now that they're here, I can share them with you.

So let's get to it shall we?

First up, I've finally been able to get my hands on these two Virgin Comics issues-

On the left we have 'Blade of the Warrior: Kshatriya #1,' with a very nice cover by Bart. The credits page states that Randy Elliott inked it, but I believe Bart inked it instead (Randy's signature is normally easily found on a piece).

On the right is 'Ramayan 3392AD Reloaded #7,' with a really cool cover by Bart (this time definitely inked by Randy). I've never had a good scan of this cover, and I was surprised to see the detail in it, which is perhaps above the level Bart would normally do for a piece like this nowadays.

So I'm pretty happy to finally have these two pieces in my collection.

Next up-

This awesome pin-up is from 'Green Lantern Gallery #1,' from December 1996. It is pencilled & inked by Bart, with some rather spectacular colours by Mike Atiyeh. I have had a copy of this pin-up for about 10 years, but now it is re-laminated and looking good.

I believe Darrin Wiltshire has a copy of this comic for me as well, but it is yours to keep now sir!

Also, Andy Smith has a great pin-up in this comic, so it is worth getting a hold of.

I also got this-

I have owned a copy of this comic for at least 17 years, and I did laminate it a few years ago. But I'm just not happy with the laminating job on it (I used a thinner laminating sheet), so I bought another copy to get re-laminated. Bart was at one stage going to be the regular penciller of this title, back in the late 80's, but this is the only comic he did for it, before getting moved on to Justice League Europe.

This issue, though not his best work at the time, is still a great Bart Sears comic to have, and is a rare enough pre-JLE comic that Bart actually did the interior art for.

Last of the comics to come out of this shipment was this-

This is the 'Metal Sketch Edition of Zoom Suit #3' and is the final cover I needed to get to own the complete set of Bart Sears Zoom Suit covers. And it only took 4 years.

Some of you may recall that in a previous post, I pointed out a printing error on the Sketch Edition of Zoom Suit #2, well this cover suffers the same fate. You won't be able to see it, but in the bottom left corner, just to the right of the man's mouth, is the text 'LIVE AREA' that somebody forgot to take off. I still find stuff like that very amusing.

Anyway, as a bit of a departure, the next two items were these-

These two items are from the 'Who's Who in the DC Universe' Loose-Leaf series from the early 90's. Again, I've owned copies of all of Bart's entries in this series for a very long time, but they are on the re-laminating list, and these two were going cheap at MyComicShop.

The Elongated man entry is from WWITDCU #7, and if you're thinking that it doesn't really look like Bart's work... well, you'd be half right. It is actually pencilled by Carmine Infantino, with Bart supplying the inks. You can sort of see in a few areas where Bart has inked it how he would draw it. The bottom three images are actually from the back of the page, where all of the character stats and history are, but I thought I'd show them here as well.

On the right is the Furball entry, from WWITDCU #8. I love this picture, if only for the fact that Bart has drawn mushrooms! He's only done this a few times in his career, perhaps most notably in the famous Trenin image from The First #4.

And finally, what would a big pile of Bart Sears goodies be without a few issues of Wizard!

As previously stated, I have never been sure when Bart's Wizard Mascot, Poof!, started appearing in the magazine. I had previously thought it was #4, then I got a copy of #3 and he was in there too. So I thought I should get Wizard #1 & 2 just to be sure. And wouldn't you know...

Yes, Poof!, the mascot that Bart drew some 11 different versions of, appears in Wizard magazine from it's very first issue.

Three different Poofs! appear in Wizard #1 for a total of 5 times, and Bart is also listed thus on the credits page-

It is quite fun to look at how Wizard humbly began, to the monster it has become. I much prefer the Wizard of old, when it was about comics, not comic-related media. I can fully understand why they have gone in the direction they have, but I still prefer Wizard #1-50.

Wizard #2 had 6 different Poofs in it, including three on one page!-

As you can see, they all have Bart's odd little signature on them too.

Wizard #2 also had it's first Top 100, with Bart's Legend of the Dark Knight #23 coming in at #22.

This is by no means the highest something of Bart's has gotten, here's a few other items that sold well-

JLE #2 - #8

Eclipso the Darkness Within #1 - #9

Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 - #6

and the best-

Violator #1 - #3!

I also picked up Wizard #56-

This is definitely one of Bart's cooler Wizard covers, and it's good to have it again and through the laminating machine. Bart's name isn't mentioned at all in the rest of the magazine, but I really don't mind, considering how good that cover is.

Lastly, I got a bagged copy of Wizard #100. I ordered an unbagged copy of it last year, unaware that there was a 43cm x 66cm poster in the bagged version, showing all of the first 100 issue covers and variants. I do intend to somehow scan this poster in, or maybe take a photo of it, and as soon as I do, I'll post it here.

So there you have it, a really good shipment of Bart Sears comics, with a few new items for me, and some addition to the Bart Sears Checklist.

I have yet another shipment of Bart Sears items nearly on the way from MyComicShop, with a few more Wizard's, some Dagger Entertainment comics and a few other choice pieces, which, naturally, I'll do a post on when it arrives.

As a side note, I have set up a Bart Sears Fanclub on Facebook for any interested parties, so come join in the fun, won't you?

Until next time...

The Helm #1

Hey look! There's a new Bart Sears comic out!
Helm #1 from Dark Horse comics came out on the 16th of July, and I'm actually surprised at how decent it is.
It's written by comics newbie, Jim Hardison, who does a pretty good job of it. The story is well paced, humorous, and perhaps most impressively, original.

I think it is fitting to compare this series to Bart's previous project, The Scream, which is after all in the same sort of vain, is finished by Randy Elliott in both instances, and of course, both are published by DH.
Whilst there are many similarities, the books are worlds apart. Firstly, Peter David, a comics veteran, wrote a pretty pathetic story for The Scream, Bart put in some fairly weak breakdowns and Randy's finishes were a real hit and miss.
Enter Jim Hardison, with his fresh story, Bart's more refined breakdowns and Randy's more detailed finishes and Helm blows Scream out of the water.
Sure, there's only been one issue of Helm, but even if the skill level dips in the remaining issues, it would still be miles ahead of Scream, which I consider to be Bart's second worst project in all of his career, only marginally ahead of the deplorably bad Spider-Woman.
Now, I'm certainly not saying that this is Bart's best work, nowhere near it, but the past few years have been lean times indeed for the average Bart Sears fan, so it's good to see Bart's work on a comic that is successfully executed, popular or not.
On a collecting point of view, this comic is awesome! The paper quality is sensational, a healthy stock. The advertisements are conveniently back-to-back, which means that when I go to laminate the pages, I can just pull out the advertisement sheets, leaving the 11 comic page sheets and cover. I love it when that happens, though it is very rare, as stated in another post.
So there you have it, why don't you go check out Helm #1 at your local comic shop, I give it 2 thumbs up, for what it's worth.