| Slot: |
Savage Tales #1 |
| Item: |
Savage Tales 1 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1995605001
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Owner Comments
This book was kinda special, I bought it in 2009. The seller told me he frequently visited The Studio in the 1970s:
"By the way back in the 70's I owned a comic shop & used to hang around The Studio in NYC. That was a loft shared by Jeff Jones, Mike Kaluta, Barry Smith & one of my best friends Berni Wrightson. You would have loved it."
I believe he's talking about Baltimore's first comic shop The Nostalgia Crypt in Reisterstown, Md, which he opened in 1973. I also asked him about the grade - his reply:
"Honestly I don't know the grading system with numbers. When I was into this as a business in the 70's grading ran from poor to mint period. I used my best eye to give it a near mint. Pages are yellowing a little around the edges due to age ( 1971 ) is what I would have to say Hope this helps."
He shipped it in a thin paper envelope, no padding at all, but magically it arrived totally unharmed. I was close to giving him negative feedback just for the truly horribly shipping. I guess this book has come a long way, happy to see it in a proper home :-)
I also got copies in 9.6 and 9.8, but there's still some special magic about this copy - and I'm happy for the 9.0 grade. I wasn't expecting more than 8.0, maybe 8.5.
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| Slot: |
Savage Tales #2 |
| Item: |
Savage Tales 2 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0080926004
|
Owner Comments
After finishing Conan the Barbarian issue 24, Barry Windsor-Smith delivered what many fans consider to be his best Conan work in the "Red Nails" story published in this magazine. Thus, this book contains the prime of Barry Windsor-Smith Conan stories, also including a special poem, it simply does not get any better! Due to the great amount of Barry Smith art in this magazine, it is hard to understand, why this book at 9.6 achieves four times fewer points than Savage Tales 1 at 9.6.
In an interview performed May 1998 by Jon B. Cooke at Comic Book Artist (CBA) Barry Windsor-Smith (Barry) offered these amusing answers:
"CBA: "Red Nails" is, in my opinion, your best work from that era. How long did it take you to complete that incredibly detailed work? Were you satisfied with the final production?
Barry: Oh, God—! "Red Nails"! How many time can I use the term "nightmare" in one interview? I should grab a thesaurus right now, right? How long did it take? Oh, only forever. Detail—? What detail—? There was detail in that thing? Where're my pills—? Somebody get me a doctor.
No, I'm fine. It's okay—I just need to breathe. S'okay. What was the question?
CBA: The second chapter of "Red Nails" showed a departure in your inking style from the delicate, finely rendered line to a more spotted, bold approach? Was this experimentation or the demands of the deadline?
Barry: Deadline—? There was a deadline? What do you mean "spotted'? Am I alright? Where's my medicine?"
Excerpt from "Comic Book Artist" #2.
Furthermore this book is a good example of Roy Thomas' and Barry Windsor-Smith's approach to the fantasy genre. Barry Windsor-Smith wrote in his book Opus 2:
"Although they were not unknown to us, Roy Thomas and I tried to avoid the excesses and clichés of the sword and sorcery/adventure genre. We mostly avoided monsters; instead I'd draw actual animals on a grand scale, like a giant dog or a reptile. The Red Nails story called for a real dragon, so I created a hybrid Stegosaurus. If we used sorcery, I'd try to keep the principles credible to some extend".
So the Stegosaurus in this book illustrates the more restricted fantasy approach (one dare not write "realistic approach", so I will not do that :-) which I believe was indeed a wise choice.
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