The Barbarian Master Set
Savage Tales Annual #1

COMIC DETAILS

Comic Description: Savage Tales Annual #1 Universal
Grade: 9.8
Page Quality: OFF-WHITE TO WHITE
Certification #: 0502491004
Owner: Rune

SET DETAILS

Winning Set: The Barbarian Master Set
Date Added: 7/28/2016
Research: See CGC's Census Report for this Comic

Owner's Description

I also own the original Ken Barr cover painting to this magazine, you can see it here in better quality:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1252534

- and I've got Don Rosa's copy too in 9.6:

http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/ComicView.aspx?PeopleSetComicID=860133

This magazine contains all reprints: "A Day of Tigers" (art by Gil Kane; from Astonishing Tales 11), "Dragonseed" (script by Len Wein, art by Steve Gan; from Savage Tales 6), "Back to the Savage Land" (art by Barry Windsor-Smith; from Astonishing Tales 3), "The Sun God" (art by Windsor-Smith; from Astonishing Tales 4), "Rampage" (art by Windsor-Smith; from Astonighing Tales 5), and "Dark Tomorrow" (script by Gerry Conway, art by Gray Morrow; from Savage Tales 2). Ken Barr cover painting. Cover price $1.25.

The story Back to the Savage Land illustrated by Barry Smith is my favorite Ka-Zar story of all time, and for the first time in this magazine it was printed in full length - and in black & white, thus you won't get much closer to seeing the inked pages ;-)

I'm quite into the Savage Tales magazines (vol. 1), and finally I found a cover that fulfilled several criteria:

1. It represents my Savage Tales CGC magazine collection. My magazine collection can be seen here: http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=34657

2. It represents Ka-Zar in my limited original art collection (have been looking for a great Ka-Zar piece for some time).

3. It's a tribute to Barry Smith's "Back to the Savage Land" from the early 1970s - and thus it's closely linked to the early Barry Smith Conan stories. Probably as close as I'll ever get to original art directly associated with a Barry Smith story from the early 1970s, sigh... I do have the CGC books too: http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=39574

4. It's quite large - 19" x 25", in color, and should work perfectly as a centerpiece.

So it's Ken Barr's Ka-Zar cover to Savage Tales Annual #1 (summer 1975), which contains Barry Windsor-Smith's "Back to the Savage Land" story, for the first time (I think) printed as the complete 30-page story and in black/white. In the early 1970s "Back to the Savage Land" was published in Astonishing Tales #3-5 (published from Dec 1970 to April 1971, when Conan the Barbarian issues 2 to 5 also were published, so maybe Barry Smith drew both in these months - at least Ka-Zar looks a lot like Conan), and it's my favorite Ka-Zar story.

In other words, to me this is a grail piece. And I do like that this is not another man-saves-woman-from-monster cover ;-)

More info about Ken Barr here:

"Born in Scotland in 1933, Kenneth John Barr was the son of a Glasgow-based sign-painter to whom he was apprenticed from the age of 15. A reader of adventure, horror and war stories, Ken Barr found post-War Glasgow full of the machinery and drama of war he enjoyed painting. His first covers appeared on Nebula science fiction magazine in the 1950s.

After his National Service—which he served with the Army in Egypt—and several years working in London, Barr moved to the USA in 1968 where he became a regular penciller/inker and occasionally writer of strips for DC's various war comics, including Our Army At War, Our Fighting Forces, Battle Album and Star Spangled War Stories in 1969-74. He also produced covers and back-up features for the Warren magazines Eerie, Creepy and Vampirella (1970-72) before becoming a regular cover artist for Marvel, working on Doc Savage, Incredible Hulk and The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (1975-78). In the mid-1970s, he found more lucrative work producing books covers (Avon, Random House) and as a movie poster artist, primarily in the fields of fantasy and science fiction, although he returned to comics in the mid-1980s as the writer of Windfall, Geo-Force and Metamorpho in around 1986 (and the merged Geo-Force and Metamorpho in 1987)."
Source: http://illustrationartgallery.blogspot.dk/2011/03/ken-barr.html
  
Image #1
Enlarge  
Image #2
Enlarge  

To follow or send a message to this user,
please log in