"Whenever I was obliged to draw a violent scene I had to decide how far to go. Today, violence on film, on television, and in comic books sometimes reaches a level of grossness I find hard to stomache. When this drawing was in the preliminary pencil stage I had Conan's sword swinging down just above the native warriors head, I would not go so far as to show the head being lopped off, that would be too gross. But when I was in the inking stage and got to that area, without thinking about it I erased the pencilwork and redrew the sword lopping off the head! It was a mistake, I should have left that part up to the viewer's imagination. There is no excuse for being gross. I made the same mistake when I painted a poster showing Conan cutting a giant ape in half with his sword, which also happens to be based on the same story, "Queen of the Black Coast". I guess I got caught up in the violent nature of Conan and lost control of myself!" - Stephen Fabian
"One of the early decisions an illustrator has to make when composing a picture is where to put the horizon line, or the viewpoint. In this case I placed it at the lower part of the picture so that both Conan and the viewer have to look up at Belit, who is basically performing, 'on stage'." - Stephen Fabian
Here's a link to the complete REH story "Queen of the Black Coast".
These are some of the most beautiful images I've ever seen from Fabian. He's a master. Here's a link to his website where I found the quotes used above.
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Rip: I'm going through a real Conan phase right now, ordering all the Marvel 1970 series (or trying to) and collecting all the Dark Horse series as well; so this is much appreciated as I have never seen it. Wow, did Fabian capture the barbarian.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to grossness, I really admire Fabian for this first quote regarding lopped heads. I can see his point, and nearly always agree with him when it comes to comics. Conan, however, is the single comic where ultra violence does not offend me - even seems appropriate. Perhaps because the original Howard stories were so bloody.
I'd not seen this one. I have seen another folio he did on Conan focusing on "The Heart of the Elephant". Now (predictably) I'm eager to locate that one, if I can find it nicely priced.
ReplyDeleteFabian's artwork can seem a bit precious at times, but with REH stuff, he seems to find a groove.
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I'm of the opinion that Fabian is a contender for "the" Robert E. Howard illustrator. I certainly think he's illustrated the most Howard characters and stories of anyone, and they're all fantastic.
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