Barry Windsor-Smith

Barry Windsor-Smith (formerly known as Barry Smith), born May 25th, 1949 in Forest Gate, London, is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known for his work has been produced in the United States.

He rose to prominence in the early 1970s as the original penciller for Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian. At first drawing in a manner lifted from Jack Kirby, within a couple of years he developed a unique style for comics at the time, borrowing from pre-raphaelites such as Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (whose influence would saturate Windsor-Smith's artwork even more in later years). Along with writer Roy Thomas, Smith adapted the Howard stories "The Frost-Giant's Daughter", "The Tower of the Elephant", "Rogues in the House", and "Red Nails". During their run together, Thomas and Smith also created original adventures and characters as well, including the flame-haired warrior-woman, Red Sonja, loosely based on Red Sonya, a character from one of Howard's non-Conan stories.