Barry Windsor-Smith, a renowned British comic book illustrator and painter, was born on May 25, 1949. He gained widespread recognition for his work on Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973 and his iconic 1991 "Weapon X" story arc featuring Wolverine.
Windsor-Smith's notable Marvel work also includes a 1984 "Thing" story in Marvel Fanfare, the "Lifedeath" and "Lifedeath II" stories in The Uncanny X-Men, and the 1984 Machine Man limited series with Herb Trimpe and Tom DeFalco.
After leaving Marvel, Windsor-Smith became the creative director and lead artist at Valiant Comics, where he revitalized the 1960s Gold Key Comics character Solar and created the original characters Archer and Armstrong. He was also the chief designer of the "Unity" crossover storyline.
Windsor-Smith's subsequent work was published through various publishers, including Malibu Comics' Ultraverse, where he co-created the vampiric character Rune with Chris Ulm. Rune's adventures included a crossover with Conan that Windsor-Smith wrote and illustrated.
He also provided art for the WildStorm Productions/Image Comics storyline "Wildstorm Rising," although he later expressed regret over this work. Windsor-Smith then created the oversized anthology series Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller through Dark Horse Comics, which was unfortunately cancelled after nine issues.
Windsor-Smith's more recent work includes the Fantagraphics-published Storyteller spin-off Adastra in Africa, which was originally conceived as a "Lifedeath III" story for Storm. He also released two volumes of the retrospective hardcover art book Opus and the 360-page hardcover Monsters, which was originally conceived in the mid-1980s as a Hulk story.
In 2022, Windsor-Smith won the prestigious Eisner Awards for Best Graphic Novel, Best Letterer, and Best Writer/Artist for Monsters.
