If you grew up in the 1980s it was impossible to avoid Boris Vallejo’s influence. Love him or hate him, he is inextricably intertwined with all things sword-and-sorcery, sword-and-planet, and fantasy art in general.

Over his storied career Vallejo has illustrated the likes of Conan, Tarzan, Red Sonja, and Doc Savage, working across about every form of media you can consume including comics, magazines, paperbacks, calendars, movie posters, and album covers. After attending a fine arts school in Lima, Peru, on scholarship, Vallejo emigrated to the United States in 1964 and quickly made a name for himself as an extraordinary painter, principally in oils, of the fantastic and powerful. In the 1970s and ‘80s his tagline “BORIS” was EVERYWHERE (see his summary bibliography on ISFDB, it’s extremely impressive).

Despite the decline of sword-and-sorcery in the mid-‘80s Vallejo continued his white-hot pace into the ‘90s and beyond, and today continues to turn out gorgeous artwork. He’s illustrated covers for the likes of Burroughs and Howard, along with Larry Niven, Tanith Lee, Avram Davidson, Philip Jose Farmer, and many more. His career is so lengthy and prolific that it is beyond the scope of a single blog post to summarize, though I’ll do my best here.

In full disclosure Vallejo is not my favorite fantasy artist. The adjectives I would describe his artwork are bright, beautiful, detailed, but (typically) static, his images rendered as though they were capturing a gorgeous fantasy scene in a well-lit studio, with near photo-realism. Apparently much of Vallejo’s work is done from photographs, and it often shows. A fair deal of his pieces lack the dynamism and motion that so strongly marks the work of Frank Frazetta, the abstraction and moodiness of Jeff Jones, or the dark and light contrasts that are hallmarks of Ken Kelly’s best pieces.

That said, Vallejo was and remains a major fantasy artist of deserved renown. Even when painting fantasy scenes every line of his art is perfectly rendered, the colors startlingly vibrant. His art is defined by its use of perfectly proportioned bodies, male and female. Few if any fantasy artists ever did muscular anatomy better, or rendered eye-popping feminine beauty and sexuality with as much conviction as did the Peruvian native.

I think Vallejo may have done his best work in the 1970s. One of my favorites is Nomads of Gor (1976), which depicts a proud warrior, jaw jutting, riding a monstrous kaiila. At his knee is a scantily clad female, eyes downward and submissive, in true Gorean fashion. Here Vallejo uses shadows and foreshortening quite effectively to bring an alien tableaux to life. Vallejo painted several amazing scenes for the covers of the DAW Gor novels, including the likes of Tarnsman of Gor, Captive of Gor, Assassin of Gor, and Raiders of Gor (warning: female submission and dominance scenes are presented, unapologetically).

Vallejo’s work on the early run of Savage Sword of Conan was, and remains, absolutely awesome, my favorite of his work. Vallejo was synonymous with SSOC in its heyday. Curtis Magazines/Marvel Comics wanted a hit with Savage Sword to match the popular Conan the Barbarian comic book and so turned to the talented Vallejo, whose paintings graced six of the first ten issues of the magazine. I find his paintings from this period are his moodiest and darkest and capture the savagery found in the stories themselves.

Vallejo of course painted the cover of issue no. 1 of SSOC in 1974, a wild scene of Conan and Red Sonja going at it in a pitched, swirling melee with a horde of ghouls. Perhaps my favorite all-time SSOC cover is his painting of “A Witch Shall Be Born” from issue no. 5, featuring a crucified Conan and a massive grinning skull resembling the setting sun behind him. His work on issue no. 4, featuring Conan about to plunge a dagger into the mountain ape from “Iron Shadows in the Moon,” is a savage scene rivaling Frazetta. After painting the covers of issues 12 and 15 of SSOC Vallejo took a backseat to the likes of Earl Norem, Ernie Chan, Howard Chaykin, Michael Kaluta, Joe Jusko, and Nestor Redondo. But he was not done with Conan, returning to the character for the cover art of Ace-issued Conan of Aquilonia (1977), Conan the Freebooter (1977), Conan of the Isles (1979), Conan the Wanderer (Prestige 1977/Ace 1981) and some later Tor Conan novels.

Another personal favorite is his cover for the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel I am a Barbarian, a rare historical from the creator of Tarzan. The image depicts a muscled, sword-wielding barbarian ready to go at it with a tiger coiled for the spring, and a semi-nude female recumbent at the warriors’ feet, set against the backdrop of ancient Rome. Rippling muscled flesh and sculpted buttocks are prominent, as they often are in Vallejo’s art.

The best way to get a feel for Vallejo’s style is to visit his website Julie & Boris, which he maintains with his wife Julie of 26 years, herself an incredibly talented artist. You can find that here: https://www.borisjulie.com/. Many original paintings and prints are there for sale. Bring your checkbook.

At the height of his fame Vallejo was tapped for several movie posters including National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), which proved fitting as by then the barbaric stereotype was firmly established and the subject of much deserved parody, and sword-and-sorcery on its way out. With Vacation Vallejo was effectively lampooning Frazetta’s iconic Conan the Adventurer, sword-and-sorcery in general, and (ironically) even his own art. And yet, the poster manages to outshine its self-deprecation and remains a joy to look at (a jacked Chevy Chase in ‘80s short-shorts, wielding aloft a gleaming tennis racket? With a curvy Beverly D’Angelo in shredded Daisy Dukes gripping a muscular thigh? Come on. Awesome).

The best news to report after a brutal 2020 is that Vallejo is still with us, and still accepting commissions.

Today, on his 80th birthday, let’s pause to thank BORIS for his extraordinary visions, and for making bright and beautiful the daydreams and visions of sword-and-sorcery readers everywhere.

Brian Murphy is the author of Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (Pulp Hero Press, 2020). Learn more about his life and work on his website, The Silver Key.