The splash page for Almuric. My first encounter with Tim’s art. — The splash page for *Almuric*. My first encounter with Tim’s art.

Yesterday wasn’t just the ninety-fifth birthday of living legend, Robert McGinnis. It was also the seventieth natal anniversary of Tim Conrad. Rarely have the stars aligned in such a fashion. Despite my preferring to not do back-to-back posts, Fate demanded otherwise. Mr. Conrad deserves a shout-out and then some.

As the estimable Lambiek Comiclopedia states:

"Tim Conrad began his career in the mid-1970s, inking on Marvel titles like 'Kull' and 'Bran Mak Morn', and pencilling 'Conan' and stories for 'Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction'. He drew for Marvel's Epic Illustrated in the 1980s, doing painted comics like 'Almuric' and 'Toadswart'. Both appeared as graphic albums later on. He also worked for Pacific Comics, writing and drawing on titles like 'Alien Worlds', 'Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers', 'Thrillogy' and 'Twisted Tales'. In the 1990s, he did work for Fantagor Press ('Horror in the Dark'), First Publishing ('Hunchback of Notre Dame') and Eclipse Enterprises ('Down, Satan', 'Tapping the Vein')."

When it comes to sword-and-sorcery/sword-and-planet art, Tim Conrad is one of the Elder Titans that all fans of such should be familiar with. I first encountered Tim's work by way of his--and Roy Thomas'--adaptation of Robert E. Howard's classic S&P novel, Almuric. At the time, I dubbed his style as being 'Barry Windsor-Smith crossed with Richard Corben'. As wacky as that combo sounds, I stand by it.

Almuric was a fully-painted comic, blazing a trail that Simon Bisley and others would follow a decade later. While I love Conrad's work from before and after Almuric, it's still my favorite. In my opinion, Cabinet/Perilous Worlds would be nuts to pass on reprinting it for a modern audience. It is a brutal fever-dream of blood-soaked beauty.

Conrad followed up Almuric by writing and illustrating Toadswart d'Amplestone, which might be described as a 'medieval Frankenstein' painted in greyscale. It was collected into graphic novel form by Eclipse Comics in 1990. The lushly grotesque art made me wish that Tim would illustrate Clark Ashton Smith's tales at some point. That has yet to happen.

Tim pursued other artistic endeavors in the 1990s and 2000s, but returned to comics with his adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Dark Horse Comics. While not considered a notable success overall, I found some of the panels--such as the one depicting Quasimodo with the stained-glass windows of Notre Dame behind him--to be up to anything Conrad had done before.

Mr. Conrad has suffered some fairly serious ailments in recent years. However, he's doing better nowadays. As his wife, JoAnn, informed his fans on Facebook recently:

'Tim is ok. He’s a guy who decides what he will and will not do.'

Tim's Almuric work deserves its own post, as does his Conan art over the last forty-plus years. Feel free to click on the career-spanning gallery of Conrad art below.

Raise a toast to the health of Tim Conrad, sword-brothers. He's earned it.

Mr. Conrad’s Facebook page can be found here.