Tom Barber, legendary 1970s artist, turned seventy-five yesterday. He survived the Vietnam War, created some of the coolest covers of the 1970s and has now come roaring back with new, great covers.

Looking back, I first became aware of Tom Barber's work either for Mundy's 'Tros' books or Adrian Cole's 'Dream Lords' novels. Both series were published by Zebra Books. Zebra was the 'Lancer Books' of the '70s. They kept the REH legacy--and related authors--alive in the '70s.

One could easily bestow the title of ‘House Artist for Zebra Books’ on Tom—at least during the ‘70s. He did Zebra covers for Talbot Mundy, Adrian Cole, Robert E. Howard and various other Zebra titles.

By 1983--as his ISFDB entry shows--Tom Barber was leaving the paperback field. He didn't return until Morgan Holmes at the Castalia House blog did a post about Tom. That led to Tom getting new work and he ended up doing a cover for Flame and Crimson for Pulp Hero Press. F&C’s author, Brian Murphy, did this post and this post about Barber. Tom is now solidly back in the game. His new, cool cover for The Weird Tales Story has just come out. I hope he has more productive years ahead of him.

Check out some examples of Tom's forty-five years of artwork below.

Happy birthday, Tom!