“Look at those great gals Bob McGinnis paints: they’re long and lean and just as exaggerated as mine are. If he was trying to paint a Frazetta woman it wouldn't feel right, just like me trying to paint a McGinnis girl wouldn't work. An artist has to be true to his own vision--wherever it takes him-- if he wants to create anything that lasts." --Frank Frazetta

Robert McGinnis, legendary artist and national treasure, died a year ago today at the age of ninety-nine. I didn’t blog about it at the time, nor did I do so a month ago for what would’ve been his centennial. I’m attempting to make up for that tonight.

For those readers still unaware of McGinnis' work, I posted a career-spanning biography and gallery dedicated to him which can be found here.

It's been a long time since I've done a 'What If?' post. Mr. McGinnis is a perfect candidate. That's because he created art for various genres that are adjacent--in one degree or another--to sword-and-sorcery, but never painted a cover for Conan, Elric etc. Those genres would be swashbucklers/historical adventures, detective/crime/noir, Westerns, modern thrillers and gothic/historical romances.

So, what might have happened if Don Wollheim or some other art director/publisher had approached Robert and he actually accepted? Check out the gallery and commentary below for my speculations.

Akivasha, Thalis or Nafertiri?

I believe both of these paintings are from McGinnis’ historical romance covers. They demonstrate his sure grasp of historical detail.

While known more for his leggy femme fatales—see the Frazetta quote above—McGinnis could definitely paint muscular, bad-ass men. This painting was for the cover of Sabatini’s The Sea-Hawk, a novel that influenced Robert E. Howard.

Two paintings from his historical adventure/drama covers. The top one, with some tweaking, might almost be Conan and Zenobia.

Veering off from Robert E. Howard a bit… McGinnis was good at ‘Gothic’ stuff. What if there was a classy edition of Karl Edward Wagner’s more Gothic stories with his Kane tale, “Mirage”, as the cover painting? McGinnis could’ve pulled it off.

Toward the end of his career, McGinnis concentrated on Western art—much like REH was doing in 1935 and 1936. Replace the six-guns with swords and you’re well on your way to a cool S&S cover. In another ‘What If?’, what if some ‘60s or ‘70s publisher had put out a collection of Howard’s Westerns with a McGinnis cover?

This rare illo is from a 1960 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Like many great painters, McGinnis’ pen & ink style is a pale shadow of what he could do with paints.

These are historical illos which I think were done for National Geographic. The first could be Khitai, the second could be from the Nameless Continent and the third could be Zingaran freebooters.

Okay, so let’s imagine that some publisher in the ‘60s put out a Conan or REH collection called A Witch Shall Be Born and Other Tales—as was the style at the time. McGinnis could’ve pulled off Salome and Constantius easy.

Once again, let’s imagine that some publisher—Lancer or Zebra would’ve been up to it, probably—decided to put out a collection of Howard’s ‘spicy’ pulp yarns. McGinnis would certainly have been up to that task. In his sleep.

I’m going to end things there. I think I’ve made my argument. The fact is, there are at least ten more worthy covers I don’t have good scans of. I hope to do a ‘Part Two’ at some point.

So, raise a glass to the shade of Robert McGinnis, sword-brothers! He was, and remains, one of the great American artists.