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| Bernard the Barbarian |
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Art: Joe Rubinstein
Joseph Rubinstein is a legend in the American comic book business, I really was
extremely lucky getting him to make this piece. It's not a paid commission; he
owed a guy a favor, a he owed me a favor, so we decided to
kill a few birds with one stone.
While mainly known as a comic book inker, Joe is also an
accomplished watercolor artist. He based this watercolor on the first published
picture of Bernard in my Survival Handbook compilation book (seen on my
Gallery page). The result is just
stellar. |
| Sailor Bernard |
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Art: Karoliina ’Landale’ Nurmela
For love and beverage, the not so pretty sailor-suited soldier, Sailor
Bernard! In the name of punishment he will moon you!
Bernard as a Sailor Senshi. Don't watch his henshin; there are
panty shots. |
| Treasure Bernard |
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Art: Karoliina ’Landale’ Nurmela
Another fine outing from Karoliina. I love the way his belly rises out of the
heap of coins. |
| Bernard the Usurper |
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Art: Mikael Bergkvist
Colors: Chris Shields
Quite a neat scene by Mikael who also has a few strips coming in the Guest
Strips section, but this picture is in his non-cartoony style.
Then Chris took the inked piece, and totally made it come alive
with his colors. Great work. He came back a couple of times asking if there was
anything else to consider; took me a while to realize he wanted to know if he
should put nipples on the topless girl in the background.
Mikael's pencil sketch. |
| Birgitta the Barbarianess Meets Birger |
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Art: Nicolas Križan
Or ”Bernadette the Barbarianess” if we wanna stick to English names. A
convention sketch, not made for me – someone asked him to draw Bernard's female
counterpart.
Oddly, the guy that the comely young wench is clinging to looks
notably slim and muscular. Nicolas had already drawn a guest strip about
Bernard's flab (will be posted on this site later)
so I don't think it's a mistake. I'll have to ask him about it someday. |
| Bernard the Barbarian Strikes Again! |
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Art: Lukas Thelin
The cover art of Fenix' 50th issue, no. 2/2012, is seen in full magazine
version on the Gallery page, but here's
the bare artwork.
Lukas made a fabulous Bernard-y parody of Frank Frazetta's classic
piece The Barbarian, a.k.a. Conan the Adventurer. I had parodied
it in a strip two issues earlier and he told me that he got the idea from there.
One can certainly have a worse tie-in.
And here's a sketch. In color
and all. |
| Birger no. 1/1982 |
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Art: Johan Ragnarsson
Johan is active in the indie comics scene. He did this spot-on parody of the
Swedish comic book Goliat no. 1/1982. The blurbs read ”New misguided
comic book!”, ”Three adventures in color!”, ”Come along to the Age!”
Originally ”New all-Swedish comic book!”, ”Three adventures in color!”, ”Come
along to the Stone Age!”.
Guest appearance by the horse Snårpenbass.
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| Ride of the Beerkyries |
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Art: Beomene Charlotte Winroth
Praise the brew; praise the goddesses of oblivion; wallow in
debauchery as they wait quietly, before they come to take the fallen. |
A beautifully symbol-laden piece showing our hero borne from ale and foam,
watched by the enigmatic Valky… er, Beerkyries.
BCW sent me several sketches of the work in progress. A wee
selection below: |
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Sketch 1 – early Art
Noveau-ish approach. Pretty, but she felt it got overly ambitious.
Sketch 2 – a somewhat later
close-up that shows the Beerkyries in more detail.
Sketch 3 – an inbetween take
where she briefly considered an alternative setup. |
| Poser Bernard |
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Art: Erik Winbo
That is, Bernard made in Poser, not that he is a poser… Ah, you
know what I mean.
Erik said this picture was just a test and he'd come back
with something better later on, but I think it's a fine portrait by itself. |
| Cheers! |
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Art: Erik Winbo
Another test from Erik. Don't mind the guy on the floor, he's just had a bit too
much to drink. And he may have a throat problem.
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| @*£#§%! |
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Art: David Reddick
A debacherous scene by the ever-prolific David Reddick. Outside
of his own barbaric
webcomic (Legend of Bill) he has his own syndicated strip
(Intelligent Life), a day job doing Blondie, and before that he
worked on Garfield. And he can still churn out stuff like this on the
side.
David's pencil sketch. |
| Diversion & Ambush |
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Art: Jim Collins
She has certainly grabbed his attention. Love this one from Jim in Canada.
The sneaky lady is Sonya Crimson – no relation to some chick with a kinda
similar name – from his excellent webcomic Oddly Aroused, which is quite
a bit more worksafe than the title suggests.
Before O.A. Jim also did a webcomic called
Barwench Tales, based on a character created by David Reddick (above).
Small world, eh?
And here's another little piece
he sketched up. Combat malfunction? |
| Bernard Ascendant |
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Art: Widay Panca
King Bernard at his throne having all required accessories; an awesome piece by
Indonesian artist Widay. He usually works in a fairly grim n' gritty style so I
was quite curious about how he'd handle Bernard. I was not disappointed.
Note that the throne is a GoT-ish Iron Throne made of barbaric
axes and war hammers. |
| Bernard Victorious |
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| Art: Widay Panca |
Or ”nice day for a walk”. Another magnificent portrait by Widay, in two
versions. He told me that he found it an interesting challenge to get Bernard's
body the way he wanted it, so he produced several pictures although we'd only
discussed one.
Not only are there two versions of the scene, there are also two
sketchy
sketches. |
| King of the North Pole |
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Art: Magnus ’Mojo’ Olsson
Mojo is a fairly prolific illustrator and comics creator in Sweden, certainly
more well known than I am. I wanted to have a picture by him in Bernard's
2nd compilation book; I told him to do it as a paid commission, just in case, as
I'd begun to doubt that the book would see print and he shouldn't do unnecessary
work for free. But he did it anyway.
I guess I don't have to tell you at what time of year he made
the picture.
As a bonus, a sketch and the artist
at work. |
| A Wild Bernard Appears |
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Art: Jimmy Wallin Lager
Jimmy is, well, basically all I said about Mojo above goes for Jimmy and his
picture too. His rampaging Bernard is a hoot, and I do love the pinky finger.
(I tried to draw him holding the axe the same way, but I couldn't make it work
like in Jimmy's pic.)
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| The Sacred Mug |
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Art: Anna Rebecka Männikkö-Benner
Rounding off with another female contributor, A.R. did a fabulous scene with
some creative word ballooning. It took me a while to realize Bernard is sitting
in a treasure chest.
Like me, she is a long-time Sailor Moon fan; this image is
jam packed with SM references if you know the franchise. |
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