GETTING BACK TO IT (I HOPE)

Just because I’m not over-extended enough, check out the new version of the Comic Foundry; you’ll see me there monthly doing my new column “Buy The Numb3rs,” playing swami and trying to guess sales numbers.

THE FREEBOOTERS
Written and Drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith
Published by Fantagraphics

FREEBOOTERS is one of the more high-profile “rescue” projects undertaken by Fantagraphics in the past couple of years. After Windsor-Smith’s STORYTELLER was unceremoniously under-promoted and under-noticed while being produced by Dark Horse, the series and the material languished and the creator stewed. Enter the fine folks in Seattle to take the reins and get the work back into the public eye.

Windsor-Smith became a household name in comics by drawing a barbarian; Conan to be exact. He’d move on to a variety of other projects, and return to the concept of traveling barbarian warriors in the early 90s with ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG. Clearly, the milieu suits his eye. STORYTELLER contained three series within its pages, and FREEBOOTERS, his latest take on ancient warriors was a big part of it. The set-up is pretty simple: young warrior Aran has had a vision detailing the end of the world. The last time this evil surfaced, it was dispatched by Axus the Great, so he heads off to the big city to find Axus and draw him into the fray. What he doesn’t know, however, is that Axus has gotten old, fat, and drunkenly stupid… and that he licenses his name and image to idiotic pretenders so he can rake in some extra coin.

Printed in an over-sized format and in luscious color, FREEBOOTERS is Windsor-Smith’s finest comedic work. Rather than take things too seriously, even when dire moments occur in the story, he throttles back on the angst and lets the natural humor of his loutish hero take control of the story. The best sequence in the book finds Axus aggravated by the arrival of another warrior who happens to be everything Axus isn’t: young, in-shape, and stout. So in a fit of self-loathing, the modern pirate decides to take his friends and rob the local governor (known as the Kalif). Unfortunately, this spells trouble, because he not only chooses to do so on a night when many people have entered his tavern in other to hear him discuss his adventures… but he has painted “The Kalif is an asshole” on the side of the balloon he puts his men in for the attack… and misspelled “asshole.” It’s a gut-busting series of scenes that still keep a slight dramatic undertone as the threat to the world finds its way into the night’s pillaging.

I’ve long admired Windsor-Smith’s work, and he remains one of the most distinctive creative presences on the shelves. Fantagraphics has treated him right with this excellent book design and packaging, and I certainly hope that someday we’ll see more work from him in this format. He’s one of the real legends in the biz, and he certainly deserves it.

/Mason