Entrapped Conan The Barbarian Illustration 1990

Ken Kelly painted this illustration of Entrapped Conan The Barbarian with all the drama and darkness you would expect! I can only imagine the hours Kelly spent layering those strokes, trying to conjure up that magical realism. I'm thinking about the intensity of the light, like it's eating up all the edges. The tree has this gnarly mouth, right? So menacing! I wonder if Kelly felt like he was wrestling the painting itself into submission, as he built up that tree trunk, layering those deep, shadowed browns. Did he see Conan as a kind of artist figure, battling against the forces of nature or his own demons? That gleaming sword is a masterstroke. Just like a painter's brush, it’s the only way to cut through the chaos. Artists are always in conversation with each other. I like to imagine how he might have been thinking about earlier fantasy illustrators, but also classical painters like Caravaggio, who were masters of light and dark.