There's an old writing adage that says show don't tell. BWS manages to do both -- at the same time. He shows us what's going on and then has a character write down what just happened in her journal. Or people will talk about what's happening as it's happening. This doesn't just happen once, but over and over again. Harvey Award Nominees and Winners". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016 . Retrieved 4 February 2016.

Windsor-Smith uses lots of dates and places to set up scenes but they add nothing to the context - who’s really going to remember that this scene is taking place three months after the one before last? The fact that Logan is even a mutant comes off as a surprise to the entire staff, who seem only vaguely familiar with the phenomenon. Later stories imply that Logan (and the other test subjects) were chosen specifically because their mutations allowed them to survive the experiments. Smart, James (6 May 2021). "Monsters by Barry Windsor-Smith – a great, grim slab of postwar angst". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021 . Retrieved 6 May 2021.Other American Awards". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015 . Retrieved 4 February 2016. Thompson, Maggie (19 August 2005). "Comics Fan Awards 1961–1970". Comics Buyer's Guide. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015. So, yeah, I both admired the artwork--found it brilliant, a pen and ink masterwork--and even admired aspects of the multi-layered, storytelling about a descent into madness, but I also found it very, very hard to read this story and look at.

Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Individual Story Dramatic ("Song of Red Sonja," by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #24) (winner) [45] DeFalco "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 219: "Machine Man was a living robot who was relaunched in 1984 by Tom DeFalco, Herb Trimpe, and Barry Windsor-Smith." Windsor-Smith's novel has the feeling of an instant classic - a novel later in the author's life where he is trying to say it all. (Much like Brother Karazmozov was to Dostoyevski). Indeed, in an interview with the author, he said he had been writing Monster for over 30 years.Windsor-Smith mounts compelling scenes of Elias cooped up in his basement taking scissors to his collection of Golden Age comics, or Tom plotting violent vengeance on the men who comforted his wife during his war. But these passages are there to take us deeper, to show how the men's dances on the threshold of their minds leave their families at thresholds far more real - abandoned by their breadwinners and traumatized by their behavior, left to the mercy of a society with just this side of nothing to offer them. Slowly, Janet Bailey emerges as Monsters' real main character, a desperate, determined woman dumped into a nightmare no self-sacrifice can stop from playing out. The cross hatched ink art in this book perfectly captures the tone of the story and gives it a timeless feel. You can tell that BWS put a ton of effort in crafting every portion of this book. If I had one small complaint, it is that many of the adult males look very similar and can be difficult to tell apart, especially if they are wearing a hat. With a book this long, it is incredibly impressive that BWS was able to keep up the quality for such an extended time. Cronin, Brian (16 September 2022). "The Strange Origins of Barry Windsor-Smith's Iconic Wolverine Story, Weapon X". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 16 September 2022 . Retrieved 16 September 2022. The 2008 Eisner Awards: Eisner Hall of Fame Nominees Announced". Comic-con.com. Archived from the original on 1 April 2008 . Retrieved 23 July 2008. The terms I need to use in the script (all spouting from the paranoiac and drunken Tom Banner) are actually mild when paralleled to other – perhaps more sophisticated – media such as film, print and (at this date) television.

Sanderson, Peter "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 146: "Writer Roy Thomas and British artist Barry Smith (later known as Barry Windsor-Smith) launched Marvel's sword-and-sorcery comics with Conan the Barbarian, in a series that ran for 275 issues." Info Dump: The Professor takes the time at one point to explain some of Logan's military history and his nature as a mutant. On May 20, 5 days before his 73rd birthday, Barry Windsor-Smith, author of WEAPON X and MONSTERS, suffered an Ischemic Stroke. He spent 8 days in an ICU and some weeks in rehabilitation. He has been released from the hospital and is slowly recovering at his home in NY.I've enjoyed Barry Windsor-Smith's work in the past, but this one unfortunately left me cold and bored. years in the making, the most anticipated graphic novel in recent comics history! 2022 EISNER AWARD WINNER: THE GORBLIMEY PRESS CATALOGUE 1975•1976". Barry Windsor-Smith. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017 . Retrieved 7 October 2017. Western Gunfighters #4 (Feb. 1971) at the Grand Comics Database: Special note at the end states "This strip was conceived by Roy Thomas and executed by Smith and Parkhouse nearly Two Years ago!"

It took me days to finish this, but not due to any lagging or slogging dullness... on the contrary, I had to force myself to put it down periodically for my own emotional wellbeing. This is a mentally and emotionally exhausting read. Parts of it are also terrifying. Not in a creepy, spooky way... in a very real horror of life sort of way. It’s frightening in the same way an angry adult about to lose their temper was scary to me as a child. It’s a mostly joyless read. Rosenfeld, Jason (April 2021). "Barry Windsor-Smith's Monsters". The Brooklyn Rail. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021 . Retrieved 1 May 2021. Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: EVERYONE working for Experiment X is one, with the Professor being the worst of them. Most of the rest of them have a For Science! attitude about the whole horrific affair. But even if you didn't do any of these things, you should still take a minute to see what Barry Windsor-Smith — Eisner Award Hall-of-Famer, genre-shaping fantasy artist and 50-year veteran of the comics industry — has been up to for the last three-and-a-half decades.Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards Best Individual Story Dramatic ("Red Nails," by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith, from Savage Tales #1–3) (nominated) [48] The Drifter: Logan starts the series having recently been discharged from the military. His basic pattern includes going from town-to-town, getting into drunken fights, and eventually moving on. a b Daniels, Les (1991). "Research and Development (1970–1978)". Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. New York City: Harry N. Abrams. p.150. ISBN 9780810938212. If you’re of a certain age, Barry Windsor-Smith’s name is synonymous with ‘Weapon X’, the iconic storyline that ran in “Marvel Comics Presents” in the early 1990’s that arguably remains to this day the definitive Wolverine story. Windsor-Smith’s classically trained illustrations were almost too good for “Marvel Comics Presents,” a series that was often host to newer talent, and did not court icons such as BWS, whose work on Conan comics for Marvel some twenty years prior are almost as recognizable and enduring to the property as Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. Nevertheless, Windsor-Smith’s story about the mutant Wolverine getting his adamantium claws via some truly vicious government experiments not only enlightened fans on Wolverine’s murky past, but also made for a pulse-pounding epic about an unstoppable killing machine that you just might actually be rooting for, if only because the people being killed are worse than the monster they created in Wolverine (or “Weapon X” as he is designated). It is interesting, then, that Windsor-Smith would return to this trope so many years later, but it’s obvious the creator has much more to say. The ugly cynicism and moral bankruptcy of the United States in carrying out “Operation Paperclip” seems to be just as potent a villain to BWS as any costumed creep.