17 replies to this topic

[deuce]

Recently, my interest was piqued and I started trying to check out the work of John Duillo. All I can find is his cover to Conan the Wanderer. Boris' paintings replaced those of Duillo. IMO, Boris' work IS more proficient (and better overall), but Duillo seems to be a little more dynamic. Vallejo always worked from photos, which tended to make his paintings more static. Anyway, Duillo seems to be kind of the "forgotten" Conan artist of the last 45yrs, and I was just wondering if anyone had some scans?

[bleno]

Hey Deuce,

I don't have any scans but if you check out Taschen press' book "Men's Adventure Magazines" you'll see the work he did back in the men's mags. Yowza! A real short blurb about him is at the back of the book. Not a whole lot of pictures devoted to him in the book, but it's a beautiful book, with drawings and paintings by Saunders, Basil Gogos and Earl Norem, and others. Pictures of beautiful scantily clad women being menaced by thugs--Crom, does it get any better than this?

Brian

[deuce]

Hey Deuce,

I don't have any scans but if you check out Taschen press' book "Men's Adventure Magazines" you'll see the work he did back in the men's mags. Yowza! A real short blurb about him is at the back of the book. Not a whole lot of pictures devoted to him in the book, but it's a beautiful book, with drawings and paintings by Saunders, Basil Gogos and Earl Norem, and others. Pictures of beautiful scantily clad women being menaced by thugs--Crom, does it get any better than this?

Brian

Thanks for the tip, Brian. Taschen puts out some VERY high-quality books (I own several). However, current finances compel me to beg for scans here from the forum's members. Also, I think it would be educational and edifying for the "chronologically challenged" to see what has gone before (where's Gary Romeo when you need 'im?). On top of THAT, this Duillo thing is a very minor "jones" of mine. I'm just curious AND I figured that others would be too.

It's possible that I've got some of the covers in one of Van Hise's mags. I'll have to check.

[Strom]

Deuce - did you want the covers?

[deuce]

Deuce - did you want the covers?

Yep, that's what I was wantin'. I was unfamilar with the "Freebooter" cover. Like I said, (IMO) the Duillo covers have a little more dynamism and grit than the Boris covers, though obviously at a cruder level of technical ability.

Thanks, Strom.

[Strom]

Your welcome brother! Duillo is very jarring when sandwiched between Frazetta and Boris - not a very good transition but that isn't Duillo's fault.

[amster]

...I'm just sayin'.

[amster]

I've remember reading in Frazetta: Icon that the Duillo cover Lancers didn't sell nearly as well as the Frazettas. Does anyone know if that's true or not? Anyone have sles figures for individual volumes?

The Duillos aren't bad IMO. I remember when Ace re-released the Lancers, the first printing had these covers, then they quickly started replacing them with the Boris covers a few months later. Apparently Ace were rushing to get the Lancers out in order to squash the pure REh Berkleys. So for a while, both Duillo and Boris volumes were on the shelves simultaneously.

But be honest, if you were a horny twelve year old, which one would you choose?

This...



...or this...

[brakkk60526]

I think Duillos covers are decent.Im trying to remember if they came out before Frazattas[certainly near the same time] I liked Boris until he dicovered photoshop and bodybuilding.

[deuce]

I think Duillos covers are decent.Im trying to remember if they came out before Frazattas[certainly near the same time] I liked Boris until he dicovered photoshop and bodybuilding.

They came out at exactly the same time. There's really no hard evidence for the Frazetta covers outselling the Duillo covers. One would figure they DID, but no evidence. If Frazetta "made" REH/Conan, then Brak and Thongor should've been HUGE as well, since some of those covers were GREAT,

[RJMooreII]

I like a lot of these Conan/Thongor covers from back in the day, but their Conan is almost always dead-wrong. It's like the writer didn't read the stories and/or didn't give a darn. The monsters and set pieces are often well done, but the 'Conan' is like more-graphic He-Man than any battle-scarred Cimmerian. They belong on the cover of another book.

Edited by RJMooreII, 25 June 2012 - 11:31 AM.

[gaijinn]

I'm afraid I'll have to say that Duillos anatomy is very weird,,,I don't think he had anatomical knowledge up to date...you may FLAC me for that all you want, but those muscles are...OFF.

[deuce]

I'm afraid I'll have to say that Duillos anatomy is very weird,,,I don't think he had anatomical knowledge up to date...you may FLAC me for that all you want, but those muscles are...OFF.

Won't get it from me. I've never said he was a great painter, just that he seems to have tried to paint with some dynamism.

Not long after I started this thread, I found out his wife was one of the biggest romance novel cover artists. Seemed like a pretty cool gal.

[gaijinn]

Apologies my friend, I really hate to criticise fellow artists, even though I have been a major Cloonan opponent...
But it falls as a critique within my frame of vision, albeit a narrow one...my wife, for instance really loves modern art and I really have issues with it...Polock, Miró, Mondrian. I respect all of them...I can not be right when millions praise them, it's just my perception...and maybe it's my perception regarding Cloonan and all...maybe because I'm an artist(?) myself, and have spent most of my life studying anatomy and really trying to represent the ultimate human form like all of those who inspired me. Neither Cloonan nor Miró, nor Picasso or Polack would have inspired me.
I was moved by Michelangelo, Jaques Louis David, Caravaggio, Davincci, Goltzius, Doré and by more recent artists like Hogarth, Foster, Raymond, Frazetta and Boris, until his images started to resemble painted sculptures.

[keny from prague]

Not what you're looking for but here's a bit of Duillo's work on men's magazines.

http://www.menspulpm...5cbdb8fd107bd4f

[deuce]

Not what you're looking for but here's a bit of Duillo's work on men's magazines.

http://www.menspulpm...5cbdb8fd107bd4f

I already found the covers I was looking for.

That's some great stuff! My estimation of Duillo went up quite a bit. Looks like he was "phoning it in" for the Conan covers. Still, like I said, more dynamic than Boris.

[keny from prague]

I think the Conan covers weren't his best work. As you can see, he got pretty good. Probably my favourite artist of the men's "sweat" magazines of the late 60s, early 70s.

[monk]

wow I haven't seen those covers in ages.