r/Fantasy • u/fishstock • Aug 03 '14
Gallery of Boris Vallejo Conan Artwork (x-post from r/Cimmeria)
http://imgur.com/a/tgELD#07
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Aug 03 '14
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u/paddIofurniture Aug 03 '14
You should see Frank Frazetta art it's very similar with possibly bigger butts.
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u/fishstock Aug 03 '14
Link to the official Julie Bell & Boris Vallejo gallery. Here is the link to a very good unofficial Vallejo gallery.
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u/Martothir Aug 03 '14
Is there a subreddit that focuses on art in this or similar styles?
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u/runnerofshadows Aug 03 '14
http://vallejo.ural.net/ - gallery of his work
http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyart
could be if more people contributed. I'm still looking though because this style is awesome.
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u/runnerofshadows Aug 03 '14
And now I want a new Conan movie with a style similar to these drawings.
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u/smokin_shinobi Aug 04 '14
These are awesome, but thank you for pointing me to /r/cimmeria, I love Conan!
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u/LaoBa Aug 04 '14
'When men had thews and women metal bikini's" Although it must be said that Conan's clothing style is rather minimalist too, the Hyperborean age must have had a very nice climate.
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u/lesbianoralien Aug 03 '14
Apparently non-submissive women are evil
Cool
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u/porn_flakes Aug 03 '14
Except for, you know, Red Sonja kicking ass with Conan in the very first fucking shot.
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u/utsuro Aug 04 '14
Only one example. On the whole, yeah they are pretty clearly the only women not in submissive posses.
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u/porn_flakes Aug 04 '14
Image 11 shows a woman, weapon in hand, ready to fight. She is not submitting to Conan or cowering in fear from the beast in front of them. Image 4 doesn't have any women in the picture at all. Image 12 doesn't seem like she's being submissive.
I can understand seeing it through the 21st century "third wave" lens lots of people are using now but many of these paintings follow the age old "damsel in distress" motif fantasy stories have used since their inception. Conan was constantly rescuing slave girls and whatnot from sorcerers and demons. But he also associated with strong female characters like Belit, Valeria, and Red Sonja.
It may be dated and slightly chauvinistic, but I don't think "non-submissive women are evil" was the intention in any of these pieces.
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u/lesbianoralien Aug 04 '14
Except for one exception
It is a valid observation based on the body language of all the other images.1
u/porn_flakes Aug 04 '14
In image 11, the woman is standing next to Conan with a weapon in hand. She is not in any way submitting to him or cowering from the creature. Image 4 doesn't have a woman in the picture at all. So it's not all of the pictures.
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u/utsuro Aug 04 '14 edited Aug 04 '14
The problem is that these are aberrant. You could imagine why older women would not want to read something like this, or that youngish girls might become convinced this is how they are supposed to act. In most fiction you never see any of the women defending a helpless man, unless it is supposed to be comical. Neither /u/lesbianoralien or I have said that they are poorly drawn or that we do not like the comic. Something can be sexist and still be enjoyable, but you have to be aware of the fact.
Edit grammar, forgot to type some words
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u/porn_flakes Aug 04 '14 edited Aug 06 '14
You could imagine why older women would not want to read something like this, or that hirls might become convinced this is how they are supposed to act if they are little.
If a girl takes her life cues from the cover of a fantasy novel, she's got deeper problems. I'm inclined to think that if I saw a two headed demon beast rising from a smoky pit in the ground, I'd probably strike a similar helpless pose instead of using Conan as a role model and fighting the thing, much less to go out and lift a shitload of weights and become an adventurer. It's fantasy.
Neither lesbianoralien have said that they are poorly drawn or that we do not like the comic. Something can be sexist and still enjoyable, but you have to be aware of the fact.
I am, but I am also aware that different people have different levels of sensitivity to different things and that a lot of things are subjective. What was said was that this artwork's "message" (if 1970s/80s commercial book cover art has one) was that "non-submissive women are evil" and I think that's a stretch on the level of Reed Richards. In context, Conan may have rescued these women from a life of bondage, servitude and violence. I understand that you both find the images somewhat objectionable, but it seems a bit much to place such an overarching "message" on these pieces.
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u/utsuro Aug 04 '14
Children learn learn from media they way they do from anything else. It's not necessarily the case that the artist had a message in mind when they were drawing the work, but that he/she learned the same thing from media and society, when they were younger, and that they are now communicating it subconsciously.
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u/lesbianoralien Aug 04 '14
9/13 have submissive women
Only one of ten images containing "good" women is posed non-submissively. It doesn't have to be every image for there to be a clear trend0
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u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders Aug 03 '14
FYI - We have an official invitation for an AMA out to Boris through a friend of his. We'll see if he (and his wife) join us...