What do you think?
Rate this book
Freebooters h/c
by Barry Windsor-Smith
The Freebooters is a lively, character-driven graphic narrative set in a fantastic, ancient milieu. With similarities to Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian , The Freebooters is a riotous, unexpected and postmodern take on the genre. This volume collects the entirety of Windsor-Smith's The Freebooters stories from the acclaimed BWS: Storyteller comic book series from the early 1990s, including a full-length chapter from the unpublished tenth issue, plus more than 50 pages of new story!
The Freebooters is a lively, character-driven graphic narrative set in a fantastic, ancient milieu. With similarities to Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian , The Freebooters is a riotous, unexpected and postmodern take on the genre. This volume collects the entirety of Windsor-Smith's The Freebooters stories from the acclaimed BWS: Storyteller comic book series from the early 1990s, including a full-length chapter from the unpublished tenth issue, plus more than 50 pages of new story!
184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
2 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Barry Windsor-Smith
481 books150 followersBarry Windsor-Smith (born Barry Smith) is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States. He is known for his work on Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, and for his work on Wolverine – particularly the original Weapon X story arc.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 22, 2021
Back in the 90's, Barry Windsor-Smith released an anthology title called Storyteller through Dark Horse. It was oversized and contained 3 ongoing stories, one of which was The Freebooters. The Freebooters contained some elements of earlier BWS work like Archer & Armstrong and Conan. It was set in a fantasy world, but ended up being more focused on humor than action. It was OK. A bit slow moving and unfocused. This collection does have the next 2 chapters that were never published along with some essays from BWS. The story contained within is unfinished as the book was cancelled before BWS could end it. I'd really only recommend this to BWS completists.
September 28, 2022
The story gets cut off before it over due to the title being cancelled. And the story that we do have here doesn't stand up on its own. The art is amazing at times, but that's about all I can say for the book. None of the characters are fleshed out, or interesting.
I'd recommend it only to people that adore BWS's artwork. There are a few funny moments in the book, but even those are not essential as they are not very original.
I'd recommend it only to people that adore BWS's artwork. There are a few funny moments in the book, but even those are not essential as they are not very original.
January 21, 2023
Este tomo presenta un handicap gordo: no hay una historia que termine en su interior. El volumen recoge por un lado una versión inicial de los Filibusteros en blanco y negro, y después la que formaba parte del Storyteller de mediados de los 90, ya en color. Ambas quedan muy inconclusas. La más interesante es esta última, a la postre la más extensa, en la cual BWS presenta su idea de un tebeo de espada y brujería "adulto". El tono está a mitad de camino entre el Lankhmar de Leiber y alguna de las historias de pícaros de Brian Aldiss (Malacia), con alguna decisión argumental valiente. Sobre todo poner a un trasunto de Conan ajado y con sobrepeso a regentar un local de variedades en una ciudad, asediado por la reaparición de su antigua némesis Thoth Am... bueno, ya se me entiende.
BWS intenta alejarse de las peleas físicas o mágicas y trabaja, sobre todo, la presentación de un grupo de personajes, en un reparto coral, acentuado por un continuo deseo de representar en sincronía las situaciones que suceden al mismo tiempo. Esto le causa algún que otro quebradero de cabeza por lo que le cuesta desarrollar bien la acción, redundando en un relato a ratos atropellado. Tampoco imprime carisma a sus creaciones y aunque algunas escenas están bien resueltas y tienen su gracia (la envidia de Axus por el nuevo héroe del momento; su manera de aprovechar la fama pasada convirtiéndose en un número teatral), el guión está pidiendo a gritos alguien con unas cuantas guardias que meta en vereda las aristas que no encajan. El arte, apabullante, ayuda (mucho) a limar las asperezas, pero no termina de hacer olvidar estos problemas.
BWS intenta alejarse de las peleas físicas o mágicas y trabaja, sobre todo, la presentación de un grupo de personajes, en un reparto coral, acentuado por un continuo deseo de representar en sincronía las situaciones que suceden al mismo tiempo. Esto le causa algún que otro quebradero de cabeza por lo que le cuesta desarrollar bien la acción, redundando en un relato a ratos atropellado. Tampoco imprime carisma a sus creaciones y aunque algunas escenas están bien resueltas y tienen su gracia (la envidia de Axus por el nuevo héroe del momento; su manera de aprovechar la fama pasada convirtiéndose en un número teatral), el guión está pidiendo a gritos alguien con unas cuantas guardias que meta en vereda las aristas que no encajan. El arte, apabullante, ayuda (mucho) a limar las asperezas, pero no termina de hacer olvidar estos problemas.
October 30, 2016
Barry Windsor-Smith might just be one of the most talented writer/artists in the comic book medium's relatively short hundred-year-plus history. And The Freebooters, a humorous fantasy tale about a washed-up Conan-type adventurer, was poised to be one of his greatest creative accomplishments. Alas, the frustrating thing about The Freebooters is its truncated nature. At 180 pages, this book collects the merest prelude to BWS's epic plans for Aran, Axus, and the rest of Shahariza's inhabitants, not to mention the grand villain, Ammon-Gra. Interspersed among these opening chapters is BWS's explanation, told in the third person, of how his Storytellers comic book series, made up of three serialized stories (of which The Freebooters was one) ceased publication just as it was getting started.
I sympathize with him, but this backstory--as told from the frustrated artist's POV--is kind of irritating. I have no doubt that Dark Horse (the OP, or "original publisher," that BWS refuses to name in this Fantagraphics reprint) could have done more to try to ensure Storyteller's success, but BWS was, circa 1996, far ahead of his time in terms of his expectations. He envisioned Storyteller sitting on shelves in bookstores and coffee shops, which is easy enough to accomplish nowadays (provided the comic is amazing, as Storyteller was), but in the mid-90s, when comic books were still pretty much universally shunned by mainstream readers, Dark Horse would've had to perform an unprecedented miracle to accomplish this for BWS. So his constant blaming of Dark Horse for Storyteller's failure is a bit unfair. And so, his constant bitching about the "incompetent" OP strikes me as a case of the narcissist's usual shifting of blame to anyone but himself. I could be wrong, but surely Storyteller received the same level of promotion that Dark Horse committed to BWS's fellow creators' series at the time, including Frank Miller's Sin City, Mike Mignola's Hellboy, Paul Chadwick's Concrete, etc. And these series all did just fine without selling in Barnes & Noble stores across the country.
But setting aside BWS's persecution complex, The Freebooters is a dazzling story, even in this fragmentary state. And that is perhaps the most irritating thing of all: that BWS was so soured by his experience with Dark Horse that he decided to completely abandon The Freebooters (and Young GODS and The Paradoxman), despite having found a new publisher that would no doubt have published new material in whatever form BWS wished. Oh, well.
I sympathize with him, but this backstory--as told from the frustrated artist's POV--is kind of irritating. I have no doubt that Dark Horse (the OP, or "original publisher," that BWS refuses to name in this Fantagraphics reprint) could have done more to try to ensure Storyteller's success, but BWS was, circa 1996, far ahead of his time in terms of his expectations. He envisioned Storyteller sitting on shelves in bookstores and coffee shops, which is easy enough to accomplish nowadays (provided the comic is amazing, as Storyteller was), but in the mid-90s, when comic books were still pretty much universally shunned by mainstream readers, Dark Horse would've had to perform an unprecedented miracle to accomplish this for BWS. So his constant blaming of Dark Horse for Storyteller's failure is a bit unfair. And so, his constant bitching about the "incompetent" OP strikes me as a case of the narcissist's usual shifting of blame to anyone but himself. I could be wrong, but surely Storyteller received the same level of promotion that Dark Horse committed to BWS's fellow creators' series at the time, including Frank Miller's Sin City, Mike Mignola's Hellboy, Paul Chadwick's Concrete, etc. And these series all did just fine without selling in Barnes & Noble stores across the country.
But setting aside BWS's persecution complex, The Freebooters is a dazzling story, even in this fragmentary state. And that is perhaps the most irritating thing of all: that BWS was so soured by his experience with Dark Horse that he decided to completely abandon The Freebooters (and Young GODS and The Paradoxman), despite having found a new publisher that would no doubt have published new material in whatever form BWS wished. Oh, well.
January 30, 2023
Una brillante historia de espada y brujería protagonizada por un trasunto "otoñal" de Conan. El dibujo de Windsor-Smith es espectacular y la historia muy divertida (Lástima que quedara inconclusa)
July 31, 2023
Decisamente meglio, come storia, rispetto a Young Gods and Friends perché qui, in fondo, uno straccio di trama c'è.
Certo, ricorda in parte Archer & Armstrong, ma BWS afferma che questi personaggi li aveva creati oltre un decennio prima.
La dinamica tra i vari personaggi è ottima, le gag non sono male ed è un vero peccat, per quel che mi riguarda, che questo serial non abbia avuto uno sviluppo più lungo.
I disegni sono sempre spettacolari anche se devo ammettere che la colorazione, stupenda, dopo un poco risulta stucchevole.
Le prime tavole della storia preparatoria, in b/n, sono decisamente degne di stare in musei al fianco di molti pittori rinomati quali Raffaello, Magritte, Monet.
Quindi qesta volta le 5 stelle sono meritate.
Certo, ricorda in parte Archer & Armstrong, ma BWS afferma che questi personaggi li aveva creati oltre un decennio prima.
La dinamica tra i vari personaggi è ottima, le gag non sono male ed è un vero peccat, per quel che mi riguarda, che questo serial non abbia avuto uno sviluppo più lungo.
I disegni sono sempre spettacolari anche se devo ammettere che la colorazione, stupenda, dopo un poco risulta stucchevole.
Le prime tavole della storia preparatoria, in b/n, sono decisamente degne di stare in musei al fianco di molti pittori rinomati quali Raffaello, Magritte, Monet.
Quindi qesta volta le 5 stelle sono meritate.
July 21, 2020
If you say that the art of Barry Winsdor-Smith is otherworldly, you would not be giving it enough credit. This graphic narrative has immediately enthralled me from the first page. The writing is clever, funny, and silly, but in a very good way. As far as art is concerned, there is nothing to be said; the man is a god! I can't recommend it enough! "Freebooters" is a must-have book for every aspiring writer and artist!
September 24, 2023
The genius of this man. The fact that he can publish an unfinished comic with notes on his process and its still such a satisfyingly fleshed-out world.
.
.
.
(There's still some homophobia to ignore though)
.
.
.
(There's still some homophobia to ignore though)
May 1, 2021
It is a shame that this title will never be finished, but it was fun while it lasted. This edition presents two unpublished issues of the Storyteller series, and a portion of a third.
September 14, 2016
British comics creator Barry Windsor-Smith is something of an institution, famous for his 1970s run on Conan the Barbarian with Roy Thomas (collected, for instance, by Dark Horse as
The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories
,
The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 2: Rogues in the House and Other Stories
,
The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories
, and
The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories
) and the by now classic Weapon X story line from Marvel Comics Presents (which first established that Wolverine's claws were not in fact an artificial addition implanted when his skeleton was coated by adamantium), as well as an assortment of odds and ends.
This fine volume, which I had entirely missed, but stumbled across at the library, collects the Freebooters material from Windsor-Smith's obviously ambitious comics project BWS: Storyteller (which also included Young Gods and The Paradoxman), which sadly was cancelled after nine slightly oversized issues. In essence, the story here (while left unfinished in many ways; although supplemented by a lot of behind-the-scenes information) is of the great hero Axus, who is now past his prime, trying to scrape by with his Freebooters in Shahariza, where he owns the inn Ram and Peacock (where much of the story is set).
For fans of Windsor-Smith's Conan this is a must. It is kind of inverse take on the kinds of heroic fantasy Conan represents (in some ways it is reminiscent of Michael Moorcock's mission statement when he created Elric of Melniboné way back when; albeit in a very, very different way), a deconstruction of the heroic myth itself, and it showcases just such a hero, but past his prime.
Warmly recommended and absolutely gorgeous!
This fine volume, which I had entirely missed, but stumbled across at the library, collects the Freebooters material from Windsor-Smith's obviously ambitious comics project BWS: Storyteller (which also included Young Gods and The Paradoxman), which sadly was cancelled after nine slightly oversized issues. In essence, the story here (while left unfinished in many ways; although supplemented by a lot of behind-the-scenes information) is of the great hero Axus, who is now past his prime, trying to scrape by with his Freebooters in Shahariza, where he owns the inn Ram and Peacock (where much of the story is set).
For fans of Windsor-Smith's Conan this is a must. It is kind of inverse take on the kinds of heroic fantasy Conan represents (in some ways it is reminiscent of Michael Moorcock's mission statement when he created Elric of Melniboné way back when; albeit in a very, very different way), a deconstruction of the heroic myth itself, and it showcases just such a hero, but past his prime.
Warmly recommended and absolutely gorgeous!
May 16, 2012
Barry Windsor-Smith is one of my favorite artists to have worked in comic books and graphic novels during the last 50 years. I have been a fan since his early days on Conan, and it has been a pleasure to watch his artistic and storytelling skills develop over time. It is interesting to note that during that time, BWS grew increasingly frustrated with the insular world of comic books, and choose to develop his own ground-breaking format for Dark Horse Comics called Storyteller.
The title debuted in 1996. It was notable for two reasons. First, each issue 9" x 12", much larger than traditional comic books. The larger size allowed readers to fully appreciate BWS' glorious artwork. Second, each issue contained three storylines - the Freebooters, the Paradoxman, and the Young Gods. BWS wrote and drew all of the stories. Ultimately, the Storyteller series was cancelled, with Windsor-Smith largely blaming the minimal efforts of his publisher for the failure.
The Freebooters book collects all of the Freebooter stories and adds some previously unpublished materials. Due to the fact that the series was cancelled, the storyline included in the book is never fully realized. We have some great characters, led by Axus the Great (a kind of over-the-hill Conan, still trading in on his glory days), facing an imminent threat, but the story doesn't get the chance to fully play out and reach a conclusion.
That's almost beside the point, though, because the line-work, composition, and coloring of the artwork is so enjoyable. As a writer, BWS put a couple of constraints on himself - no thought balloons, and minimal captions. Those limitations serve him well, as the story reads more like a play or movie, than do many typical comic books and graphic novels. Finally, there is the sophisticated adult humor. This was a book created for adults, and pays of handsomely for those who appreciate graphic novels that don't play down to the lowest common denominator. Recommended.
The title debuted in 1996. It was notable for two reasons. First, each issue 9" x 12", much larger than traditional comic books. The larger size allowed readers to fully appreciate BWS' glorious artwork. Second, each issue contained three storylines - the Freebooters, the Paradoxman, and the Young Gods. BWS wrote and drew all of the stories. Ultimately, the Storyteller series was cancelled, with Windsor-Smith largely blaming the minimal efforts of his publisher for the failure.
The Freebooters book collects all of the Freebooter stories and adds some previously unpublished materials. Due to the fact that the series was cancelled, the storyline included in the book is never fully realized. We have some great characters, led by Axus the Great (a kind of over-the-hill Conan, still trading in on his glory days), facing an imminent threat, but the story doesn't get the chance to fully play out and reach a conclusion.
That's almost beside the point, though, because the line-work, composition, and coloring of the artwork is so enjoyable. As a writer, BWS put a couple of constraints on himself - no thought balloons, and minimal captions. Those limitations serve him well, as the story reads more like a play or movie, than do many typical comic books and graphic novels. Finally, there is the sophisticated adult humor. This was a book created for adults, and pays of handsomely for those who appreciate graphic novels that don't play down to the lowest common denominator. Recommended.
April 26, 2009
Imagine if Conan retired, bought a bar and made money off his fame. He would be Axus, the once famous hero is now middle aged, over weight and feeling restless. He occasionally gathers his old comrades and has an adventure.
Most of these adventures involve drinking and harassing the city's ruler.
Then a naive young seer shows up at Axus bar with visions of doom and death and there are sightings of the evil creature that Axus killed decades ago in the city.
Beautiful art by Barry Windsor-Smith and a fun story that pokes fun at heroic fantasy adventure stories, while telling a really entertaining heroic fantasy story.
Freebooters was one of the series from the much missed, short lived 'Story teller' comic anthology.
Most of these adventures involve drinking and harassing the city's ruler.
Then a naive young seer shows up at Axus bar with visions of doom and death and there are sightings of the evil creature that Axus killed decades ago in the city.
Beautiful art by Barry Windsor-Smith and a fun story that pokes fun at heroic fantasy adventure stories, while telling a really entertaining heroic fantasy story.
Freebooters was one of the series from the much missed, short lived 'Story teller' comic anthology.
October 11, 2013
I was working in a comic shop when these issues were originally published. I loved them, and loved that Barry Windsor-Smith was doing something so different from other comics at the time (or, really, at anytime). The Freebooters series was perhaps the best of the stories he was doing, and I was so disappointed that we never saw the end of it. This is a beautiful book that captures these stories in a wonderful package.
March 23, 2009
Once I gave Freebooters a chance, the book sucked me in. Axus and co. have the mirth and life of Tolkien's work. The last story - the dream of Tor - that's just as good as comics can get. I wish there was more, but I also really love stuff that leaves you wanting more. Ah, comics.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews