Is anyone here a fan of fantasy art?

[Palinov Jensen]

I was browsing through my Facebook feed and saw this cover art posted to the Heavy Metal Magazine Facebook page. Warning, the following may be offensive to some viewers. Viewer Discretion is Advised http://tinyurl.com/hvm84e7

You have to admit, that is pretty darn cool! I love it! I don't think the issue is out yet. Anyway, that epic cover art got me thinking about fantasy art. I've been a huge fan of fantasy art since I was 18 and started collecting fantasy art cards when I was 20. The cool thing about Heavy Metal Magazine, at least the older issues, is that the magazine would sometimes dedicate a few pages to a fantasy artist. I collect fantasy art books too, but they aren't as cheap as the cards are. Fantasy art card collecting seems to be very niche nowadays. I bought a complete set of Joe Jusko Tarzan cards for $4 on ebay and a sealed box of Luis Royo cards for $10 a while ago.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone appreciated fantasy art back in the day and/or appreciate it now. Did anyone here collect fantasy cards or buy fantasy art books in the 90's or collect them now?

Here is a small sample of my collection. I probably have around 2k-3k cards. Some of them are triples and doubles. Those books are the only fantasy art books I have unless my Fire Emblem art books count.

DSC02763.JPG

DSC02764.JPG

DSC02762.JPG

[DangerGirl]

I love fantasy art. In fact, I used a number of Joe Jusko pictures as my avatars on this board. Those are some nice card collections you picked up.

[Palinov Jensen]

It's nice to hear that someone appreciates fantasy art as much as I do. I have a little bit of everything! Joe Jusko, Luis Royo, Frank Franzetta, Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, Ken Kelly, Mike Ploog, Rowena Morrill, the list goes on and on!

I made a few YouTube videos showing off my collection, in the past, and got only a few responses from people who are into fantasy art too. A girl who who collects fantasy art books and a guy who wants as many complete card sets as possible. I've seen only one person on YouTube actually open fantasy card packs and found one other guy who collects art books.

I often wonder how and why the popularity of fantasy art died out.

[PM2K]

I love this stuff! You pretty well named all of the artists I admire, and then some.

Surprised you left off Ernie Chan and John Buscema from Savage Sword of Conan, one of my absolute favorite fantasy mags from the 70's and 80s. Then there's much of the work in magazines like Heavy Metal, which most of your list of artists contributed to regularly. And let's not forget Richard Coben, another classic with his Den series among many others.

Even Joe Kubert's excellent work on Tarzan and his underrated Tor series counts as fantasy art. But as you say, so many to count.

[Palinov Jensen]

I think I have a random copy of Savage Sword of Conan lying around somewhere. At least I think it's Savage Sword of Conan. It's one of the magazine sized Conan comics. I never did finish reading it, but I did find the are inspiring!

I forgot all about Richard Corben! His art work is pretty epic! Hopefully there's some cheap artwork of his, whether it's cards or books, for me to buy in the future!

[sixgunzloaded]

I love fantasy art too, though I'm embarrassed to say I only know Vallejo, Bell, and Royo.
When I was a kid, I used to flip through Heavy Metal magazines on the shelf whenever we'd go to the bookstore, hoping against hope that someone had drawn an image of a girl in quicksand, lol.
Or one of those big coffee table books full of fantasy art. For some reason, I'd always feel kinda embarrassed and guilty whenever Mom would walk up and see what I was looking at.

[Palinov Jensen]

I love fantasy art too, though I'm embarrassed to say I only know Vallejo, Bell, and Royo.
When I was a kid, I used to flip through Heavy Metal magazines on the shelf whenever we'd go to the bookstore, hoping against hope that someone had drawn an image of a girl in quicksand, lol.
Or one of those big coffee table books full of fantasy art. For some reason, I'd always feel kinda embarrassed and guilty whenever Mom would walk up and see what I was looking at.

That's a cool story! I like reading personal stories!

I remember buying a random box of trading cards off the internet a few years ago. This was before I had any fantasy cards. I knew some of what was in the box. I knew there would be some Alien/Predator Universe and X-men cards. Once I started shifting through the box I found a stack of Frank Franzetta cards. As I looked through them I was super excited and extremely nervous. I was so afraid and paranoid that my mom would find them, I almost threw them in the trash! I am so glad I didn't throw them in the trash. Those and the few Julie Bell cards that were there was the first set of fantasy cards I ever owned.

[Tim Kelly]

You don't remember Fantasy Danger Island, do you? A site that was almost entirely devoted to Fantasy Art? Some of it actually involved quicksand!

[nachtjaeger]

I'm a fan, but I don't know a lot about it. Only artists I can remember offhand are (were) Greg and Tim Hildebrand.