Young Gods and Friends
Windsor-Smith became a comics superstar in the 1970s with his work on Marvel'sConan. In the mid-'90s he launchedStoryteller, an ambitious, tabloid-size magazine featuring three ongoing series. But it was discontinued after nine issues, with the series barely begun. This first of three volumes reprinting the truncated storylines re-launches a saga inspired by comics legend Jack Kirby's Thor. The night before young Prince Heros' wedding, he sets off for a final night of space-spanning adventure with his boyhood friend and fellow deity, Strangehands. Along the way, the godlings encounter the beauteous but foul-mouthed Princess Adastra, older sister of the bride-to-be. Windsor-Smith leavens the inherent pretentiousness of this tale of self-important deities by spoofing their mock-Shakespearian speech; the irreverent Adastra, in particular, brings the outer-space proceedings down to earth. Meanwhile, his idealized, Pre-Raphaelite-influenced figures and expansive panels, and the book's oversized format, befit the grandiose, space-spanning plot. Recent lavish collections of Windsor-Smith's paintings and drawings, such asOpus(1999), pleased a large audience that will relish seeing his truncated comics work collected, too.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved