A couple of days ago I dug up the first Richard Corben storyboard page plus his roughs for his other storyboard pages for Conan the Barbarian. I thought you might like to see them, as they’ve never been published.
Each of the following images are two pages, side-by-side, except for page 13.
From what I can gather, Richard drew all of this in one or at the most two days. His graphic storytelling is so beautifully simple, clear and cinematic.
Before now I had no idea that Rich Corben was even involved with Conan the Barbarian. Were there any other finished pages like those at the top? The layouts and designs are a rare treat.
Tucker
As far as I know, the only finished page by Richard was that first one.
A sad side note: Not too long after Richard’s brief stay, Bob Greenberg was involved in a horrible auto accident — a head-on collision with a drug-crazed cokehead. The druggie got out without a scratch but Bob suffered severe brain damage.
I visited Bob in the hospital. It was difficult to tell if he was responding to my presence. I thought he was, but his wife Brenda, a nurse, thought I was imaging a response.
I contacted Richard Corben and asked him a favor — if he would be kind enough to send me his latest comic, signed on the cover to Bob.Richard graciously agreed. After I showed it to Bob, I put it up on the hospital wall so that Bob could see it from his bed.
He seemed to respond…but, again, I don’t know.
Eventually his life support was pulled. As I recall, nothing happened to the asshole that smashed into Bob. I was told that years later Brenda took her own life. I hope that’s not true, especially because Bob and Brenda had a son.
That’s terribly sad news, even as I’m only just realizing the loss. As for the drug addled idiot who lived, the older I get the less I trust in justice, seeing as it’s ministered by us. Sometimes just holding on to the moments of those loved now gone is as much as we can expect. Though those same memories manage to be enough to keep us striving until the sun breaks thru the clouds, or it sets, ending our need to hang on.
I’m really looking forward to these stories being collected. Thank you again for sharing them with their requisite laughter, folly and tears, spiced with a little magic of rare success. I like Paul Chadwick’s relating to films as “fragile creatures”.
Tucker