Barry Blair

Barry Blair (born circa 1960) is a Canadian-born comic book illustrator who spent a significant part of his young life in China. He has occasionally used the pseudonym Bao Lin Hum.

Blair, a schoolboy doodler, is a self-taught illustrator. His early involvement with the Canadian TV sketch comedy "You Can't Do That on Television!" led to his employment as an opening titles sequence animator. His opening sequences are similar to Terry Gilliam's animations. Fact|date=February 2007 By his mid-teens, Blair began to self-publish "Elflord", starring the characters Elflord Hawk Ericksson and his "ward", Windblade. An early sketch of these characters appeared in the fanart section of an early issue of "Elfquest". As a young adult, Blair convinced the owner of a failing insulation company to recapitalize as the comic book publisher Aircel Comics.

An admirer of Wally Wood (whose own "Wizard king" prefigured the "Elflord" saga), began tossing out characters, titles, and worlds. Among these were "Kiku-San", "Dragons in the Moon", and "China Sea". Two well-received "adults-only" comics, "Leather & Lace" and "Sapphire", were X-rated versions of "Elflord" and "Samurai". Although a new publisher, Malibu Comics, wanted nothing else, Blair grew unhappy. Fact|date=February 2007

Blair regained control of his flagship characters and revived Nightwynd, his self-publishing firm, in 1992. His new schedule was crushing; moreover, the titles drifted away from tight story focus. They became long chiaroscuro panoramas of pubescent boys being stripped, bound, and tortured. Whether because of the lack of a more familiar presentation or not, Nightwynd failed to carry the broader Aircel audience. Fact|date=February 2007

Blair next joined with "Elfquest" creator Wendy Pini; he sometimes received complaints over the apparent youth of his near-naked, ambiguously intertwined characters. Blair moved on to Europe, carving out a niche with such titles as the boy-wanderer "Sno" and the UFO-beset office worker, "Dick Sweeney". "Sno" was published in the U.S. as a digital comic book under the title "MidKnight Quest". His classic characters have had brief revivals under such imprints as Warp, Mad Monkey Press, and Davdez.

Blair's European work clarifies the possible influence upon him by European illustrators such as scoutism master Pierre Joubert. However, Blair, though thus far remaining less well-known, has clearly influenced many others, including Angel di Mioche ("Cherubino") (the pseudonym of Angel di Mioche was used by various artists working with Blair, including Colin (Chan) Walbridge), Drew Hayes ("Poison Elves") and Gil Baker ("Danny Dare"). Fact|date=February 2007

Blair's recent work has consisted of two graphic albums for NBM around 2001-2002, "Sapphire" (unrelated to the original version from Aircel), and a 3-part story in "Sizzle". All are set in the 'Elflord' universe. A graphic album for SQP, "Nymphettes: The Erotic Elvish Art of Barry Blair and Colin Walbridge, v1", came out in 2005. It contained single-page pinups of various characters.

Blair has also been working with Colin Walbridge (formerly known as Colin Chan) on "Realm Walkers", where they illustrate MMORPG characters and create fantasy art based on MMORPG games Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot and Warcraft.

External links

* [http://lambiek.net/artists/b/blair.htm Barry Blair at lambiek.net]
* [http://www.selena.com.fr/Site/Site/index.html overview of Barry Blair's artwork]
* [http://www.realmwalkers.com/ Realm Walkers site]