20 Epic Conan the Barbarian Illustrations by the Great Earl Norem

Before Photoshop, before digital tablets, before AI started vomiting up weird muscle dudes with eight fingers, there was Earl Norem - a real-deal fantasy artist whose brush practically dripped testosterone. If you ever picked up a Savage Sword of Conan magazine and thought, "Whoa, this cover is doing violence to my eyeballs in the best way," chances are it was Norem. His art wasn't just about muscles and swords (though, let's be clear, there were a lot of both) - it was about drama, emotion, movement, and the kind of old-school epicness that made you want to scream "CROM!" into the wind.

This listicle is a love letter to the sheer awesomeness of Norem's Conan illustrations. Every piece here is bursting with raw energy and the kind of detail that makes you wonder if modern artists are just… tired. Whether Conan is beheading snake gods or brooding under a thunderstorm with a battle axe and a questionable amount of clothing, Earl Norem always knew how to capture the moment. These 20 illustrations are a reminder of when fantasy art was painted by hand, fueled by imagination, and printed on the covers of the coolest magazines of all time.

Author image for John Summers John Summers
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