The Borisography: D

The model for the main figure is Ron Coleman, once Mr Olympia, a personal trainer at Boris' gym and frequently a subject in his paintings.

For those that don't know, Dum-Dum is an annual convention dedicated to all things to do with Edgar Rice Burroughs.

As can be seen, this painting shows Luke, Yoda and R2D2 on Dagobah.

It was issued as a limited edition of 500 prints by Gifted Images Publishing Ltd. I have no other information about the piece but as its not contemporary with the movie I am guessing that it was painted specifically for this edition.

The painting is undated but as the movie was released in June 1978 it, too, was probably painted in that year.

Strangely, there are no myths or legends associated with Danu but there is a suggestion that she may have derived from the Vedic (Indian) water goddess of the same name.

Greek mythology: Daphne, a nymph, was pursued by Apollo. To save her virtue, Mother Earth turned her into a laurel tree.

Although it is not signed or dated I think it is safe to say that this was painted in 2017 because the advertisement ran from April 2018.

Undated but apparently painted in 1976 and one of 37 covers that Boris did for Ballantine Books that year.

"Lucky Teela Brown" by Boris Vallejo. I asked Boris to do a pinup … and he astounded me with much more than expected: a cover-quality illustration with a background and a jaunty little swagger stick for Teela.

The intention was to show Good and Evil fighting, something that is not really obvious from the drawing! I'm not familiar with any project using this artwork so perhaps it didn't proceed any further.

This character was the consequence of an attempted comic/movie tie-in between Marvel and Casablanca Records. The character was designed around Bo Derek's appearance, she being the actress due to play the role in the movie however, the movie never got made.

The painting was also used in the 2013 Fantasy Calendar.

Work on this series began on an ad hoc basis in 2001 and, according to Julie, this was Boris' first painting for the set. Earlier paintings did eventually appear in the series but they were reused ones rather than ones specially painted.

I might add that my designation of 'first' and 'second' sketches is purely arbitrary.

The book was subsequently republished under the author's real name of C. Dean Andersson and a new title of Warrior Rebel of Hel.

The design of the figure is, apart from the hat, remarkably similar to Boris' two paintings for the Outlaw Cigar Co box art (Black Powder and Perdition) but it predates those by at least seven years.

Unlike the other movies in the series, a copy of the original artwork is not available so I've had to resort to an image of the poster itself.

As Nessus lay dying, he told Deianeira to keep some of his blood and to wash Herakles' coat in it should he ever stray. In a fit of jealousy she did this, and the blood seared Herakles' skin, causing him great suffering, from which he would have died had not Zeus elevated him to the stars.
Painted 1990.

Herakles and Deianeira were crossing a river when Nessus offered to carry the lady across. He ran away with her, but Herakles shot an arrow from the far bank, killing Nessus.

You might like to compare this drawing with the other depictions of her in the two John Carter artworks from 2008 and 2009.

The drawing is quite large so I guess it was a commissioned piece but it is undated and there is no information to suggest when it might have been produced.

The game's box art includes an additional figure on the left, at the top of the stairs, plus a couple of foreground objects on the left and right respectively. It would appear that these were all added by another artist.

Boris Book 2 illustrates a preliminary drawing for a totally different design which was never used - this time. Boris subsequentlly used it as the basis for the Red Sonja book cover for When Hell Laughs.

Both FABV and the calendar give the year as 1977.

A recent picture of the painting shows that it has now acquired a background figure of another demon and that the year 78 has been overpainted. You can see the modified painting under the title The Revival of the Demon.

The models are Boris and Danielle Anjou.

Originally Ogun, a ninja and martial arts master, was Wolverine's mentor. He later became a villain resulting, ultimately, in his death at the hands of his former pupil.

It is also available as part of a limited edition autographed print poster series - see the Limited Editions page for Search for the Horned Beast for more information.

Probably painted in 1976, this was Boris' final cover painting for the magazine.

Upon encountering an (unsigned) image of the artwork for the first time I did not believe that it could be by Boris or Julie because the monster (Diablo) did not live up to the standards of their own creations. Having done some research, I now realise that they were restricted to reproducing some other artists' design of which extensive details were provided to them.

A colourised version of the drawing also appeared on a t-shirt. Since such colourising is usually done by a specialist artist I assume that Boris was not involved in that process.

Boris also produced a second drawing for the gym in 1986 but at the time of writing I do not have a sufficiently good copy to enable me to show it here.

Greek mythology: the goddess who is the counterpart of the Roman Artemis. Diana, the Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt, was bathing in a forest spring one day when she was surprised by the hero Actaeon. Angered by his intrusion, Diana dashed water in his face and turned him into an animal. Subsequently, he was chased and slain by his own hounds, who no longer recognized him.

You may want to compare this with Artemis which deals with the same subject.

Note: in the Best Of Boris set, the titles of cards 64 and 34 are interchanged.

The art editor didn't like the painting: Boris' response was that perhaps they should get a different artist to paint it. The design was used.

This was Boris' fourth and final cover for the Dragon Knight series.

First appearing in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962,) this character has since proved to be one of the most popular comic book villains of all time.

Titled Dr Octopus on the card, this female version is described elsewhere as Dr Octopus II and Lady Octopus. I attempted to read up the biographies of the characters but, not being a great lover of the superhero genre, I eventually lost interest! My understanding is that the character Carolyn Trainer took over the role after the death of Dr Otto Octavius, the original Dr Octopus, and relinquished it after his eventual (inevitable?) resurrection.

The ad appeared with the tagline Dominate Youe Draft whereby a lucky winner would receive a visit from ESPN frontman Chris Mortensen, the main figure in the painting, when dafting their fantasy (American) football teams.

Though it is unsigned it was probably painted in 2006 since the advertisement would have appeared in late summer of that year.

I presume from this title that the model is Boris' son Dorian.

This image is derived from a scan of the book cover which has then been edited, by Hercules, to remove the title and other text.

This painting was used as the basis for a very detailed digital 3D model by Fredo Bernardo, using ZBrush, as a tribute to Boris – as far as I'm aware it was never created as an actual model/sculpture. An internet search under his name and Dracula will find many renderings of the model and even a tutorial on its creation.

The magazine was published in June 1973 so it is likely that the painting was completed in that year.

I don't know where or how I acquired the image, my file is dated 2009, but would guess that the drawing originated at one of the many conventions that Boris attends.

Boris has a picture of Boris posed for this painting: he's wearing a rented suit of armour and sitting on a rocking horse! Very undignified but, if the painting is anything to go by, it served its purpose well.

The painting is undated but FABV gives the year as 1976.

The publisher felt that the girl's panties were too revealing and had another artist commit a major sacrilege by painting larger ones on her. Although Boris' brushwork in this area is now forever hidden I thought it would be interesting to show his original concept as per the preliminary artwork. This suggests that the alterations may not have been confined to just her panties!

Like its predessor (see immediately above) this painting was also undated and, once again, FABV gives the year as 1976.

This was Boris' fourth and final cover for the Dragon Knight series.

This is the only time I have ever bought a book for its cover. I found the story to be well worth reading, though, as it is told in a humorous fashion, with little gore.

Here's a close-up of the tattoo to help you appreciate the amazing artistry involved.

The game was subsequently rereleased, as part of an anthology, in 1993.

As expected, the artwork was used for the month of July in the 2022 Fantasy Calendar.

The model for this painting was Julie Bell, Boris' wife.

Although it is undated if would have been painted in 1985 or 1986.

As well as being used in the Illustrators of Star Wars subset it was also used as the box art, to advertise the set and on the cover of a book about the set.

For those that don't know, Dum-Dum is an annual convention dedicated to all things to do with Edgar Rice Burroughs.

See above for Boris' other Deathstalker artwork.