The Borisography: I

Painted 1975.

A modified version, with opaque clothing and more hair, appeared as the centrepiece of the 2014 Fantasy Calendar. See Unconstrained for more information about the alterations.

This painting appeared, in modified form, in the 2008 Fantasy Calendar under the title Creation.

Greek Mythology: Daedelus fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus in order that they might escape from Crete and King Minos. Icarus, despite warnings not to fly too high, soared upwards to such a height that the wax melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned.
Choosing to depict Icarus as full-grown and negroid is a slightly odd choice - Icarus was but a child at the time.

Bearing in mind that the girl is sitting on ice, she is not wearing the amount of clothing you might expect – such is the world of fantasy art!

In addition to the above, it was also used as the cover for the Mayflower Games Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Role Aides Guide entitled Ice Elves, published in 1985.

Details of the other paintings, including another four by Julie Bell, appear on the trading card page for the year 2006.

Iceman is one of the original X-Men from 1963 and is notable for being revealed, in All-New X-Men #40, as being gay despite previously being known as a womaniser.

Finnish Mythology: Ilmarinen was the ruler of wind and weather, travelling the sky with her sister. She created the winds with her wings and thunder with her roar, while the sister created the electricity hurled to the Earth by Ilmarinen. Perhaps paradoxically, these two were also known as protectors of travellers.

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.

Greek Mythology: Borea was God of the North Wind. Boris here has a young maiden pleading for mercy on the frosted land.

Painted 1978.

A modified version was used for the 2003 Fantasy Calendar under the title Evil Secrets.

Unlike the other two paintings, this one is undated.

This is the second of three paintings produced for the first three of Brady's Fovean Chronicles.

A copy of the painting was also utilised in the 2016 Fantasy Calendar.

The painting is signed but doesn't appear to be dated (unless the year is below the signature.)

Can one possibly detect a bit of phallic symbolism there?.

To me, this looks like it might have been intended for a CD cover which makes me wonder whether it might be an unused painting for Alex Moulton's album Exodus.

Boris' comments on this painting: "I wanted to portray an image of the female warrior contemplating in the distance … her thoughts, her dreams, and her ideas of what the future would bring." Quoted from the back of the trading card.

The images I've seen are all cropped partway through the signature so the copyright year, if present, is not visible but I think it safe to assume this would have been 1987.

According to Stan Lee the name Fin Fang Foom was inspired by the title of Chu Chin Chow, a long-running musical from 1916, which Lee knew from having seen the 1934 movie.

Although it is undated it was probably painted in 1975.

It appears in the first Boris trading card set as Genie.

Painted 1977.

The images I've seen are all cropped partway through the signature so the copyright year, if present, is not visible but I think it safe to assume this would have been 1987.

The painting currently shows the year as 1985 but my comments under The Edge of Tomorrow preliminary study 2 also apply here too.

No signature is visible in the portion of the painting used for the book's cover but it was probably painted in 1984 or very early 1985.

The title phrase comes, of course, from George Orwell's 1984 but what is not known is whether this provided the inspiration for the painting.