Monsters

Barry Windsor-Smith’s Monsters (2021–present, Jonathan Cape) is a singular, self-contained graphic novel that distills decades of the artist-writer’s visionary work into one epic volume. Set against a mid-20th-century American backdrop, it explores the psychological and political fallout of a secret military experiment—a deeply personal story of trauma, identity, and the monstrous within. Windsor-Smith, the legendary creator behind Conan the Barbarian and Weapon X, brings his signature painterly detail and dense narrative to this ambitious, standalone project. Its significance lies in its status as a masterwork from a comics pioneer, a dense and haunting meditation on history and humanity that stands apart from any ongoing series.