The comics featured in American Dreamer, Fantagraphics' second volume (of three) collecting all of Barry Windsor-Smith's work at Marvel, provides a stark contrast between the artist's early experimentation on Daredevil under the influence of Jim Steranko and Jack Kirby and the full-blown, unique storytelling brilliance displayed a few years later on Machine Man and his later return to Daredevil. Windsor-Smith's plotting and powerful visuals evoking the circuitry-born identity of Machine Man are unforgettable, but this volume also sees the full emergence of BWS the writer with the legendary Thing story he fully scripted and drew for Marvel Fanfare. Also: Marvel editor Archie Goodwin's 1981 interview reveals insights into Windsor-Smith's life and art, and comics historian and editor Jon B. Cooke's continuing biography covers the artist's time on Conan the Barbarian.
