Monday, May 10, 2010

Frazetta the Legend

Legendary artist and painter Frank Frazetta passed away today at the age of 82. He was best known for his paperback covers of Conan and other sword and sorcery novels. His art was the definition of fantasy.


What most people don’t know is that Frazetta started out drawing comics in all different genres. He also drew funny animal comics and worked on such strips as Al Capp’s Li’l Abner and Playboy magazine’s Little Annie Fanny. In the mid 90’s, Verotik produced comics based on two of Frazetta’s characters – Death Dealer and Jaguar God. Most recently, Image Comics has several titles based on Frazetta’s paintings.

I first discovered Frazetta when I started reading Conan novels. I bought several other books and magazines just for his artwork. His paintings were so realistic and always had movement. You could easily visualize the action that was taking place, and you could imagine what was going to follow. The paintings themselves told stories.


I have never traveled to Pennsylvania to visit the Frazetta museum and gaze upon a Frazetta original. I think to do so would be like standing in front of the actual sun. You know it exists, you’ve seen pictures of it, but until you actually look directly at it, you do not realize the power it holds.


2 comments:

Idiot Press Comics said...

I remember getting my copies of Grubbmaster Pieces issue 2 and flipping thru it to find my story. Directly after my story was an article by Dave about "The Return of Frazetta". I'm shure this was harsh news to you Dave and it is to many fans out there. I wasn't a fanatic but I was familiar with his artwork. I could spot a Frazetta amile away. He will be missed but his art will speak for him for ages and ages to come.

TMALO70 said...

A Total Bummer. I'm still Crushed over it.