Frank Frazetta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and
science fiction artist. He is one of the most emulated artists of these
genres in the world.
Frazetta was born and raised in Brooklyn, New
York. At the age of eight, with the insistence of his school teachers,
Frazetta's parents enrolled him in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts. He
attended the academy for eight years under the tutelage of Michael
Falanga, an award-winning Italian fine artist. Falanga was struck by
Frazetta's significant talent. Frazetta's abilities flourished under
Falanga, who dreamed of sending Frazetta to Europe, at his own expense,
to further his studies. Unfortunately, Falanga died suddenly in 1944 and
with him, his dream. As the school closed about a year after Falanga's
passing, Frazetta was forced to find work to earn a living.
At 16, Frazetta started drawing for comic books
that varied in themes: westerns, fantasy, mysteries, histories and other
contemporary themes. Some of his earliest work was in funny animal
comics, which he signed as "Fritz". During this period he turned down
job offers from giants such as Walt Disney. In the early 1950s, he
worked for EC Comics, National Comics (including the superhero feature
"Shining Knight"), Avon and several other comic book companies. Much of
his work in comic books was done in collaboration with friends Al
Williamson and Roy Krenkel.
Through the work on the Buck Rogers covers for
Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp on his Li'l Abner
comic strip. Frazetta was also producing his own strip, Johnny Comet at
this time, as well as assisting Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily
strip. In 1961, after nine years with Capp, Frazetta returned to regular
comics. Having emulated Capp's style for so long, Frazetta's own work
during this period looked a bit awkward as his own style struggled to
reemerge.
Work in comics for Frazetta was hard to find,
however. Comics had changed during his period with Capp and his style
was deemed antiquated. Eventually he joined Harvey Kurtzman doing the
parody strip Little Annie Fanny in Playboy magazine.
Frazetta attributes much of the violence and
brutality of his later paintings to his actual experiences as a young
man defending himself from the street gangs of Brooklyn, who most likely
unwisely targeted a man who in all probability traveled with a baseball
bat. It was also during this time that he turned down an offer from a
talent scout to play for the New York Giants.
In 1964, Frazetta's painting of Ringo Starr for
a Mad Magazine ad parody caught the eye of United Artists studios. He
was approached to do the movie poster for What's New Pussycat? and
earned the equivalent of his yearly salary in one afternoon. He did
several other movie posters. Frazetta also started producing paintings
for paperback editions of adventure books. His cover for the
sword-and-sorcery collection Conan the Adventurer by Robert E. Howard
and L. Sprague de Camp (Lancer 1966) caused a sensation—numerous people
bought the book for its cover alone. This interpretation of Conan
essentially redefined the genre of Sword and Sorcery visually and had an
enormous influence on succeeding generations of artists. From this point
on, Frazetta's work was in great demand. During this period he also did
covers for other paperback editions of classic Edgar Rice Burroughs
books, such as those from the Tarzan and Barsoom (John Carter of Mars)
series. He also did several pen and ink illustrations for many of these
books.
Since this time, most of Frazetta's work has
been commercial in nature, providing paintings and illustrations from
things such as movie posters to book jackets to calendars. Many of his
paintings are uncommissioned but have nonetheless become highly sought
after commercially.
Frazetta's commercial work includes several
cover paintings and a few comic stories for the Warren Publishing horror
magazines Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella.
Frazetta's work has long been admired by many
Hollywood personalities. Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg
and Sylvester Stallone are fans and friends of Frazetta's, and most have
commissioned works from him for their movie projects.
During the '70s and '80s, the popularity of
painted buses and conversion vans led to many artists emulating
Frazetta's artistic style by adding graphics to the exterior panels of
the vehicles. The murals often depicted wizards and sorcerers, and were
the next form of automotive customizing after the flame and racing
stripe styles of the '50s and '60s.
Once he secured a reputation, movie studios
started trying to lure him to work on animated movies. Most, however,
would give him participation in name only—most of the creative control
would be held by others. Finally, in the early 1980s, a movie deal was
offered which would give him most creative control. Frazetta worked with
animated movie producer Ralph Bakshi on the feature Fire and Ice,
released in 1983. Many of the characters and most of the story were
Frazetta's creations. The movie proved a commercial disappointment,
however, as Frazetta's fantastic imagery could not be sufficiently
reproduced via then-current animation technology and methods. Frazetta
soon returned to his roots in painting and pen and ink illustrations.
His son, Bill, graduated high school in East
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in 1978, and Frank supplied the cover artwork
for the yearbook.
Frazetta's paintings have been used by a number
of recording artists as cover art for their albums. Molly Hatchet's
first two albums feature "The Death Dealer" and "Dark Kingdom"
respectively. Dust's second album, Hard Attack, features "Snow Giants".
Nazareth used "The Brain" for their 1977 album Expect No Mercy. Frazetta
also created brand new cover artwork that appeared on "Buddy Bought The
Farm", the second CD of the surf horror band "The Dead Elvi", making
them the only known band Frazetta has created brand new cover art for.
Recently, Wolfmother used "The Sea Witch" as the cover for their
self-titled debut. Wolfmother has also used other Frazetta paintings for
the covers of their singles and for some of their merchandise, such as
t-shirts. Wolfmother's second studio album, rumored to be titled
"Mammoth", is believed to use another Frank Frazetta painting, entitled
"The Mammoth", for its cover.
Costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers noted her
design for Leia's "metal bikini" costume from Return of the Jedi was
inspired by Frazetta.
Frazetta is frequently asked (probably more than
any other artist has ever been) about his secret to painting, but he
believes talent and perseverance are what really count and that a
talented person can excel at whatever they're interested in.
Today, Frazetta's work is so highly regarded
that even incomplete sketches of his sell for thousands of dollars.
Frazetta's primary commercial works are in oil, but he also works with
watercolor, ink and pencil alone. He currently lives with his wife Ellie
on a 67-acre (271,000 m²) estate in the Pocono Mountains of
Pennsylvania. They maintain a small museum, open to the public, on the
estate. Some of Frazetta's sons make a living selling reproductions of
his artwork.
In his later life, Frazetta has been plagued by
a variety of health problems, including a thyroid condition that went
untreated for many years. Recently, a series of strokes has impaired
Frazetta's manual dexterity to a degree that he has switched to drawing
and painting with his left hand. He still continues to find an outlet
through sculpture and other means.
In 2003, a feature film documenting the life and
career of Frazetta was released entitled, Frazetta: Painting With Fire.
