Frank Frazetta…to be honest the attempt to capture Frank Frazetta and the impact his art has had on me in the past year in a blog post, or a 100 blog posts, is simply overwhelming. I sit here somewhat stunned, not knowing where to begin, where to take you the reader, and where to end.

The impact of Frazetta’s fantasy artwork has caused some to call him the Grand Master of Fantastic Art. It is an apt and deserved title. However to put Frank Frazetta in any one category is to ignore the way in which his work in various genres with various media has impacted and at times dominated the illustration world over several decades.

My plan is to do something of a general overview today with some exposure to some of Frank Frazetta’s artwork and what it means to me personally. Tomorrow’s post will focus more on the person of Frank Frazetta: fighter, star athlete, lover, family man…and oh yeah, the fact that he can do some mean art as well. I may then do one more post focusing on the impact that Frazetta’s work has had on the world of illustration, literature and film.

(self portrait)

Today, February 9th, Frank Frazetta is 78 years old. Happy Birthday Frank! To be quite honest I discovered Frank Frazetta’s work when I was a kid. I just didn’t realize it until about a year and a half ago when I picked up the excellent book Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta by Arnie and Cathy Fenner. I was at once overpowered by his artwork and fascinated with his life story. Many of Frazetta’s seminal works graced the covers of books and magazines that I saw as a child and the emotional connection sparked by the memories I had when reading Testament made me feel as if I had discovered a long forgotten friend. I am not trying to be overly dramatic here, it really felt that way. I soon after shared the book with Jeff who discovered the Frazetta: Painting with Fire DVD and shared that with me. Together we sat in awe of this man, his talent, and his very unique and admirable take on life.

Frazetta’s work invokes the kinds of feelings I talked about when I reviewed Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Beyond my initial enchantment with his work came a deeper and greater understanding as I learned who the man is and just how incredibly talented he is. As I mentioned before it is hard to know how to proceed with an homage to Frazetta.

(an early rough for an unused comic strip idea of Frazetta’s. One can see right away the genesis of a look that will eventually become known as Frazetta’s Women.)

Like the truly classic fantasy tales the work of Frank Frazetta seems to be both timeless and vintage. His pen and ink work are examples of the very best of comic art of the early 20th century and his paintings seem to be at once historical and futuristic, earthy and otherworldly, fantastical and yet very real. Part of Frank’s lasting appeal has something to do with the fact that many of his most famous illustrations graced the covers of the classic novels as well as magazines like Creepy and Eerie but the reason they have stood the test of time is that his works are rich with color and drama and atmosphere, they inspire a longing for otherworlds and fantastical adventures. Frazetta’s work arouses a deep nostalgic passion that is undeniable for those who like classic illustration and/or fantasy art.

(Pen and ink illustration from one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels. His detail and line quality is amazing.)

Frank Frazetta can summarize his work much better than I: “[a friend] asked me once if I could put into words how I thought of my career. In answer, I would consider myself to be a creative artist, not just a fantasy illustrator. I work purely from my imagination without swipe files or photographs sitting by my easel while I paint. I stress good composition and a sense of design that borders on the abstract in spite of the subject matter. When people look back on my art, no one is ever going to say that I was the best draftsman who ever lived. And they’re not going to say that I painted the most beautiful women or the most heroic figures. But I think they’ll say that I made the most unbelievable things believable; that standing in front of one of my paintings caused a suspension of disbelief. Achieving that wasn’t done with style or color or technique; it was achieved with attitude, with a look, with a gesture. Imagination is all of it and I firmly believe that is what I’ll be remembered for.”

(I enjoy Leaping Lizards simply because it reminds me of the Gorn episode from Star Trek which is one of my favorites.)

It has been said that Frazetta more than many artists has been able to capture a true moment in time. He seems to have the ability, like a photographer, to catch a piece of dramatic action as it was played out. Pictures in future posts may show this better than the ones I chose for today. Despite the fantastical settings of his most popular work there is a very real quality to what he paints.

(The Silver Warrior. If this looks familiar to you it may be because The Chronicles of Narnia movie borrowed the look of the witch’s polar bear driven sleigh from this piece. It was even more similar in early ads in which her sleigh was pulled by four rather than two polar bears.)

Frazetta’s artistic talent is obvious. What makes his work even more fascinating is that he often would wait until the last day of a deadline before starting work on a painting and would paint through the night using a hair dryer to dry his oils so that he could keep painting. The amazing thing is that Frazetta would still be able to pour his heart, soul, and best creative effort into these pieces which often are the ones he has become most famous for. One of these pictures that took a little over a day has become the most celebrated and recognizable of Frazetta’s fantasy works, the image of the Death Dealer:

In the 1970’s this image brought heaps of attention to Frank Frazetta and his work and further cemented him as an innovator and icon in the world of fantasy illustration. This work spawned a series of poorly written books based on the character that Frank Frazetta did addition Death Dealer covers for. It is sad that some of Frazetta’s most amazing works grace some of the worst of fantasy fiction and is a testament to his amazing talent that the works survived and stand alone despite the poor writing that they were initially attached to. Thankfully enough of his work was featured on classics by writers like Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, writers whose talents were showcased by Frazetta’s art.

(Cover to Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs.)

There is seemingly nothing that Frazetta couldn’t paint well, his men were rugged and adventurous, the animals from apes to lions to tigers were always realisticly dangerous looking, his worlds were unreal and yet believable, but his most unique vision is the way in which he illustrated women.

(Cover to The Cave Girl by Edgar Rice Burroughs.)

Sure, Frazetta would create paintings with women in the damsel-in-distress mode, valiantly being rescued by the strong hero. However, he would just as often create works with a strong female character, dominating over men, servants, creatures, her world or the elements around her. Frazetta’s women were never skinny, waifish characters. Frazetta’s women are more real, they look more like women like Marilyn Monroe who would be considered overweight by today’s ridiculous standards. “I obviously like to paint a woman who has a little meat on her bones….I like slender, shapely women, but I found that when I was interpreting them on paper it just doesn’t read. I have to exaggerate in order to match my imagination. For me, for my style, if I draw a slim woman, it doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t create the Frazetta effect I’m always shooting for. Its missing the strength, the movement, the dimensions.” The amazing thing about Frazetta’s women is that they personify beauty while having “meat on [their] bones”.

This of course leads to the discussion of the nude. Many of Frazetta’s works feature scantily clad men and women and he has done several nude pieces. Much of the fantasy work reflects the stories that he was illustrating in which the men and women were rugged, savage and quite frankly clothes weren’t an issue. His nudes are tasteful, well done, and extremely real. No fake women in the bunch. I personally would not hang nude art on my walls. Its just me. Until Frazetta, however, I don’t think I really understood artistic nudity vs. pornography/sexualized images. There is a sexuality to Frazetta’s work but they are not sexual. There is an element of the reality of sex as a part of life but they are not sensationalized or pornographic images. I struggled with whether I should include any of these type of images in the post and then realized that some of the best detail in Frazetta’s work were in a few of these paintings so I include two that I consider tasteful followed by highlights of the incredible detail he has in some of his works. I will get into this issue a little more tomorrow in discussing Frazetta, his wife Ellie, and their religious views.

(The Egyptian Queen was a cover to Eerie magazine, issue 23)

One of Frazetta’s works that I really like is the above image of the Egyptian Queen. The lighting and coloring is so rich, warm and dynamic. The marble effect on the column is, in my opinion, some of Frazetta’s best work:

The Moon’s Rapture is another one whose coloring and detail are amazing:

Frazetta’s jungles are always so lush that you feel you could step right into the painting…you can feel the moist, humid jungle climate and almost hear the tropical sounds as you gaze at his work:

The detail is just amazing.

This post is just so inadequate, it is truly only an introduction. It is akin to presenting Mt. Everest at school show-and-tell and only bringing a pebble for the class to look at. My hope is that the trilogy of posts presenting Frank Frazetta will better convey the scope of his work, his influence on the world from Tarzan and Conan to Star Wars and beyond, and that I will be able to give you a sense of what an amazing individual he is.

Tomorrow’s post will be a story of talent, integrity, true American grit and will also be a love story. Frank Frazetta is truly an amazing individual made more so by his wonderful wife Ellie and I look forward to discussing her tomorrow.

(pictures and quotes featured in this post were taken from The Unofficial Frank Frazetta Art Gallery…which I am ashamed of and you will understand why in a few days…and Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta by Arnie and Cathy Fenner)