(Atlantis)

To conclude The Artisan Series homage to Frank Frazetta let us discuss his influence in various arenas. Frank Frazetta is not the only great 20th century American illustrator, he is in fact one of many. But Frank Frazetta had some rather unique effects on the world around him that benefited both fellow artists and the public at large.

Creator Rights

Before Frank Frazetta came along publishers were not apt to return illustrators work. For some illustrators, especially those in the comics field, the thought hadn’t even occurred to them. Watching Painting With Fire and hearing artists like Al Williamson say that no one ever thought of keeping artwork themselves was almost painful. If you attend a comic convention today scores of artists have their original panels for sale and it is sad to think how many amazing pieces of comic art are not around today because artists and publishers didn’t realize they would be worth anything. When Frank Frazetta first started doing paperback coverwork for Ace he was not allowed to keep his originals. As I mentioned in part two, he was struggling at the time and was also helping out his friend Roy Krenkel so he did the work anyway. As soon as his popularity began to rise Frazetta began insisting on the return of originals. In those days publishers would sometimes sell the works for big profits to others and sometimes would even destroy the works. Can you imagine all the great Frazetta works being destroyed?!?! Frazetta quickly found himself in a place where his work was in such demand that he refused to work for anyone who would not let him retain his originals. This opened the door for other artists to insist on the same rights. Frazetta paved the way for creators to offer only first printing rights to publishers thus retaining future rights for themselves, an important fact given that many of the works we are privileged to see today may not have been as available for access had not creators the rights to keep and distribute their own work as they see fit.

Book sales and the resurrection of the classics

Those of us here in the 21st century might take for granted the prevalence of books in our everyday lives. Today there are mega bookstore chains throughout the world and the internet has opened up one’s ability to obtain almost any piece of literature with a bit of searching and a credit card number. As recently as my childhood this was not the case. Back in the early 60’s when Frank Frazetta began doing cover work book sales were different.

It would be unfathomable today to think that the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert E. Howard would not be well known, established classics. However in the early 60’s both author’s works had fallen into obscurity from a publishing standpoint. Frank Frazetta’s cover work had an immediate impact on these licenses. Tarzan was ERB’s most well known character but book sales began to make other works of his accessible.

(Cover to The Fighting Man of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, one of the John Carter of Mars book series…also this month’s calendar image in the cool Frazetta calendar Jeff got me for my birthday!)

For the first time ever paperback books began to have sales figures of a million copies. Today that may not be as astounding given the ease with which one may market and subsequently buy books but in those the cover art was literally the only advertisement of a book and it had to catch the eye of readers in spinner racks in local stores or on the bookshelf, if your town was fortunate enough to have one.

(Cover to Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fourth in the John Carter of Mars series.)

Riding on the heels of Ace’s success Lancer Paperbacks picked up the rights to the Conan series and Frazetta’s popularity and influence on the book industry reached new heights. The Conan books became the best selling series in history to that point and were selling upwards of 10 million copies.

Frank’s cover images became such big sellers that publishers were asking for any paintings that he had available saying that they would find a book to put it on. This accounts for the fact that there are a number of really bad books with wonderful Frazetta covers, a fact that he quickly put a stop to once he had the clout to be more selective about his work.

Conan

The Conan series deserves further mention here as Frazetta’s influence went far beyond book sales to the point where he has created a character as popular as the source material from whence it came if not more so. Frank Frazetta’s image of Conan quickly became the only image. Frazetta created the iconic look of the barbarian that has stayed in the public mind to this day. Even the comic art of Cary Nord and the illustrations of Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz owe their foundations to the work of Frank Frazetta. No one would dare stray far from the master image that generations have come to associate with Conan. Frazetta’s imagery was so strong that when it came time to make a film version of Conan it was his Conan that they were looking to.

Film industry

Despite the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger today may evoke negative images his early Conan films were not bad. While not as true to the source material as they could have been the film makers did a fairly good job of incorporating characters and situations from Robert E. Howard’s books.

Painting with Fire indicates that various art directors on the film asked to have Frank Frazetta brought in as a consultant but that Dino De Laurentiis would not hear of it. Despite this there are several scenes in the movies that pay homage to Frank Frazetta’s Conan work in the way that the shot is set up or the way that the women pose, etc. I definitely consider that a blunder on Dino De Laurentiis’s part. Could you imagine the Lord of the Rings films without the participation of the two illustrators whose work is synonymous with Tolkien’s books: John Howe and Alan Lee? With today’s technology and a director who would take the time to bring out the depth in Howard’s stories and use the look of Frazetta’s interpretations the Conan stories are ripe for epic film making.

Frank Frazetta’s work made such an impact that director George Lucas asked him to do some work on the Star Wars films. Unfortunately retaining rights was equally important to Lucas and he refused to allow Frazetta to keep any of his originals and so Frank turned him down. As a fan of both I would have loved to see Frazetta’s interpretations of the Star Wars characters. As it was he was asked to do artwork for another science fiction series, albeit on on the small screen, that has seen a resurgence today: Battlestar Galactica.

(TV Guide cover images for Battlestar Galactica)

Conclusion

I am sure it is abundantly clear after three days of posts that I am a big fan of the life and work of Frank Frazetta. His influence on fantasy illustration, illustration in general, the book industry, the film industry, and popular culture are much larger than I even touched on here. In his early days as well as today Frank Frazetta has spawned scores of imitators. It is obvious when one sees work that mimics Frank’s that the artist grew up in the Frazetta generation, a fact that seems to bug Frazetta as he feels an artist should be true to themselves rather than try to copy him.

From his comic work to his painting, sculpture, photography, etc. Frazetta has inspired generations of fans to see dream of different worlds and has inspired many to create fantastic worlds of their own. Through the quality and craftsmanship of his paintings Frazetta has opened the door for the world of illustration to be considered alongside the world of fine art.

I was watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow last week a few days before starting the Frazetta posts, while the ideas were germinating in my mind. As I watched I was stunned to see Frazetta work in the film. Sky Captain is of course a homage to the science fiction and fantasy work of the early 20th century…work that influenced who and what Frank Frazetta would become artistically. The character of Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) is the inventor of the group and in one scene he shoves a pile of papers and comic books off his desk. A simple screen shot reveals those comics to be the Buck Rogers Famous Funnies covers of…you guessed it…Frank Frazetta.

Later when Dex is captured and Sky Captain is looking through the rubble Frazetta’s work gets another brief showcase:

The geek in me was thrilled to no end!

Well there you have it. Thus ends my rambling blog posts about the life, work and influence of Frank Frazetta. I will no doubt mention him again as I had before these posts as his work represents all that I like about classic, nostalgic science fiction and fantasy. Again, happy birthday Frank! I hope to see many more years and many more creations before the end. If you are interested in more about the amazing Frank Frazetta I not only remind you of the suggestion of the Painting With Fire DVD but I also point you to three comprehensive, high quality books edited by Arnie and Cathy Fenner: Legacy, Icon, and Testament. The Fenners have a love for the subject and subject matter that permeates each book and the image quality of Frazetta’s pieces are outstanding. And finally if you are interested in obtaining any prints or other Frazetta items I suggest a visit to his official website, a link to which has been in my Art/Comic Links section since the inception of Stainless Steel Droppings. Frazetta’s prints are incredibly affordable and the print quality is excellent.

Thanks for allowing me to share Frank Frazetta with you.