Frank Frazetta: A Tribute
Yesterday the world lost a legend whom many of you probably don't know. He was artist Frank Frazetta and his influence on modern day pop culture is so vast and far-reaching that it might make your head spin. More specifically Frazetta was a major influence in modern day male erotica. In fact, it's safe to say that a world without Frank Frazetta would be completely different.
Frank Frazetta studied fine art but economic circumstances were such that had to earn a living. So, in 1944 at the age of 16 he was forced to draw for comic books and comic strips in a variety of genres. Some of this work was seen in such manly and sexy comic strips as Flash Gordon, L'il Abner and his own strip Johnny Comet. Take a look at his work in this period in the 1950s and you'll see a style that's as hot and sexy as anything you'll find today. The men were rugged, handsome, and naturally muscular--a style that would epitomize Frazetta's work for years to come.
Frank Frazetta started working on the Playboy strip Little Annie Fanny in the early 1960's and went back to his roots by incorporating painting techniques. He also provided illustrations for Mad magazine, movie posters, and sci-fi & fantasy paperback novels including characters like Tarzan, and more importantly Conan The Barbarian. On the strength of his paintings here the previously little known Conan novels became cult favorites and essentially ushered in a "sword & sorcery" genre in books, comics, magazines, etc. In fact Frazetta spent most of the next decade providing cover art for much of these publications.
Frazetta's wildly popular fantasy art could now be found on posters, prints, and rock album covers and he made it possible for the careers of future neo-realistic fantasy artists such as Boris Vallejo, Jule Bells, Chris Achilleos, Simon Bisley, and tons of others. You can take a look at the works of many of these artists and see that not only are they influenced by Frazetta, then pay homage to him.
In the 1980s after several years of commercial success Frank Frazetta mostly returned to his roots doing paintings, sketches, etc. At the same time books that reprinted his art became an industry in itself. Frazetta's work could be found in museums & galleries and fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars at auctions. Farzetta also developed health problems and so he was producing little work for much of the nineties. Eventually much of his works were being repackaged in huge coffee table books and in the early years of the 21st century a documentary Painting With Fire was produced. Although a series of strokes forced Frazetta to start painting with his left hand he still kept right on working as long as he could.
Late last year months after the death of his wife, there were some legal disputes between his children over the rights to Frazetta's work that went on for several months. Merely weeks ago the litigation was resolved and ALL the Frazetta heirs announced they were working together to preserve the Frazetta legacy.
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