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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2021 15:30:17 GMT -5
Today would have been Frank Frazetta's 93rd birthday, so I am choosing to celebrate his work today and hope you'll join in...  I first discovered Frazetta's art on a copy of Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar that my late grandfather found at a tag sale and got for me circa 1980 when I was living in Maine. My grandfather was a notorious cheapskate (a result of living through the Great Depression) so getting something from him was a rare experience and getting Frazetta, well it stood out.  But since this is a classic comics forum, let's focus on his comic work...      and so many more... What are some of your favorites and how did you discover Frazetta? -M |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 9, 2021 15:58:40 GMT -5
I can't say for sure where I first encountered Frazetta's work. It likely was on a book cover. And the most likely culprit was The Mucker.  I know that the white cover collections of his painting by Bantam were ubiquitous among my friends in the 80s.  I'm not unconvinced that this self-portrait might not be his best work.  Maybe most fascinating is that he was something of a prodigy. His "Adventures of the Snow Man" was a concept he came up with at age 12 and he drew and copyrighted it at 15. While it's crude the ink line is excellent for that age. The second story of the Snow Man was published in Tally-Ho comics when Frazetta was 16.  |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2021 16:32:00 GMT -5
I know that the white cover collections of his painting by Bantam were ubiquitous among my friends in the 80s. I'm not unconvinced that this self-portrait might not be his best work. I love those White books. I remember seeing them in high school, but never owning them (some of Frank's art was a little too risque for my parent's taste so they wouldn't get them for me, but my cousin, who was partially responsible for my love of comics and Conan had a few, and one of the Frazetta calendars from the 70s). Even though I have most of the art in them now in other sources, I pick these up whenever I see one I don't have at a reasonable price. And I would be hard put to disagree with you about the self-portrait. I almost used it for the initial peice of art for this thread, but went with a photo of Frank at work instead. I'll add a note, the only complete sets of trading cards I own, are the two sets of Frazetta trading cards done on the 90s, which is where I first discovered that self-portrait. Those trading cards are in sleeves and on display in our basement game room (which since we aren't currently gaming is my comic work room for organizing, sorting, cataloging, bagging, etc. books). -M |
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Post by berkley on Feb 9, 2021 16:51:09 GMT -5
I can pin it down exactly to the Doubleday hardcover edition of A Mastermind of Mars and A Fighting Man of Mars:  Here's a link to the ERBzine page with the cover and all six interior illustrations: A Mastermind of Mars and A Fighting Man of Mars |
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Post by berkley on Feb 9, 2021 18:47:20 GMT -5
Still one of my all time favourite book covers: it and the interior illustrations have provided my mental imagery of ERB's barsoom ever since and I'm happy they've done so, as I can't imagine anything better or more suitable. The downside is, everything else feels like a pale imitation.
Not long after this, maybe two or three years, I started to see the Frazetta paperbacks on the shelves, mostly ERB but occasionally REH or something else.
I haven't seen as much comics art as I'd like - I ave a collection of the Lil Abner strips he ghosted and the race-car strip, Johnny Comet, was it? I'd dfeinitely like to read more - those " Telling Stories: The Comic Art of" books are they three different volumes or just three different covers of the same one? And do they reprint entire runs or stories or just excerpts?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2021 18:52:43 GMT -5
Still one of my all time favourite book covers: it and the interior illustrations have provided my mental imagery of ERB's barsoom ever since and I'm happy they've done so, as I can't imagine anything better or more suitable. The downside is, everything else feels like a pale imitation. Not long after this, maybe two or three years, I started to see the Frazetta paperbacks on the shelves, mostly ERB but occasionally REH or something else. I haven't seen as much comics art as I'd like - I ave a collection of the Lil Abner strips he ghosted and the race-car strip, Johnny Comet, was it? I'd dfeinitely like to read more - those " Telling Stories: The Comic Art of" books are they three different volumes or just three different covers of the same one? And do they reprint entire runs or stories or just excerpts? On Telling Stories, the image on the right is the slipcase, the image on the left is the book cover itself. It's an overview with some reprints. The other book I've never seen in person. Yes it was Johnny Comet, later Ace McCoy. I dig the Frazetta Barsoom stuff, but the Whelan stuff was my intro, so it's my standard for that property as much as I love the Frazetta stuff. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2021 0:48:48 GMT -5
I don't know if I can be sure, but I feel like my first exposure to Frazetta came from picking up a used Lancer Conan of Cimmeria paperback at the used bookstore that I spent way to much time at when I still in high school:  |
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Post by tarkintino on Feb 10, 2021 7:54:03 GMT -5
One of the ways Frazetta's work was enjoyed by the masses were on the covers of Warren magazines such as Creepy-- 
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Post by brutalis on Feb 10, 2021 8:10:42 GMT -5
Can't even remember my first exposure to Frazetta or Boris Vallejo. It feels like they were always "there" as a presence. I saw both on book covers, calendars, comic book covers, record covers, posters, art print books and who knows what else. Still love that Moench had Black Jack Tarr admire Frazetta's ice/frozen warrior poster in MOKF.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Feb 10, 2021 8:26:14 GMT -5
That Creepy #3 cover was the first to really draw my eye to Frazetta. His use of blank white space to simulate blinding light was brilliant.
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Post by MDG on Feb 10, 2021 8:43:40 GMT -5
That Creepy #3 cover was the first to really draw my eye to Frazetta. His use of blank white space to simulate blinding light was brilliant. Yes, and that probably remains my favorite Frazetta cover. I remember seeing it when I walked down to Liggett Drugs with a bunch of kids from the neighborhood on an "adventure" (I was 6), but I didn't have any money to buy it. (The first one I did buy was #5--lower left in that image.) |
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Post by kirby101 on Feb 10, 2021 9:01:22 GMT -5
I can't say for sure, probably the Warren magazines. I just know by the end of the 60s the name Frazetta meant something to us. It was look at those Frazetta Conan covers. Not, look at this guy doing Conan covers.
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Post by badwolf on Feb 10, 2021 13:12:49 GMT -5
I'm not sure where I first saw Frank's work; I think that like with Brutalis it just seemed to be everywhere. I had one of those old Ballantine collections (and some Vallejo too) and now I have newer volumes. I just got the Fantastic Paintings that just came out.
A few years back I visited the Frazetta Museum. I highly recommend it, even if you have to travel a bit. (It's about two hours away from me.) Nothing beats seeing the originals and talking to the family about Frank and his work.
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Post by berkley on Feb 12, 2021 18:53:50 GMT -5
Did Frazetta ever do any paintngs or illustrations based on mythology, as opposed to modern fiction writers such as ERB, REH, and the like? I would have been very interested to see him illustrate an edition of, say, Gilgamesh or the Iliad or Robert Graves's Greek Myths.
Theres no way of knowing for sure how well it would have worked, but I think his style would have been a good match for that kind of primal myth - as opposed to later things such as Arthurian romance.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2021 0:41:28 GMT -5
Did Frazetta ever do any paintngs or illustrations based on mythology, as opposed to modern fiction writers such as ERB, REH, and the like? I would have been very interested to see him illustrate an edition of, say, Gilgamesh or the Iliad or Robert Graves's Greek Myths. Theres no way of knowing for sure how well it would have worked, but I think his style would have been a good match for that kind of primal myth - as opposed to later things such as Arthurian romance. The one that comes to mind immediately is a piece entitled Atlantis...  It was used as a book cover for a book that spun off the Von Daniken craze of the early 70s...  -M |
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