Profile of Frank Frazetta on Famous Like Me

Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is one of the world's most influential fantasy and science fiction artists. He is one of the most emulated artists of these genres in the world.

Biography

Frazetta was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of eight, at 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 Michele 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. During this period he turned down job offers from comic giants such as Walt Disney. In the early 1950s, he worked for EC Comics, DC, Avon and several other comic book companies.

Through the work on the Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp and his Li'l Abner strip. Frazetta's work for Capp focussed mostly on the Johnny Comet daily strip, but also filled in for Capp from time to time. 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 Playboy magazine doing the parody strip Little Annie Fanny.

By 1964, Frazetta started producing paintings for paperback editions of adventure books. His first cover for the pulp fiction novel Conan the Barbarian caused a sensation—numerous people bought the book for its cover alone. 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 work has long been admired by many Hollywood personalites. Clint Eastwood and George Lucas—fans and friends of Frazetta's—have commissioned works from him for some of their movie projects.

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 well-known 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 to be 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.

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 Pennsylvania. Some of Frazetta's sons make a living selling reproductions of his artwork.

Notable works

Among Frazetta's best-known pieces are:

• The Death Dealer
• The Silver Warrior
• Snow Giants
• Man Spider
• Conan the Barbarian (cover painting)
• Dark Kingdom
• Egyptian Queen

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