In 1966 , Frank Frazetta , a successful freelance illustrator , washiredby paperback publisher Lancer Books to depict a cover for a collection of phantasy stories by Robert E. Howard . The star wasConan , a brutal warrior from Cimmeria who chance all fashion of beasts and black magic — problems he typically solves with a chance event of his sword .
agree to Frazetta , he hold off until the last mo to begin ; he got to work after a phone call from a nervous Lancer employee , who was mark off in . In less than 24 hours , he had realise the now - iconic figure of Conan bear triumphant over a towering raft of skeletons .
“ I sat down and bashed it out in a solar day , brought it in , the place went unhinged , they were drink bubbly , ” Frazetta recalled to author Arnie Fenner decennary later . “ I make love it was a new feel . Nobody had ever see to it something quite like it before . It alter [ the Earth of ] illustration . Sounds self-important , I suppose , but it ’s truthful . ”
With his Conan covers , Frazetta ushered Howard ’s creation into a new level of popularity , which eventually climaxed into stardom forArnold Schwarzenegger . Frazetta ’s lavish oil paintings were a keyhole into a man of grand fancy that came to dominate pop refinement in the twentieth century , inspiring everything from medicine to picture to strip . In his private artcollection , George Lucas has both Norman Rockwell and Frazetta originals . Like a Frazetta paintingbecame an aspirational phrase , though it was scarcely ever accomplishable for anyone but Frazetta himself — a child prodigy whose path in life was set by the age of 8 .
Drawn to Perfection
Frank Frazzetta wasbornFebruary 9 , 1928 , in Brooklyn . ( He subsequently wipe out the secondzfrom his name , feeling it look peculiar . ) His parent , Alfonso and Mary Frazzetta , encouraged his former interest in drawing byenrollinghim at the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts when he was just 8 . Tasked by his teacher with copying an illustration of duck , Frazetta mime it perfectly . By historic period 15 , he was assisting artist John Giunta at Bailey Comics and wind up hisfirstpublished work : a short story about a sentient snowman forTally - Ho Comics#1 in 1944 .
Frazetta spent the next several years toiling in comics for various publishers , albeit more of the funny animal variety : He worked on characters with names like Looie Lazybones and Supermouse . moot his future work in violent fantasy , it now seems an odd juxtaposition . Having grown up on comical strips during their heyday in the 1930s , however , he feltdrawnto the genre .
There was one possible detour : baseball . In a 1994 interview withThe Comics Journal , Frazettarecalledhaving a “ freakish ” pitch branch develop from dispose rocks in his Brooklyn neighbourhood . ( “ I do n’t know why [ but ] I loved to throw sway . ” ) Hesaidhe received an offer from the New York Giants ( now San Francisco Giants ) at age 20 but that it was n’t financially or logistically feasible .
“ The routine was that you would pass the next three or four years — and some guys would spend 10 years — in the small-scale league , ” he said . “ I think , ‘ I do n’t know if I could stand even one year away from family . ’ So I enounce , ‘ lease me intend about it . ’ … I just could n’t make myself do it . ”
Frazetta focus instead on an increasingly rewarding art life history . After a stint draw Western comical screen as well ascoversforFamous Funniesfeaturing hero Buck Rogers , he got the attending of Al Capp , the creator of the popular comic stripLi’l Abner . As was ( and still is ) the customs duty in newspaper airstrip , successful creators sometimes hire ghost creative person to do much of the body of work .
Frazetta work onLi’l Abnerfrom 1954 to 1962 before he and Capp had a variance over money : Capp reportedly was n’t proffer enough of it . That , and Capp’sinsistencethat Frazetta at least shortly relocate to Boston — Frazetta was moving into a novel home with his wife Eleanor Kelley at the prison term — dissolved their workings family relationship . Hereturnedto singular jobs : There were illustration for movie posters andPlayboyandMadmagazine ; in the latter , he return Ringo Starr in a mock ad for Blecch shampoo .
By this point , however , Frazetta was becoming more concerned in painting rather than pencil drawings . While he had beenworkingwith oils since childhood , it was n’t until the 1960s that he begin to earn a livelihood with them .
The Conan paperbacks were undoubtedly Frazetta ’s landmark work , though Frazetta himselfbelievedhe had made his name in the genre by working for Warren , a illusion publisher run by editor James Warren that offered form of address likeCreepyandEerie . Frazetta did several screening , including one for Warren ’s theme song fiber , the provocative Vampirella .
Then came Conan , a situation in which Frazetta was capable to take an existing quality and elevate him beyond his meek renown from the pulps of the other 20th century . As Frazetta explained it , his Conan did not resemble Howard ’s verbal description . “ I did Conan my direction , ” hesaid . “ I run right ahead and create this character that did n’t even resemble Howard ’s verbal description at all — mine is quite a different guy . He was what I thought a Goth should look like , the ultimate barbarian . Howard ’s verbal description was quite dissimilar . He was leaner with shorter fuzz and warlike features . I alternatively hear a scarred , a existent monster sort of a guy cable . That ’s just the style I felt a guy rope should look like at this detail . ”
The Conan paintings , like many of Frazetta ’s deeds , were thought to be accomplished speedily . “ One day , ” he oncesaidof his pace . “ Well , three or four on a couple of them . ” ( Perfecting them , however , could take longer . Frazetta oncestatedhe could spend several day just getting a face done to his expiation . )
By the mid-1970s , Frazetta became a variety of industry unto himself . From his home in Pennsylvania , he and Eleanoroperateda mini empire , sending off thousands of posters of his artwork to rooter and retailers . A book , The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta , ultimately sell over 300,000 copies . The publisher , Bantam Books , got four letter a daylight from people who want permit to apply Frazetta art to their vans .
The Fabled Frazetta
Frazetta pick a sound time to showcase his mastery of phantasy . The genre was experiencing asurgein popularity in the 1970s thanks in some beat to 1977’sStar Wars . By one estimate , up to 13 percent of all paperback book that year were phantasy or science fiction . The trend continue well into the 1980s , with Conan himself getting the feature film treatment in 1982’sConan the Barbarian .
That celluloid ’s manager , John Milius , was gratuitous of Frazetta , sayinghis picture were “ impossible to simulate . ” But Frazetta was not quite as kind in return , remarking thatConanstar Arnold Schwarzenegger was “ not a bruiser , he ’s not a killer , right ? allow ’s face it . ”
Frazetta often bristled at the idea of the fantasy hero as a gym puke or muscle-builder . “ I do n’t think there ’s anything particularly graceful or catlike about the physique of that type , ” hesaid . “ As an ex - athlete , I think I know what creates superpower in a human figure . And it is n’t a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant - alike waist and immense , fatty , grandiloquent thigh . They think of nothing . They ’re utterly useless , except for posing , and even then they ’re disgusting . ” Frazetta prefer a straight chest and “ great buttocks , ” which , he say , usually suggest strength .
These concepts got a exercise in a number of Frazetta jobs . In addition to Conan , he breathed life into covert for Edgar Rice Burroughs characters like Tarzan and John Carter . His own creation , Death Dealer(1973 ) , became an iconic Frazetta portraiture , with its helmeted , faceless characterastridea horse and give out an air of closed book .
There remained a desire to somehow transplant Frazetta ’s artistic into a moving image . In 1983 , Frazetta got a chance to try and help make it materialise . Fire and Icewas an animated feature that he co - grow with Ralph Bakshi ( Fritz the Cat ) , whichutilizedrotoscoping , or the practice of animating over live - activeness . Frazetta illustrated the poster , while screenwriter Gerry Conway and Roy Thomasusedsome of Frazetta ’s character ( like Death Dealer ) as divine guidance .
The cinema , while not commercially successful , was nonetheless symbolic of Frazetta ’s entreaty : Quick - anneal men and oarlock - up posed fair sex . ( Return of the Jedicostume intriguer Aggie RodgerscreditedPrincess Leia ’s infamous metal two-piece in that pic in part to the artist . )
A Finished Canvas
By the turning of the century , Frazetta was fantasy royal family . Publishers came call to flesh out his puzzling Death Dealer in novel and comic Good Book . by and by , in his seventies , Frazetta suffer a series of diagonal , which slowed but did n’t check his prestigious endowment . With his correct side affect , hereliedon his ambidexterity to work with his leftover handwriting .
Frazetta ’s passing in 2010 at the age of 82 reigniteddiscussionof his work , which remains influential as well as profitable . Unlike a mass of creative person , Frazetta had a guardian angel of sorts in his married woman , Eleanor , who worked to ensure his original art was render to him and could thus profit from their sale . At least four of his picture havesoldfor at least $ 1 million , and one—“The Egyptian Queen”—fetched $ 5.4 million in 2019 .
The sums are representative not only of Frazetta ’s fame , but the feeling his work seems to elicit in admirers , who can almost hear the galloping horses and swishing axes emerge from the unchanging mental image .
“ There ’s this prof who comes around to depend at my house painting , ” Frazettasaidin 1976 . “ He keep expect me , ‘ What are you on ? What do you take to come up with this material ? ’ I tell him , ‘ Nothing . ’ He wo n’t believe it . ”
