Frank Frazetta, was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1928. He rose to fame first for
his work with comic books in the 1940s and 50s, then for his
iconic fantasy art from the 1960s on.
Frazetta was the inspiration behind Zelda artist Yusuke Nakano, and Frazetta's artwork for
the "Famous Funnies" were an inspiration for Star Wars.
Frank Frazetta died today, at the age of 82. More history, eulogies and links inside.
Frazetta's first publication came at age 16, when he worked with
John Guinta to create a one-off:
Snowman. Though
some biographies note that he only an assistant in the studio, Frazetta got credit on the cover. His other comic work of the 1940s was on
"funny animal" comics, and in the same time period he also
made more mature art (SFW sketches), and painted hundreds of small illustrations for text stories.
Frank Frazetta gained fame in the comics world in the 1950s, when he worked on
The Shining Knight,
Durango Kid, and
cover art for Buck Rogers. In the 1960s, Frazetta shifted to painting, often
cover art (Ace Sci-Fi pulp novel list, search for Frazetta) But it was his
spoof painting of Ringo Starr on the back of Mad Magazine in 1964 marked the end of his career with comics, though perhaps his last work was for the
cover of Creepy in 1965.
The peak of production for his
fantasy paintings was from 1965 to 1973, with portfolios and fewer pieces of new art coming out in the following years (
chronological image gallery. He also created artwork for
a variety of movie posters.
You may gaze upon more of his works at
The Unofficial Frank Frazetta gallery (NSFW galleries labeled, though the site is currently experiencing heavy traffic), and
a bio with chronological list of paintings (some NSFW), or reminisce over his
comic credits at Comic Book DB.
Just a bit more:
Everything2 (noting he
turned down an offer from the the New York Giants pro baseball team).
Previous bio post,
prev. fantasy art post, and
three prior obits. (And
MetaTalk)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:06 PM on May 10, 2010 [3 favorites]