FRANK FRAZETTA
Biography : Staying power, thy name is Frank Frazetta.
Consider this: Frazetta has not drawn a regular feature for either mainstream color comic books or daily newspaper comic strips for more than 40 years, yet he remains one of the most popular, admired and collectible of all artists. Perhaps no artist has proven to be as popular as Frazetta in the history of Bud Plant Comic Art, which has sold untold thousands of Frazetta items since 1970 and currently features more than a dozen books of the fantasy master's works.
Comic book collectors spent extraordinary amounts of time exploring Frazetta's eclectic output during the early days of the hobby in the 1960s and '70s. Much of his wonderfully imaginative or whimsical comic book work had largely been forgotten by the mid-1960s before collectors took up the Frazetta banner. 
During his 20s, Frazetta displayed his artistic versatility in his comic book work for Standard, DC, Magazine Enterprises, EC, Famous Funnies and others. He displayed the influences of the likes of fantasy masters Hal Foster and Max Raymond.
Frazetta drew text illustrations for Standard's funny animal strips and a Li'l Abner takeoff named Louie Lazybones in late-1940s issues of Thrilling Comics; a dozen or so Shining Knight strips for DC's Adventure Comics in 1950-51; the frontier strip Dan Brand and Tipi, and the Western strips Ghost Rider and Trail Colt for ME.
He also did a variety of one-shot stories, ranging from science fiction for DC to a comic-length epic for ME's Thunda #1 -- the only comic book entirely illustrated by Frazetta (both cover and art) and considered one of the most collectible of the era.
Shortly before leaving comic books, Frazetta turned out eight magnificent Buck Rogers covers for Eastern Publishing's Famous Funnies #209-216 in 1954-55 and illustrated five stunning romance stories for Eastern's Personal Love during the same period.
Frazetta provided hints of higher aspirations with his Johnny Comet newspaper strip for the McNaught Syndicate in 1952, an underrated look at the dramatic life of an auto racer. He also assisted the esteemed Dan Barry with the Flash Gordon newspaper strip at about the same time. Frazetta began what some have said was a seven-year (1954-61) stint of work with Al Capp on Li'l Abner, although the curmudgeon Capp later insisted Frazetta had worked only a few months instead of years with him.
In the 1960s and early '70s, Frazetta rendered a handful of fondly remembered stories and 25 covers for Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella along with the covers for the four issues of Warren's Blazing Combat. Before he worked for Warren, Frazetta also contributed figure work for Harvey Kurtzman's Little Annie Fannie strip in Playboy Magazine.But as skilled as he was professionally and personally in the fandom community, Frazetta was almost entirely overlooked in the early books devoted to comic strips and comic books. Modern fans will find this difficult to believe, but Frazetta was not mentioned at all in Steven Becker's generally excellent Comic Art in America (1959), nor in The Penguin Book of Comics (1967) or in the superb The Comics (1974) by artist Jerry Robinson. Elsewhere, Frazetta was given exactly one line in Comics: Anatomy of a Mass Medium (1971), which was one of the first mentions of the artist.
Frazetta talked of being frustrated after he was told his style was "too old-fashioned" by comic book editors when he sought work in the early 1960s. In fact, many of the fans who enjoyed Frazetta's 1960s cover art for Ace's Edgar Rice Burroughs reprints and for Lancer's first Conan series were not even aware of Frazetta's earlier work. In recent years, however, Frazetta finally has been given his due.
His contributions for Warren are covered in the recently published The Warren Companion edited by Jon B. Cooke and David A. Roach. Frazetta's science fantasy work for Bill Gaines at EC (with Al Williamson) is detailed in Tales of Terror by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman (both of these highly recommended and praised books are available from Bud Plant Comic Art).
Frazetta is a major figure in an amusing and informative chapter by artist Nick Meglin in Tales of Terror entitled "Nick Meglin on Panic and Fleagles." Included is a stunning photo of a bare-chested Frazetta in his mid-20s, looking for all the world like Thunda come to life!
In addition, there is an outstanding essay on Frazetta and his wife, Ellie, in the monumental book of anecdotal comic book history, Between the Panels by Steve Duin and Mike Richardson (which rated Bud's highest recommendation).
In that essay, one of Frazetta's friends, Bob Barren, talked about how he marveled when watching Frazetta at work.
"It comes so incredibly easy to the guy," Barren said.
"What always irritated me about him was that he didn't have to work like many other artists do."
Duin and Richardson selected this telling quote as an explanation from Frazetta: "I know that many artists are totally devoted," Frazetta once said. "They'd rather work than eat or sleep. But my art was something that I 'snuck in' from time to time, between living."
Between the Panels also includes a wonderful comment from Mike Kaluta, himself an artist of no minor repute:
"Frank Frazetta was just a monster talent," Kaluta said. "We've studied those pictures under red lights and blue lights, trying to break the covers apart and see how he did it. He could draw cellulite on the side of a model; put highlights on pubic hair without it being stiff. He could put fat where it belonged."
Over the years, Frazetta has hob-nobbed with many of the leading figures in the world of illustration, film and athletics. The wonderful poster book Frank Frazetta: The Living Legend, published for Frazetta prints in 1981, features many wonderful pictures of Frazetta and his family. Frazetta's print and poster business had made him wealthy by the time he was in his 40s. He has battled ill health in recent years.
Among the newest Frazetta items available is the signed and numbered Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta (also available in deluxe and super-deluxe versions). Testament is the final volume in the monumental trilogy that also includes Frank Frazetta: Legacy and Icon. Several other compilations of Frazetta's works also remain available, including the out-of-print Frazetta: A Retrospective along with the delightful Johnny Comet compilation from Eclipse and the first three books from Ballantine.
In 1982, one of the most interesting Frazetta projects occurred when the fantasy master and Ralph Bakshi co-produced the often-overlooked and underrated animated feature "Fire and Ice." Pre-eminent fantasy film critic John Stanley, who has authored five versions of his famed Creature Features Movie Guide, is a huge fan of this feature, which can be found on videotape.
Stanley's assessment: "Excellently animated sword-and-sorcery fantasy-adventure set in a world where evil ice king Nekron uses glacial spears to destroy his enemy, namely the kingdom of Firekeep. His mother Suliana orders the kidnapping of Firekeep's princess, a sexy number who is rescued by a young hero during a series of exciting adventures. What makes this outstanding is the superb art by Frank Frazetta, who worked under writer-producer-director Ralph Bakshi. The film was roto-scoped to give it that life-like quality within the context of animation. Comic book fans will especially groove on this."
Frazetta talked of his role in this unique film with comics historian Ron Goulart in The Great Comic Book Artists.
"We co-produced, and when I say that I mean we co-produced," Frazetta said. "I did a minimum of drawing, but I did a lot of teaching. I taught the animators how to draw like Frazetta, from the background artists right on down to the figure artists and the colorists."
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