Artist Frank Frazetta died 10 May 2010 of a stroke. Born 9 February 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, Frazetta was an iconic, much-lauded artist of fantasy paintings and book covers. He was best known for his well-muscled, bare-chested heroes with swords, and scantily clad women.
He trained at the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts for eight years, leaving when the school closed. At the age of 16, Frazetta started drawing for comic books, working in a wide variety of genres. Following his work on Buck Rogers, Al Capp hired him to work on Li’l Abner. At the same time, Frazetta produced his own comic strip, Johnny Comet, and also helped out on Flash Gordon.
In 1964, he painted Ringo Starr for Mad magazine, which got him noticed by United Artists Studios, who hired him to paint the movie poster for What’s New Pussycat?. He also painted album covers, mostly heavy metal, including work for Molly Hatchet and Nazareth.
In the 1960s and ’70s, his interpretations of Conan, Tarzan, and the Barsoom books defined the sword and sorcery subgenre, and made him a national name. In the last two years, his paintings commanded some exceptional prices, such as $250,000 for the illustration of the Burroughs paperback Escape on Venus, and $1 million for his Conan the Conqueror painting.
Frazetta suffered a series of strokes during the last decade, which impaired his recent output. And over the last year, most of the Frazetta headlines centered on family disputes, including the attempted theft or rescuing (depending on whose point of view) of nearly 100 paintings from the Frazetta museum by his son, Frank Jr.
In 1956, Frazetta married Eleanor “Ellie” Kelly (who died last year, see this obituary). They had four children, who survive him.
He won many awards, including the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award (2001), Spectrum Grandmaster Award (1995), and the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Lifetime Achievement Award (1997, he served as a judge in the ongoing contest). He also won the Hugo Award (1966), World Fantasy Award (1976), Balrog (1981), and Chesley (1988, 1995, 1997). He was nominated for five other Hugos (1964, 1965, 1968, 1974, and 2004), and two other Chesleys (1996 and 2004).
There is an unofficial Frazetta gallery on this page. The official Frazetta Art Gallery site is currently unavailable. This Comics Beat obituary includes a recent photo of Frazetta.