Anyone who reads comics, plays fantasy role-playing games, looks at calendars in bookstores, buys hard rock albums or watches Hollywood movies has seen the work of Frank Frazetta. Frazetta was the world’s pre-eminent fantasy illustrator, and his evocative and frequently erotic fantasy artwork is as recognizable to his fans as any great artist’s work is recognizable. He has illustrated Conan the Barbarian, the Lord of the Rings, and dozens, perhaps hundreds, of paperback novel covers for sci-fi publishers like Tor. His illustrations of John Carter of Mars, or Tarzan, or his own creations, like the one below which he called “Death Dealer” and drew in a series of illustrations are iconic and instantly recognizable by fantasy art fans.
Frazetta’s heroes/villains are body-builder muscled sword or axe wielding nightmares. His depiction of Tolkien’s Nazgul were nightmarishly brutal. Frazetta’s women were voluptuous, and usually nude or nearly nude, but they were not usually vulnerable targets, but were instead threatening in an erotic and primal way.
Here is a version of his “Death Dealer” doing what he does best:
And here is a sketch from his “Lord of the Rings” sketchbook. This is an unfiinished raw doodle really, but even so you can feel the evil wrath coming from the Nazgul as he prepares to dispatch Eowyn. At this point in the book Meriodac Brandybuck is about to stab the Nazgul in the leg from behind, saving Eowyn and giving her the opportunity to kill the Nazgul, but in this image the threat of the Nazgul is palpable. As is typical with Frazetta, he couldn’t help but make Eowyn somewhat erotic. Something about this sketch appealed to me and it was the first thing I ever scanned into a computer back in 1985 using an early image scanner that you plugged into your ImageWriter printer to do the scan.
I do wish Frazetta had been commissioned to complete the LOTR calendar, but that went to another fantasy illustration team, the “Brothers Hildebrandt” whose calendar became iconic among LOTR fans back in the 70s and 80s. I personally felt the Hildebrandt artwork was flat and static when compared to a Frazetta painting, although Dadman and I did have a copy of it hanging in our dorm room.
Frazetta may have passed away, but his legacy will continue on. His style of brooding, violent imagery has become a dominant theme in the fantasy art world, and I suspect we’ll be seeing Frazetta influenced artwork as long as I live, and well beyond.
5 users commented in " R.I.P. Frank Frazetta "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackFrank Frazetta’s work influenced my own art style. I never could reach to his lofty level, but then again, very few could come close to it.
His backgrounds as well as the subject matter creates a whole vast mood for the paintings/drawings.
RIP Frank, you brought a lot of joy to this man, and your work will be missed.
What always struck me about Frazetta’s work was the mastery of lighting and texture. I suspect now that he is gone we’ll see a lot more interest in his work from mainstream art critics.
I’ve always enjoyed his work. I think the first thing I ever saw from Frazetta was a paperback book cover for a John Carter of Mars book. It was either this or something like this:
When I got into Frazetta, Boris Vallejo had kind of taken over the reins of “most prominent” fantasy artist, but I always preferred Frazetta’s work.
You’re completely right about us seeing Frazetta-influenced art for years to come. Best one out there right now, IMO, is Simon Bisley.
To bad Frazetta couldn’t avoid the temptation to make Eowyn somewhat erotic. Maybe he would have been commissioned then. I would rather have a suitably less erotic LOTR Frazetta calendar than the Hildebrandt one.
Yours,
Tom
I concur Tom, one wonders if Frazetta really understood the context of the above scene. Clearly Eowyn could not have assumed the name “Durnhelm” and ridden out with the army disguised as a man in that outfit.
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