Frazetta

My old friend Joseph Failla wrote me to commiserate today:

"I just read about Frank Frazetta's passing, he was 82. Thanks to cover art from the likes of CREEPY, EERIE and VAMPIRELLA magazines, Frazetta became one of the first true Gods of illustration I was aware of. But he also produced some of the most enticing movie poster art work I can recall. I've included a few examples that always caught my imagination:

"I wonder if any of his JOHN CARTER OF MARS illustrations will be acknowledged by the upcoming film version? I never thought either of the CONAN films tapped into the sheer otherworldliness of his work."

Comments

[Jordan]

I think the influence of Mad Magazine's Jack Davis is very strong in these samples...or perhaps the influence went the other way? There seemed to be a pervasive illustration style going on during this era, a kind of stylized cartoon realism that's really a lot of fun. Love that Gauntlet poster!

http://www.americanartarchives.com/davis,jack.htm

[Owain Wilson]

The Gauntlet poster is amazing. I love that 60s and 70s approach to poster illustration, where you know full well that the movie itself will not contain anything even remotely as spectacular as the poster promises.

[D Cairns]

Norman Wisdom drawn by Frank Frazetta? That's made my day. Although had he depicted Norm clutching a giant battle-exe in one hand a a skimpily-clad gal in the other, that might have been even better.

[Ali Arikan]

The theatrical one sheet for "Conan The Barbarian" was by also Frank Frazetta. Even though I agree that the "otherworldliness" of Frazetta's art was absent in the Conan films, I've always thought that the scene in the first flick with the giant snake captured, at least, the essence of Frazetta perfectly.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Conan_the_usurper.jpg

[Fuzzy Bastarrd]

Very much in agreement with Jordan---I see that a number of posters I'd always assumed were Davis were actually Frazetta. I'm actually surprised that the influence went that one---one thinks of the high-fantasy guys not being that interested in the Mad-style caricaturists, but it's nice to see there wasn't such snobbery.

As for Conan: I wonder if, in the current remake mania, we're due for an Avatar-style reboot of the series (or a John Carter of Mars movie), with CGI production that can really conjure those trippy paperback-cover worlds.

[Matt Miller]

Fuzzy, we're getting both. The JCoM movie has Pixar creative muscle behind it. The Conan movie has Marcus Nispel and a guy from Stargate.

[James Keepnews]

Jordan's argument for stylistic intra-influences seems most likely -- Davis and FF were certainly colleagues at EC, and their fellow EC artist Wally Wood's commercial work also bears some resemblance to Davis' very distinctive work, which was, by all accounts, produced with alarming speed.

I missed the Frazetta doc PAINTING WITH FIRE, but my fanboy youth held him in nearly G-d-like esteem. It's true that the Conan films weren't even remotely as mythic as those blurry canvases Frazetta painted for the paperback reprints in the 60's -- not even as much as the legendary Thomas/(Windsor-)Smith Marvel adaptations. Geez, John Milius, what's the point of being a right-wing blowhard if you can't deliver on myth?

[Ali Arikan]

And the new Conan movie is decidedly, embarrassingly, low budget. I have a feeling it will have more in common with the "Kull The Conqueror" movie, than it will with either the Milius film or Franzetta's artwork.

[Dan Coyle]

That's the best Sondra Locke's ever looked. Hi-YOOOOOOOOO!

[Full Color Postcard Printing]

The Gauntlet poster is sweet!!! I love how FF was able to put enough details in the art without cramping the poster. He will surely be miss and it is really an honor to see and be inspired by his works.