Sunday, November 2, 2008

Frank Frazetta Album Art

Now for my favorite fantasy-genre artist. I admit that I bought the Molly Hatchet albums just for the album covers back in the late 70's without even knowing the music. I did end up enjoying Flirtin With Disaster though. Great hard Southern rock music.

Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for his Buck Rogers comic book covers for Famous Funnies and paperback book cover paintings on series' such as Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard. His paintings gained added popularity in the 1970's, appearing in books, posters, prints, record covers, and various other merchandise.

Frank Frazetta, born in Brooklyn, New York, discovered the wonders of drawing before he was three, when he sold his first crayon drawing to Grandma - for the tidy sum of one penny. It was through her interest and encouragement, that he continued his drawings through those early years.

In 1964, Frazetta's painting of Ringo Starr (see below) for a Mad Magazine ad parody caught the eye of United Artists studios. He was approached to do the movie poster for What's New Pussycat? and earned the equivalent of his yearly salary in one afternoon.

Frazetta's paintings have been used by a number of recording artists as cover art for their albums. Molly Hatchet's first two albums feature "The Death Dealer" and "Dark Kingdom" respectively. Dust's second album, Hard Attack, features "Snow Giants". Nazareth used "The Brain" for their 1977 album Expect No Mercy. Frazetta also created brand new cover artwork that appeared on "Buddy Bought The Farm", the second CD of the surf horror band "The Dead Elvi", making them the only known band Frazetta has created brand new cover art for. Recently, Wolfmother used "The Sea Witch" as the cover for their self-titled debut. Wolfmother has also used other Frazetta paintings for the covers of their singles and for some of their merchandise, such as t-shirts.

He is the subject of the 2003 nationally televised American film documentary Frank Frazetta, Painting with Fire.

frazettaartgallery.com
frankfrazetta.org





















3 comments:

  1. Very talented man. RIP Mr. Frazetta

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  2. His work inspired me to pick up a pen and brush . . . I owe him a debt I can never fully repay.

    www.mandrawspicture.com

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