Frank Frazetta has died

[muckhole]

With all the comic book and fantasy fans here, I figured there'd already be a thread this morning, but artist Frank Frazetta has passed away.  :'(

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/arts/artsspecial/11frazetta.html?src=mv

I wasn't his biggest fan or anything, but I have some old books with a bunch of his artwork in them that I used to marvel at.

Some pics of his more recognizable works:

[Diunx]

There was an awesome thread yesterday on /co/ with a lot of his most awesome(and hot ) work.

One of the greatest

[Joe Molotov]

I'll look at some big-breasted barbarian wenches to mourn this occasion.

[Great Rumbler]

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R.I.P.

[chronovore]

Frank was truly one of the greats.  I had so many posters of his work when I was in high school.

This seems like a good chance to re-post the Meatcards Challenge of live-action re-creations of Frazetta paintings, but they've taken them all down. If I'd known it would go away, I'd have mirrored it. Here's the closest thing to a link with examples:
http://jwz.livejournal.com/1059344.html

[Cormacaroni]

I love Frazetta, and his passing only hastens the demise of the steel bikini

[chronovore]

As long as Man has the Slave Leia fetish, Frazetta's steel bikini will live on.

[Cormacaroni]

There was a great panel in Cerebrus where the female barbarian takes off her steel bikini saying basically 'Get a load of these!' and everyone recoils in horror at the scabbed-over pus-filled ruin of her boobs.

[bork]

http://jimmypalmiotti.blogspot.com/2010/05/frank-frazetta-rip.html

Anyone that knows me...knows anything about me...knows how much I love FRANK FRAZETTA'S work and the man himself. Any interview that ever asked me my favorite artists always started with Frank's name...so you can imagine how I felt all day yesterday. Kicked in the nuts and smacked in the face, to put it mildly. This is the guy that inspired me to get into the business of creating...the body of work and imagination this man had was startling, in every respect. One painting, one picture could inspire years and years of stories ...and seeing his work live, in your face...and you know that this man was one of the real Gods of art.

I have been fortunate enough to meet Frank on three seperate times in my life and am lucky enough to own a decent amount of his work as well as every book ever written about him.  [ no paintings, but 2 watercolors, a barbarian girl ink drawing and 3 johnny comet strips]

The highlight of meeting frank was many years ago,  when me, mark texeria , michael bair and another friend I cant remember right now, took a day off the board and went to the Frazetta museum in Pennsylvania to check out his work. Franks wife Ellie opened the place for us and the four of us walked around in a drunken haze...not believing what we were seing, for real, right in front of our eyes. What was striking was the color and intensity of the work...Paintings we have seen a million times over on book covers, posters, cards, t-shirts and even the sides of vans. Never did we think that what we saw reproduced was so grayed down and lifeless compared to the originals.


While in that art loving daze, we were making Ellie laugh about some stories relating to Franks work and I mentioned I was from brooklyn, born and raised. Ellie asked is we would like to go see and hang out wih Frank back at the house. She explained that his spirits were low at the time and thought we would cheer him up. We couldnt believe what we were hearing  and of coarse, we nervously agreed with smiles as wide as a thruway.  Ellie told she has to close up and take care of a few things and for us to go to the address in 2 hours and meet there. Well, we left, freaking out , I must add...this was a surreal dream come true!!!  We were invited to meet the king on his very own stomping grounds! We ate quickly and drove around killing time and imagining how it was going to go that afternoon. yeah, typical comic nerds...

We pulled up to the nice home off a lake and was greeted bythe man himself!  Frank smiled, shook our hands and spoke to us like we had known each other for years. He invited us in and as we made our way to the back studio. Every single inch of the place had franks work everywhere. I was dizzy to say the least. This was the golden grail of are treasures to me. We were getting the tour of the kings palace.

We stopped where frank worked out [ Frank was built and worked out daily]  and a giant 4 foot by 6 foot painting hung above his weights...it was of an African warrior hunting a lion...and it was stunning. In his studio were dozens of paintings half done and almost done, sketch books full of watercolor renderings of future pieces where he tried out different combinations of colors and a ton of finished paintings that were a huge part of my childhood and adult life. The four of us were in heaven as he pulled out painting after painting and had a story for each one.

Frank and I spoke about brooklyn...what was there, what wasnt...the area he lived in...our favorite places to eat there...and then he told us a story about how he had no money at one point and had shoes with holes at the bottom of them...and how he borrowed money to go into the city and pick up some work. He told us how this carrer we chose is full of good and bad times and how its always a struggle to be an artist...especially when it was next to impossible to be satisfied. This was all said as Frank took a tin can of Hi-C, cracked it open and poured us each a galss of fruit punch. Surreal to say the least.

Each of us got to show Frank what we were doing at the time, art wise...and Frank was most impressed by Mark Texerias paintings...the movement and power of them.  Mark was smiling for the next month. At the time I was inking some books and frank took a look at my work...made some comments then walked me over to a closet that was full...3 feet high...with his black and white illustrations and comic pages. He told me to flip through them and ask questions. We spoke about how to render hair with a brush...and he showed me, saying to thin out my ink and try it that way. This went on for a while.

Frank walked us into his bedroom to show us a series of watercolors portraying Adam and Eve and some other paintings he had done of his children and their children. Beautiful stylized portraits once again showcasing his amazing knack for making even the most mundane subject come to life.

We hung out till he kicked us out...nicely. He showed us his home made stickball court by the side of the house saying " you can take the boy out of Brooklyn..." and we all got back in the car and left. The drive home felt like 3 minutes...we were in shock and rambling on and on about our good fortune. We got to spend the day with the person we most admired in the world...how the hell can you ever hope to beat that.

Guess what...I never did. Frank and I met two more times after that...but his health was not great and they were both at events where there were hundeds of people trying to get his attention.

I will never ever forget that day with Frank...and will never stop loving the mans work. To say that I was upset at his passing is an understatment. Where ever the after life tAkes us, I sure hope Frank is there with Ellie at his side and looking down and realizing how many lives he has changed.

Heres to you frank! long live the king!

JIMMY PALMIOTTI   5/11/10

[Phoenix Dark]

George RR Martin

Frank Frazetta has died. One of the giants of SF and fantasy art. In his heydey, it was said that having a Frazetta cover on your paperback would double your sales. I have no idea whether that was true, but most of us believed it, and dreamed of one day having one of his paintings on our own books. Frazetta had a profound influence on many artists who came after him as well, some of whom went on to become giants in their own right. Jeff Jones in particular comes to mind, but there were many others.

Frazetta's vision of Conan, as seen on the covers of the Lancer paperback collections of the 60s and 70s, became the definitive picture of the character... still is, actually, though he bears only a passing resemblence to the Cimmerian as Robert E. Howard described him. The success of that line sparked a REH revival and brought many of his other works back into print as well... Bran Mak Morn, King Kull, Solomon Kane, etc.

And this comes hard on the heels of the death of John Schoenherr, another titan.

The world of SF and fantasy art is much poorer than it was a few months ago.

http://grrm.livejournal.com/153138.html