I first encountered Frank Frazetta’s artwork on the cover of some ACE editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs back in the 1960s. Later, the eye-popping Frazetta covers on the LANCER editions of Robert E. Howard’s Conan series created a sensation. Frazetta also illustrated albums covers for Molly Hatchet‘s first three albums that feature “The Death Dealer“, “Dark Kingdom”, and “Berserker.” In 2009 Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist for Metallica, bought Mr. Frazetta’s cover artwork for the paperback reissue of Robert E. Howard’s “Conan the Conqueror” for $1 million.
Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta was just published with more examples of Frazetta’s incredible artwork like this:
J. David Spurlock, the editor of this project, began this new Frazetta book by starting with the original million-selling 1970s mass market art book, Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta. Then Spurlock expanded and revised the format to include twice as many images and presents them at a much larger coffee-table book size of 10.5 x 14.625”! The collection presents both classic Frazetta artwork and previously unpublished works. If you’re a Frazetta fan, this is a must buy! Do have a favorite Frazetta cover? GRADE: A
Although I don’t have a favorite Frazetta cover, I do like his work—and the somewhat similar work of Boris Vallejo. I know those covers helped sell a lot of books back in the day!
Deb, you’re right about Frazetta’s artwork selling a lot of books! I also have a Frazetta calendar that from the 1970s that’s worth mucho dinero!
when I was a bookseller, I used to love to find anything with a Frazetta or Vallejo cover. Also Kai Nielsen and Arthur Rackham, and Michael Hague.
IIRC, one of them did a whimsical one with pastels, but I can’t remember what book it was for, possibly a movie tie in.
One you might like to look up is Una Woodruf(f) I found cat witch on remainder and sold all I had and then my copy. She did botanicals
Maggie, there’s a strong demand for anything with Frazetta and Vallejo artwork. I’ll have to check out Una Woodruff’s artwork.
let me know what you think
Maggie, I have one of Una Woodruff’s books on order now!
I remember Franzetta’s name from my “early” book-buying days in the 60s and 70s.
Didn’t hea also create illustrations for some of the magazines?
Ace books of course were really extraordinary for their covers.
PS:
I just had to look him up on wiki (a very good and detailed article imho) – and yes, he did illustrations for MAD too!
Wolf, Frank Frazetta was a very versatile artist. He produced artwork for comic books, paperbacks, and magazines.