- Frank Frazetta
- “Death Dealer,” also known as the album cover for Molly Hatchet
Legendary comics and fantasy artist Frank Frazetta has passed away today, as confirmed online by The Beat. Even if you don’t know his name, you have certainly seen his artwork, which is perhaps the most influential fantasy art ever made. Frazetta started off doing comics, and did movie posters before finding his true calling as a painter of fantasy scenes, many of which are familiar from the covers of Conan and Tarzan novels. His paintings hinted at violence, monsters, and sexy half-naked girls—the stuff of which heavy metal album covers are made—and his images became the visual manifestation of adolescent boys’ fantasies everywhere.
Recently, The Beat and other sources have reported on the family squabbles within the Frazetta family over the claim to the property of Frazetta’s work—the artist’s son, Frank Frazetta Jr., was actually arrested in December of last year in attempt to rob the Frazetta family museum in the Poconos of Pennsylvania of $20 million of his father’s artwork. Recent reports indicate that the familial strife has been resolved, thankfully, and the comics and fantasy art community sends their condolences. Make no mistake, Frazetta was a titan in this world, and his loss is immeasurable. Check out this impressive gallery of some of his work, and read the NY Times blog obituary here.
The world just got a little less awesome.