Full Details
Frank Frazetta
| Full Name: | Frank A. Frazzetta |
| Born: | February 9, 1928 Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Died: | May 10, 2010 Fort Myers, Florida, USA |
| Occupation: | Artist, Illustrator |
| Nationality: | American |
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Biography
Frank Frazetta (he removed one of two "z"s from his last name early in his career to make his name seem less "clumsy") was an American fantasy and science fiction artist. The only boy among four children, he spent much time with his grandmother, who began encouraging him in art when he was two years old. At age eight, Frazetta attended the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts, a small art school run by instructor Michel Falanga.
In 1944, at age 16, Frazetta, who had "always had this urge to be doing comic books", began working in comics artist Bernard Baily's studio doing pencil clean-ups. He was soon drawing comic books in many genres, including Westerns, fantasy, mystery, and historical drama. Noticed because of his work on the Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp on Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner. Frazetta was also producing his own strip, Johnny Comet at this time, as well as assisting Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily strip.
Frazetta was noted for his work on comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers, movie posters, and other media. His interpretation of Conan visually redefined the genre of sword and sorcery, and had an enormous influence on succeeding generations of artists.
In the early 1980s, Frazetta created a gallery, Frazetta's Fantasy Corner, on the upper floors of a former Masonic building at the corner of South Courtland and Washington streets in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The building also housed a Frazetta art museum that displayed both his own work and, in a separate gallery, that of other artists. Frazetta retained the original Conan paintings, and long refused to part with them. Many were displayed at the Frazetta Museum. In 2009, his "Conan the Conqueror" painting, the first to be offered for sale, was purchased for $1 million.
In his later life, Frazetta was plagued by a variety of health problems, including a thyroid condition that went untreated for many years. A series of strokes left his right arm almost completely paralyzed. He taught himself to paint and draw with his left hand. He was the subject of the 2003 feature documentary Frank Frazetta: Painting With Fire, and was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.
He married Massachusetts native Eleanor Kelly in New York City in November 1956. The two would have four children: Frank Jr., Billy, Holly and Heidi. On July 17, 2009, "Ellie", his wife and business partner, died after a year-long battle with cancer, and his children engaged in a contentious legal battle over control of his works and their copyrights. Shortly after that, Frazetta died of a stroke at the age of 82 in a hospital near his residence in Florida.
Works in the WWEnd Database
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