Frank Frazetta · Heads Up!

Heads Up: FRAZETTA – FUNNY STUFF, edited and designed by Craig Yoe

RC

Coming in March 2012 from IDW:

Here’s the publisher’s description of the book, as it appears in the Amazon catalogue:

Frank Frazetta! He’s been rightfully called “The Grand Master of Fantasy Art”! But, it’s little known that Frazetta also conquered other worlds in the Golden Age of Comics, as shown in his Donald Duck-ish funny animal and hilarious hillbilly comic book stories. Even those aware of this wonderful Frazetta art don’t know the extent – this book is a whopping 256, large-format pages! Did we mention ferocious, terrifying wolves and swampland creatures in the plethora of animal stories illustrations as only Frazetta could draw them? There’s also lions and tigers and bears – oh my! – before Frazetta’s famous paintings captured the same subjects. But wait, there’s more! You’ll see the roots of the Frazetta Girl in the sexy Kathy teenage girl adventures and the hot Daisy Mae-look-alike, Clarabelle, in the hillbilly hi-jinks stories of her beau, Looey Lazybones (Holy Li’l Abner!). The introduction is by famed cartoon director Ralph Bakshi, who closely worked with Frazetta when they co-produced the animated feature film, Fire and Ice. Bakshi shares rare insights, anecdotes, photos, and Frazetta drawings, and created a special painting of Frazetta and himself as funny animals for this beautiful hardcover, full-color coffee table book! Frazetta – Funny Stuff is edited and designed by Eisner award-winner Craig Yoe.

The last substantial collection of Frazetta’s “funny animal” work was published by Kitchen Sink two decades ago under the title Small Wonders: The Funny Animal Art of Frank Frazetta, with an introduction by William Stout. You can view selections from Small Wonders courtesy of Clarke Snyder’s Inspiration Grab-Bag, in a post titled Frank Frazetta (Fritz) Funny Animal Comics-1940’s. However, since Small Wonders is only 80 pages in length — apparently it was book one of a two volume set, the second volume of which was never published — while Frazetta – Funny Stuff is, according to the publisher, “a whopping 256, large-format pages,” I think I can say with some certainty that even Frazetta fans who already own Small Wonders are going to want to add Frazetta – Funny Stuff to their collections.

Small Wonders, btw, had a terrific, art-centric cover that I like much better than the cover of the new collection, which is okay but which I would characterize as more design-centric; need I add that, where comics reprints and art books are concerned, I prefer art-centric covers:

The only down side of that cover is that the artwork is not by Frazetta but rather is a tribute to Frazetta’s funny animal comics by William Stout.

“I’m just a straight, ordinary guy. I truly wish the world was full of sweetness, flowers and happiness. But it’s not, and I do reveal that dark side in some of my work. I am known for my violent stuff. But the funny stuff is the real me.” —Frank Frazetta

BONUS LINKS:

Cartoon SNAP > More Frank Frazetta Funny Animal Comics – Bruno the Bear 1949, Frank Frazetta Funny Animals: Daffy and Dilly in “All At Sea” – Sept 1949, Frazetta Funny Animal Comic Book Scans from 1948: Dodger the Squirrel – Coo Coo Comics – all in colour.

ComiCrazys > Barney Rooster > Frank Frazetta – in black and white.

Shane Glines’ Cartoon Retro > Frank Frazetta: Barney Rooster, Frank Frazetta: Bruno, Frank Frazetta: Dodger, Frank Frazetta: Hucky Duck – all in colour.

TOTALLY OFF-TOPIC BONUS LINK:

Shane Glines’ Cartoon Retro > Frazetta as Model – now that is a great find!

Published by RC

10 thoughts on “Heads Up: FRAZETTA – FUNNY STUFF, edited and designed by Craig Yoe”

  1. I have to say I prefer the cover to be by the artist who the book is actually about myself. This is great news! I’ve been hoping for a big collection in colour of all this stuff.

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  2. I hope it’s clear from my original post that I agree with you, Drazen. As I said, “The only down side of that [Small Wonders] cover is that the artwork is not by Frazetta but rather is a tribute to Frazetta’s funny animal comics by William Stout.” Which is to say, a book about Frazetta’s comics definitely ought to feature cover art by Frazetta.

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  3. What I’d prefer is not a cover by a different artist but a cover with a single image by Frazetta. For instance, I think that someone who really knows what they’re doing with Photoshop (not me!) could easily turn the first panel in the Looie Lazybone’s story “A Package Fer Pappy!” into a lovely cover; here’s a quick and dirty edit to show what I mean:

    [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

    As you can see, now there’s plenty of room for the book title, etc., and admirers of Frazetta’s work get something more on the cover than Frazetta clip art. (What’s more, if one decided not to crop the bottom of the image, the box with the words “A Package Fer Pappy!” would be a perfect place for the credit line, “Edited and Designed by Craig Yoe.”)

    You know, the more I think about it, the more convinced I become that a Frazetta cartoon of an old man crying on the cover of a book called “Funny Stuff” would be perfect! But there are other panels from other stories that would also work.

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  4. It was clear:-) I just find someone else’s artwork on another artists collection obnoxious, I don’t care if its designed to hell but use the artists drawing whose life work it is. I love Yoe’s books and love his horror collections with the big heads.

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  6. Drazen wrote: “I love Yoe’s books and love his horror collections with the big heads.”

    For those who haven’t seen the books Drazen is talking about, here’s a sample cover:

    [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

    Not that it really matters, but I have to say, I like that cover a lot more than I like the cover of Frazetta – Funny Stuff.

    P.S. Powell fans, apparently, got a chance to vote on Facebook for one of four different cover images for Bob Powell’s Terror. Booksteve has a JPEG of the covers on his “Booksteve’s Library” site. And given our discussion about cover art in this topic, readers might find this comment from Booksteve to be of more than usual interest: “Craig had a cover mockup — that still can be seen on Amazon — but while it was a cover illustrating a Powell story in the book, it was not itself by Powell. It was decided that it has to have a cover by Powell himself!”

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  9. Thanks,
    I guess I’d just find it weird it to have a Norman Rockwell art book with someone else’s art on the cover. anyway thats enough about that.
    I’m just excited to have a large volume of his funny stuff coming out..it could be in a plain brown paper bag:-)
    Yoe’s books have a nice physical feel to them as well.
    The Frazetta sketchbook coming out from Vanguard looks beautiful too.

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