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Dig the fancy bladework of the attacker in Maren’s painting!
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"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munro, "What is Remembered"
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Dig the fancy bladework of the attacker in Maren’s painting!
BONUS IMAGES:
More cover scans today, all of paperbacks in my personal library:
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My books. My scans. You’re welcome.
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ABOVE: Karl Edward Wagner, Dark Crusade (NY: Warner Books, 1983), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.
ABOVE: Michael Moorcock, The Silver Warriors (NY: Dell, 1973), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.
ABOVE: Richard A. Lupoff, Into the Aether (NY: Dell, 1974), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.
ABOVE: Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Moon Men (NY: Ace, 1978), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.
ABOVE: Karl Edward Wagner, Bloodstone (NY: Warner Books, 1983), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.
ABOVE: Robert E. Howard, Conan the Warrior (NY: Ace, n.d.), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.
From Manhunt #11 (August-September 1948), here’s an instalment of “‘Trail’ Colt, U.S. Marshal” entitled “The Robber of Rainbow Buttes,” with visuals vigorously delineated by “Fritz,” a.k.a. Frank Frazetta:
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— via The Digital Comic Museum —
I’m not going to put forth any arguments here regarding a possible chain of influence from Wyeth to Fischl to Frazetta (because I don’t think there is one), the relative quality of the three paintings pictured below (because none of them is truly first rate), the relative merits of “fine art” versus “illustration art” (because I don’t care about the issue), etc. I just have a hankering to see these three paintings mashed together in one post:
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I’ve never thought much of Frazetta’s line-and-watercolour painting, Tarzan Meets La of Opar, which, rumour has it, originally featured Tarzan naked with an erect penis. (According to a Frazetta friend who claims to have witnessed the event, the artist edited the painting before he sold it to an insistent collector.) Although Frazetta’s “true fans” have a tendency to turn cartwheels of joy over every jot of ink and tittle of paint that flowed from their hero’s pens and brushes, the colour scheme, the physical types, the awkward body language of La (with one arm, one hand, and both feet completely hidden from view!), the composition, none of it here is prime Frazetta in my humble opinion.
I think the picture begins to make more sense, however, if one sees it as Frazetta’s attempt to absorb the influence of the amazingly prolific Australian cartoonist, illustrator, painter, sculptor, etc., etc., Norman Lindsay. The connection here, if there is one, would have been made possible by Frazetta’s friend, mentor, and educator in art history, Roy Krenkel, who was himself a true fan of Lindsay and so almost certainly would have brought the man’s art to Frazetta’s attention.
Anyway, so you might look and decide for yourself what’s what, here’s Frazetta’s modest effort sandwiched between two of Lindsay’s epic watercolours:
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I suppose some people will think I’ve gone pretty far out on a limb here. But I don’t think I have. Many commentators over the years have parroted that line that, of course, Norman Lindsay influenced Roy Krenkel and Frank Frazetta. Only trouble is, few if any have ever seen fit to get down to cases and count the ways. Why be so timid? Half the fun of looking at pictures involves learning from others, and attempting to suss out for oneself, the various pathways of influence, both obvious and devious, from one artist to another, from one art form to another.
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BONUS:
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I know that I have posted a scan of Rogue Roman before, but what you see above is a new scan of a different copy of the novel (I have two). I only recently obtained a copy of Child of the Sun (for cheap at — where else? — Value Village), with cover art by Frazetta, so that scan is new, too, as are the others. Seeing those two covers together, Rogue Roman and Child of the Sun, one can appreciate, I think, the significant change — some would say, improvement — in Frazetta’s oil technique from the 1960s to the celebrated paintings of the 1970s.
I have no idea who painted the uncredited covers of The Street of the Sun or Mistress of Falconhurst, although the latter includes the initials (?) RES in the lower left-hand corner. If you know who RES is, feel free to post the artist’s name in the comments section below. [Apparently, RES is Robert E. Schulz; see comment section below.]
As for The Street of the Sun, let’s just say that although the loose illustrative style is attractive, and distinctly less “old-fashioned” than the other three, it is entirely unexceptional for the time period (the late 1960s) and could have been produced by any number of artists.