Look Here: Two “Thongor” covers, with art by Frazetta

6 October 201011 August 2016 RC1 Comment

frazetta_thongor-against-the-gods_ny-paperback-library-1967 — **ABOVE:** Lin Carter, *Thongor against the Gods* (New York: Paperback Library, 1967), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

frazetta_thongor-in-the-city_ny-paperback-library-1968 — **ABOVE:** Lin Carter, *Thongor in the City of Magicians* (New York: Paperback Library, 1968), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

The painting on the cover of Thongor in the City of Magicians also appeared on the cover and foil-embossed slipcase of Night Images, a limited-edition collection of Robert E. Howard’s fantasy verse published by The Morning Star Press in 1976, with interior illustrations by Richard Corben. That same year, the Morning Star Press also published the hardcover black-and-white, first-edition of Corben’s Bloodstar, which was an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “Valley of the Worm.”

Now, did you know, dear reader, that a few years earlier, writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, along with artist Gil Kane and inker Ernie Chua (Chan), had produced a comics adaptation of “Valley of the Worm” for the third issue (April 1973) of the Marvel series, Supernatural Thrillers?

And did you also know that Gil Kane was co-editor at The Morning Star Press, along with Armand Eisen, of Corben’s Bloodstar, and that Kane himself was the one who suggested the hero’s name be changed from “Niord” to “Bloodstar” and designed the distinctive star mark on Bloodstar’s forehead?

Well, even if you didn’t know before, you do now!

Small world, eh?

P.S. I not only own several copies of the signed and limited first edition of Bloodstar but I actually have in my collection a beautiful copy of the slipcased, limited edition of Night Images. Lucky me!

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Frank Frazetta · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: “The Reassembled Man,” with cover art by Frazetta

17 September 201011 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the cover of the first edition of Herbert D. Kastle’s paperback original, The Reassembled Man, which I purchased for the princely sum of four bucks in a used bookstore here in the Queen City earlier today:

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

frazetta_the-reassembled-man_ny-fawcett-1964 — **ABOVE:** Herbert D. Kastle, *The Reassembled Man* (New York: Fawcett, 1964), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

Enjoy!

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Connections · Frank Frazetta · Illustration Art · Look Here

Connections: Frank Frazetta vs. Brent Anderson

8 September 201011 August 2016 RC2 Comments

The lesson here is: don’t swipe holus-bolus from a masterwork of illustration art unless you’re certain you have the chops to transform what you’ve swiped into a new image that doesn’t make viewers shake their heads in dismay not only at your lack of originality but also at your shaky grasp of the basic skills of a professional artist:

frazetta_tarzan-and-the-castaways_ny-canaveral-press 1965 — **ABOVE:** Frank Frazetta, cover and interior illustration, *Tarzan and the Castaways* (New York: Canaveral, 1965) by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

brent-anderson_cover_ka-zar-the-savage-n13-apr1982 — **ABOVE:** Brent Anderson, cover illustration, *Ka-Zar the Savage* #13 (April 1982).

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Frank Frazetta · Illustration Art · Look Here · Roy Krenkel

Look Here: Three Ace paperbacks, with cover art by Frazetta

26 August 201011 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

Frazetta’s Krenkel-influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs covers will be familiar to many, but his Maza of the Moon cover is somewhat less well known, mainly because the book’s author, Otis Adelbert Kline, never achieved any lasting popularity:

frank-frazetta_carson-of-venus_ny-ace-1963 — **ABOVE:** Edgar Rice Burroughs, *Carson of Venus* (New York: Ace, 1963), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

frank-frazetta_lost-on-venus_ny-ace-1963 — **ABOVE:** Edgar Rice Burroughs, *Lost on Venus* (New York: Ace, 1963), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

frank-frazetta_maza-of-the-moon_ny-ace-1965 — **ABOVE:** Otis Adelbert Kline, *Maza of the Moon* (New York: Ace, 1965), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

If Otis Adelbert Kline is known for anything, it is not the quality of his writing but the way he promoted his highly derivative adventure stories by surreptitiously circulating a rumour, reported in the fan press but later debunked, of a feud between himself and the pulp-fiction juggernaut he most closely styled himself after, Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Next up: more Jones covers!

Frank Frazetta · Look Here · Woody Allen

Look Here: “Make Beautiful Hair Blecch”

17 August 201027 May 2019 RCLeave a comment

The “Make Beautiful Hair Blecch” ad parody, which featured Frank Frazetta’s classic portrait of Ringo Starr, was the back cover of issue #90 (October 1964) of Mad Magazine:

The story is, Frazetta’s “Ringo Starr” portrait caught the eye of United Artists films, which then commissioned Frazetta to do his first poster art for a movie, What’s New Pussycat?, a 1965 comedy written by Woody Allen. I don’t have a copy of that poster, but I did purchase an LP, in very good condition, of the What’s New Pussycat? Original Motion Picture Score, with music by Burt Bacharach, last month from a local Value Village store, and have been waiting for the right moment to post it. Now might be the time:

frank-frazetta_detail_whats-new-pussycat_lp — **ABOVE:** Although this scan appears to be the same width as the previous one, if you click through to the file, you will find that it is actually a bit larger/wider.

Guess it’s lucky for fans of Frazetta’s movie posters that the “Ringo Starr” portrait appeared in a beautifully designed fake advertisement on the magazine’s back cover, where it could be reproduced in “glorious technicolor,” because buried inside the magazine, where it would have had to appear in black and white, the portrait probably would not have attracted the attention from Hollywood that it did, and Frazetta’s lively and lucrative side-career as a movie poster artist would not have gotten off the ground.

BTW, sorry about the lousy image quality: the album wouldn’t fit on the scanner bed, so I had to scan in pieces, stitch together the panoramas, and touch up (very roughly) around the edges. The results aren’t the best, but I’m not scanning (or photographing) for print reproduction, only appreciation.

Frank Frazetta · Look Here

Look Here: “Early One Morning in the Jungle”

17 August 201011 August 2016 RC1 Comment

The following single-page comic, written by Don Edwing and drawn by Frank Frazetta, was the back cover of issue #106 (October 1966) of Mad Magazine:

frank-frazetta_back-cover_mad-magazine-n106-0ct1966

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Frank Frazetta · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: Five random covers, with art by Frank Frazetta

13 August 201011 August 2016 RC4 Comments

I don’t have a lot of paperbacks with cover art by Frank Frazetta, but here are a few I do have…

Rogue Roman is an early cover painting by Frazetta that someone out there might enjoy seeing in its original format. The painting sans text appears in the Frazetta art book, Icon (Grass Valley, CA: Underwood Books, 1998), page 126. Looks a lot different there, too: the overall tone is much, much warmer. But I can’t decide if Rogue Roman is one of those pieces that was altered at a later date by Frazetta or not. And since there’s no mention of alterations in the discussion that accompanies the painting in Icon, it might just be a case of inaccurate reproduction on the paperback. Wouldn’t be the first time.

frank-frazetta_rogue-roman_ny-fawcett-nd — **ABOVE:** Lance Horner, *Rogue Roman* (New York: Fawcett, n.d.), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

frank-frazetta_the-book-of-paradox_ny-dell-1975Clic — **ABOVE:** Louise Cooper, *The Book of Paradox* (New York: Dell, 1975), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

frank-frazetta_the-moon-maid_ny-ace-1978 — **ABOVE:** Edgar Rice Burroughs, *The Moon Maid* (New York: Ace, 1978), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

frank-frazetta_the-mucker_ny-ace-1974 — **ABOVE:** Edgar Rice Burroughs, *The Mucker* (New York: Ace, 1974), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

frank-frazetta_tanar-of-pellucidar_ny-ace-1982 — **ABOVE:** Edgar Rice Burroughs, *Tanar of Pellucidar* (New York: Ace, 1982), with cover art by Frank Frazetta.

Of course, most Frazetta fans know that what makes the artist’s Moon Maid cover more than just a visually arresting illustration is that the original painting was substantially altered (though not, IMHO, improved) by Frazetta when he got it back from the publisher; which is to say, the painting as you see it here no longer exists.

The male model for The Mucker could easily have been Frazetta himself.

And finally, the central figure in Frazetta’s Tanar of Pellucidar was clearly swiped by Arthur Suydam for the painting that appears on the cover of his The Art of the Barbarian (Special Edition): Conan, Tarzan, Death Dealer. Look it up and you’ll see!

Connections · Frank Frazetta · Heads Up!

Heads Up: Frank Frazetta’s “White Indian”

5 August 201016 June 2021 RC8 Comments

Both Vanguard Productions and Dark Horse have announced a reprint of White Indian. One will almost certainly see the light of day; the other may not.

From Dark Horse’s October solicitations:

THE CLASSIC COMICS ARCHIVES VOLUME 1: WHITE INDIAN
Frank Frazetta (A)
On sale Dec 1
FC, 200 pages
$49.99
HC, 7″ x 10″

The longest comic-book run of Frank Frazetta’s career! First appearing as a backup feature in Durango Kid in 1949, Dan Brand–known as the “White Indian”–is a colonial-era city boy whose life is marred by tragedy. When the death of his fiancée sends Brand through the wilderness on a trek to kill her murderer, he also begins a journey that will transform him into a hardened pioneer survivalist. The powerful sequential work of Frank Frazetta is in the spotlight in this collection, with all interior pages scanned from original comic-book issues and digitally cleaned.

• This collection reprints all of Frank Frazetta’s White Indian work in an affordable hardcover format!

Here’s a ~~tiny~~ JPEG of the Vanguard cover:

Notice how Frazetta’s name is absent from the Dark Horse cover and prominently displayed at the top of the Vanguard cover: I doubt that was simply an oversight on Dark Horse’s part… Frazetta’s name is also absent from the cover of the Dark Horse Thun’da reprint, which, btw, is available in stores now.

Anyway, here’s the news about the Vanguard Productions reprint, as reported at ICv2:

Vanguard to Release Frazetta’s ‘White Indian’
Complete Collection
Published: 07/12/2010, Last Updated: 07/13/2010 05:30am

Frazetta Management and Vanguard Productions announced that Vanguard will be releasing all of the Dan Brand/White Indian material, originally published in the 1950’s by Magazine Enterprises, as part of its new Vanguard Frazetta Classics line. White Indian represents Frazetta’s longest artistic run on a single comic feature.

The Complete White Indian Collection is Volume 2 of the Frazetta Classics line. Volume 1 will be The Complete Johnny Comet which will feature dailies reproduced from Frazetta’s own personal proofs and Sunday pages collected in color for the first time as well as a new essay by William Stout (see “Vanguard Plans Adams, Frazetta Books”). Vanguard Publisher J. David Spurlock said, “Both volumes are well into production now with more Vanguard volumes to come.”

Seems straightforward enough — except that, according to Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool, Vanguard publisher David Spurlock has made a statement, on the record, that appears to assert Vanguard’s exclusive right to the Frazetta material:

Vanguard [writes Spurlock] will release WHITE INDIAN Vol 1 by Frazetta, and Dark Horse will do WHITE INDIAN ARCHIVES Vol 2 of all all the other White Indian material.

[More details about Spurlock’s statement here from Chris Marshall, who, it turns out, is the intrepid blogger who “got it from the horse’s mouth.”]

Now, as far as I am aware, Dark Horse has not yet confirmed (or denied) the arrangement, though, of course, if Frazetta’s White Indian material has dropped into the public domain, it won’t matter what sort of exclusive contract Vanguard signed with Frazetta before he died, Dark Horse will be free do as they please. Truth be told, however, I really don’t know what’s going on between Vanguard and Dark Horse.

(Why Dark Horse would want to publish a Frazetta-less hardcover sequel to another publisher’s Frazetta reprint is beyond me!)

What I do know for sure, however, is that Frazetta fans will soon have at least one, and possibly two, hardcover reprints of White Indian to add to their collections within a few months. So, hooray for that!

UPDATE (added 11 August 2010):

Wherein I answer the question, “Where have I seen those covers before?”

The Dark Horse White Indian cover was the cover of White Indian #11, published in 1953:

The Vanguard was the cover of the White Indian reprint published by Pure Imagination in 1981. Here’s a scan of the copy that usually sits on a shelf, along with a lot of other books, mostly by Corben, about a metre and a half from my keyboard:

Looks like Vanguard had the drawing recoloured for the new reprint. Big mistake, IMHO. (Anyone know why they changed the redcoat into a bluecoat?)

ANOTHER UPDATE:

You’ll have to read the discussion in the comments section of this post to find out why the following is important. The full page is page one of White Indian #11:

What fun! Now I get to file this post under “Connections“!

Frank Frazetta · Separated at Birth?

Separated at Birth? Jackie Gleason, Frank Frazetta’s Monster Out of Time, and Jim Henson’s Earl Sinclair

27 July 201011 August 2016 RC1 Comment

“AND AWAY WE GO…!!!”

Turn Frazetta’s “monster” design into an animatronic muppet, and he’d be right at home in the world of the “Dinosaurs” sitcom.

But seriously, folks, this post is mostly just my silly way of saying that I think Frazetta’s “monster” looks remarkably, even comically, animated — and certainly appears more vividly alive than his human attacker!

Frank Frazetta · Obituaries

The Slow Death of the Frazetta Museum Collection

26 July 201011 August 2016 RC3 Comments

14 November 2009: the Spectrum Web site reports that “Grand Master Frank Frazetta’s cover painting for the Lancer paperback, Conan the Conqueror by Robert E. Howard, sold this week to a private collector for a reported $1,000,000.”

08 June 2010: Heritage Auctions issues a press release bragging that “Frank Frazetta’s original 1955 artwork for Weird Science-Fantasy #29, considered by many comic art fans to be the finest comic book cover of all time, has been sold in a private treaty sale for $380,000 – almost certainly the most ever paid for a single piece of original American comic book art – to Heritage Co-Chairman and Co-Founder Jim Halperin, a collector known to own one of the finest comic book and original comic art collections in the world. It was an outright purchase for immediate payment, with no trade-ins involved.”

22 July 2010: the Pocono Record reports that “Frank Frazetta’s ‘Conan the Destroyer’ painting has been sold to a private collector for $1.5 million.” The seller is identified as “a family trust.”