Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed lord of fantasy art for 50
years, his fame only growing in the 12 years since his death. With his
paintings now breaking auction records (Egyptian Queen sold for $ 5.4
million in 2019) he's long overdue for this ultimate monograph. Born to
a Sicilian immigrant family in Brooklyn, 1928, Frazetta was a minor
league athlete, petty criminal and serial seducer with movie star looks
and phenomenal talent. He claimed to only make art when there was
nothing better to do - he preferred playing baseball - yet began his
professional career in comics at age 16. Strip work led him to the
infamous EC Comics, then to oils for Tarzan and Conan pulp covers. Both
characters were interpreted by many before him, but as he explained in
the 1970s, "I'm very physical minded. In Brooklyn, I knew Conan, I knew
guys just like him," and he used this first-hand knowledge of muscle and
macho to redefine fantasy heroes as more massive, more menacing, more
testosterone-fueled than anything seen before. As counterbalance he
created a new breed of women, nude as censorship allowed, with pixie
faces and multiparous bodies: thick thighed, heavy buttocked, breasts
cantilevered out to there, yet still, with their soft bellies and hints
of cellulite, believably real. Add in the action, the creatures, the
twilit worlds of haunting shadow and Frazetta's art is addictive as
potato chips. This monograph is the biggest and most complete ever
produced on the artist, done in collaboration with the Frazetta family
and with top collectors.
