Frank Frazetta-Master Illustrator and Painter.

In my youth (80's and early 90's) entertainment opportunities were limited . We did not have the luxury of cable TV, internet , mobile phones,Tablets or gaming consoles .. Instead, we depended mostly on comic books and novels to pass time . Most popular ones were Phantom(Ghost who walks), Tarzan(Lord of the Jungle) and Mandrake the Magician(& Lothar! ) . Comic books about their adventures were available in our nearby shops . I also used to read novels of Tarzan in Malayalam . They were published by Regal books which operated from S H mount , which was were I lived .. In fact most of the  popular magazines of those days were published by agencies in and around s h mount . the most famous one being Bobanum Moliyum by Toms publications( Also Toms Magazine) . Then there was Mangalam (Dinkan!) and Sakhi weekly.

Coming back to Tarzan novels, they were very popular at the time and i was a huge fan myself . regal publications used to sell it at around 16 or 18 rupees at that time . Recently they had a rebirth of the sorts and are now being sold through DC books at around 150 per book .

   
A sample cover -these are the 

revamped novels costing 150 rupees

These books were translated versions and came with a glossy cover art featuring the lead hero in some adventurous situation in the novel . The cover itself was the worth the price of the book because the drawing were masterful.  

         

 One sample photo which was a cover 
for one of the old editions of regal novels 

I used to wonder who was the gifted artist behind these drawings . But in those days we did not have the luxury of the so called “information at your fingertips” . i could not just ‘google’ it . so it remained along with my other numerous unanswered  questions.
Many years later, while looking through the works of major comic book artists I came across the same paintings which i had seen on the covers of Tarzan novels .They were drawn by one Frank Frazetta, an american artist of italian descent . 
The more I read about him and and saw his works I was astounded by their quality and quantity . 

Frank Frazetta -Self Portrait 
Here is a brief biography taken from Internet :  Frank Frazetta was born February 9th, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, the only boy in a family with 3 sisters. He is widely considered to be the most influential and most emulated fantasy artist in history.
Frazetta began drawing at the age of three and sold his first work soon after.At the age of 8 Frazetta's parents were encouraged and convinced by his school teachers to enroll him in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts. He attended the academy for eight years under the tutelage of Michael Falanga, an award-winning Italian fine artist. By 1944, at the age of 16, Frank Frazetta published his first comic story "The Snowman" in Tally-Ho Comics.
At age 16 Frazetta started looking for work and drawing illustrations for comic books: Westerns, fantasy, mysteries, histories and other contemporary themes. He later turned down multiple job offers from Walt Disney in the late 1940s.
n the early 1950s Frank Frazetta worked for EC Comics, National Comics (which featured the character "Shining Knight"), fantasy book company Avon and several other fantasy/comic book companies.  
The 1965 to 1973 period was explosive time for Frazetta and most of his seminal and famous images were done during this period. 
By the 1980s Frank Frazetta's fame was all encompassing. He was essentially the fantasy artist that everyone wanted. Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Sylvester Stallone all commissioned works for their various movie projects. 
Frazetta's artwork also graced the covers of record albums. Molly Hatchet's first two albums feature "The Death Dealer" and "Dark Kingdom" respectively. 
Frank Frazetta died May 10th 2010 at Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Florida. He had suffered a stroke the night before....
Frazetta is survived by two sons, Alfonso and William, two daughters, Heidi and Holly and 11 grandchildren.(Courtesy: Internet article on Frazetta)

Frank Frazetta drew for many publications , even made his own comic book called "thunda" and did many fantasy paintings .. many of his paintings inspired others to make comic series based on the character. The most famous one being the "death dealer" painting of a dark armored rider on horseback .

The Iconic Death Dealer Painting 

There are numerous others paintings like moon's rapture, Egyptian queen, Conan drawings and Tarzan.. He drew numerous drawings of Tarzan as  he was an admirer of symmetry and the general human form. All his drawings of men and women were of people with athletic build , bulging muscles and most of all ;they all were drawn in action poses. It was always some thing about to happen to them or they were about to do something to someone else. The drawings were veritable pictorial cliffhangers ..

 

 

Just looking at his drawings takes you into a mysterious fantasy word of strong men , sexy and mysterious women and unknown perils . He use to say that the setting for the paintings use to naturally come into his mind . Always a perfectionist , he used to modify his famous works many times: sometimes even completely redrawing them in order to get it just right . 

Apart from death dealer, his other famous works are Egyptian Queen (shown above), Moon's rapture, Tarzan , Conan , Vampirella .. the list is endless.

He did  a lot of pencil sketches, ink works also. One of his most famous pencil work is Tarzan rising out of the natives .

                                           

For me Frank is a big inspiration. I cant even imagine how he made up the situations in his art work. His mind was highly imaginative , these were all made before computer graphics , CGI etc were even invented . Such geniuses only are born once in a century . Frank was that genius for the 20 th century . So many artists working in the comics industry , fantasy art and illustrations were  inspired by him. 

I  have collected his drawings from internet and consider them a treasure .Although many of them are NSFW you can just admire them for  the mastery over human form.

Adios Frank !
Link to his works:  
http://frankfrazetta.org/

https://www.pinterest.com/amp/chrisfernz/frank-frazettas-sketches/
http://blog.ricecracker.net/2011/02/13/frank-frazetta-sketches-line-drawings/