DRAWN & QUARTERED
Graphic Arts As Literature

Frank Frazetta has given
light to fantasy art

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By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com

Nobody has had as profound an influence on modern fantasy art as Frank Frazetta, particularly the paperback and magazine covers he painted during the 1960s. He turns 75 in the next year and is not in the best of health, and so we'll periodically return to his contributions.

There is no middle ground with Frazetta. Either you love or loathe his stuff, even when you see it reproduced on the sides of vans. Frazetta is a master of chiaroscuro, giving the impression of light emerging from darkness, which gives his works an inner glow. A genius of composition and dynamic structure, his paintings vibrate with life.

Here's a classic example: "Sea Witch" was painted in 1967 and appeared on the cover of Eerie magazine. The image roils with drama and mystery, and the eye is drawn to the tiny figure of the woman, master of her damp domain. It has a wild logic to it.

Today, it's one of his best-selling prints. It even inspired the small model figure shown here, produced by N2 Toys, which sells for less than $20.

It's no easy trick making a two-dimensional figure look right from every angle, but the artist's style is so well known that the other side of the woman looks just as Frazetta-like as the front.

Let's just say that, thanks to Frazetta, a whole generation of young men learned the term "callipygian."

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