Robert E. Howard Readers discussion

Rest in Peace, Mr. Frazetta. Your fabled artwork is, and will always be, without parallel.

He's certainly one of my favorites. It was his pictures on the covers of a couple of Conan books that made me want to read.

Same with me. The King is gone.

I have never had Conan books with his covers,before my time as REH fan. But his art is amazing. I wish they could reprint books with his art.

Sad news about the man but the artist is immortal and will be remembered for his many works.

Had they been contemporaries, R.E.H would have doted upon Frazetta and his art. There are few, if any, artists who are able to capture the essence of Howard's characters. Frazetta was able to do this, and legions of Conan devotees are grateful that he did.

Those cover paintings and illustrations still bring the stories to mind when you see them. A lot of people have "a problem" with the Lancer books from the 70s (I don't) because they weren't completely Howard's work, but those covers really drew you in. FF was a great artist.

My father had the Lancer editions, I thought. He died in '69. Whatever the publisher, the covers of & were two I first remember. The sight of him standing there on a pile of bodies in his helmet & bloodied axe, a gorgeous woman clinging to his leg - well, it just HAD to be an interesting story! The cover of the 'Usurper' was eerie. Him chained across the snake who was ready to strike & the fascinating, half-seen demonic critters in the background was awesome. I could stare at both for hours imagining how he got there & what the outcomes could be.

I wish whoever owns the rights to those would re-release them. i still have a few ragged copies of a couple, but at one time had them all.

The impact of Frazetta's images is immediate. In addition to the ones Jim posted earlier, a couple more favs are the one with Conan jumping the ape-man beast thing (Thag?) with dagger in hand and eyes blazing, and him atop a bunch of enemies in various throes of agony, choking the hell out of one with his bare hands.

Makes you want to roar with hell fury!

Lots of cool images here: http://frankfrazetta.org/

Thanks for the link, John. I've never seen that site before. There is also an official site where you can buy over 100 different prints.
http://frankfrazettamuseum.com/prints...
I've always wanted an original of his, but I saw one on Ebay go for more than I paid for my farm, so I guess that's not happening. Well, I don't have wall space for one of the posters, either.

My wife & I were planning to go to the museum one year, but didn't make it. I think we had to go home early due to a minor crisis with one of the kids, dogs or horses. (I get their crises confused after a while. I confuse their names all the time.)

I have several of Frank Frazetta's books that give a brief description of him & his work & then are filled with wonderful reproductions of his work. Some have close-ups & it is fantastic to see how a single brush stroke defines an entire muscle line.

While his Conan paintings will probably always be my favorite, his covers for Karl Edward Wagner's Kane books are also fantastic as are those he did for so many of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books. His 'Death Dealer' was the main reason I bought Molly Hatchet's first album. I never cared for their music all that much, but the LP cover was worth it.

Did you know he drew cartoons/comics? Little Annie Fannie & Vamperella are two of my favorites. He also did some work for Creepy & Eerie magazines. Heavy Metal, too, although I don't have any of those, unfortunately. I have a dozen or two of the rest.

Just a fantastic artist & such a sense of humor.

Oh, I noticed in #7 I said he had a gorgeous woman clinging to his leg while standing on the pile of bodies. Sorry, put down to mixing favorite memories. the cover of "Warrior" got mixed up with "Adventurer" in my head. The girl clings to his leg in the latter.

Being a child of the 50s and 60s I remember the Sunday comics as a high point in the week (not so much now...and it's not just because I'm older). Frazetta worked on several comics, including working with Al Cap on Li'l Abner. He also worked on some EC comics (I remember them so well, home of the horror comic) I'm searching the library for books now...sad I waited till he passed I suppose.

Yeah, I'd better stay off the print order site lest I plunk down some ill-gotten booty. :^)

Jim, your place sounds like heaven. Open spaces, fresh air, animals. Maybe some long bows and catapults to fend off the enemy.

Mike, yeah one of those things that stays in the background until the jolt comes.

I didn't know about this Frazetta DVD, Painting with Fire: http://www.amazon.com/Frazetta-Painti...

Gonna grab that thing!

I remember when it was on TV. Forgot that to.

John wrote: "...Jim, your place sounds like heaven. Open spaces, fresh air, animals. Maybe some long bows and catapults ..."

Right now it's all mowers, weedeaters & weeding. I can't keep up with the way things are growing. I haven't turned a bowl or spent any time in the shop in weeks except to fix a piece of equipment.

I've heard about that Frazetta show, but never seen it. Let us know how it is, John.

I collected the 12 Conan novels by Ace back in the 80's. At the time, they were the nearest thing to R.E.H. novels a body could buy at the local bookstore; however, over the past 15 years or so, there's been a whole plethora of new publications of Howard's stories. My question is... why doesn't any of Frazetta's art adorn the covers of these new and current publications? Did he retire from painting some years ago? His artwork in the Lancer and Ace books appealed to many. Why wasn't any of it continued in the modern Howard publications? I suppose I can find the answers for myself by searching through some of these goodly links you fellows provided, but if any of you have any info regarding this, I'd sure appreciate it.

I think there were a lot of problems with his family & the business. I don't recall the details, but one of his kids was arrested for stealing paintings out of his museum. It sounded like there was a real mess there with the family. He had medical problems for quite a while, too.

Whoa, that's too bad. But thanks for the info, Jim; I'll read up on it some more. His own kid stole from him? Jaysus, that's rough.

I think it was a disagreement between Frazetta's son & his step mother who were running Frank's business together. She wanted to sell paintings & he didn't want her to or something like that. I remember reading about it, but it was years ago. Sounded like a family squabble that should have been kept private to me. I think someone was a money grubber, but I don't recall who. The paper gave one impression, but I seem to recall thinking it didn't make sense.

Probably this is the correct story here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Fr...

Hmmm... According to this the kid taking the paintings was just this past December. I seem to recall another incident from 8 or 10 years ago. Probably my faulty memory & time sense.

I hadn't realized Frazetta had done the movie "Fire & Ice" with with Ralph Bakshi. "Wizards", another movie by Bakshi, is one of my favorites. One of the artists in that one was Vaughn Bode, who illustrated a couple of kids books for Roger Zelazny, although there was some strife as to who was primary. It caused the project to founder for years until after Bode died. Then they finally released a limited edition of 1000 books, all signed by Zelazny. The set is Here There Be Dragons & Way Up High. I have a set in the 300's. I'd read both stories several times, but never had seen anything but thumbnails of the art. It's really fantastic.

I've ordered "Fire & Ice" on DVD from Amazon. My poor wife will have to sit through it as soon as it arrives. Just the cover shows Frazetta's influence. Check out the chick on the ledge.
http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Ice-Randy-...

Jim wrote: "John wrote: "...Jim, your place sounds like heaven. Open spaces, fresh air, animals. Maybe some long bows and catapults ..."

Right now it's all mowers, weedeaters & weeding. I can't keep up with ..."

Still sounds better than the endless traffic lights of Raleighwood.

I've never seen Fire and Ice ... let us know how it fares. Maybe I'll have to get it AND Painting w/ Fire. Or at least DEMAND them for Father's Day.

A guy has to have some power sometime around the homestead.

I got that movie by Ralph Bakshi & Frazetta called "Fire & Ice". I watched it last weekend & I'm sorry to say that it pretty much sucked. It was interesting to see so much of Frazetta's work displayed, but all too briefly. The dialogue was terrible & the story line wasn't great either. Oh well, it didn't cost much on Amazon, so I guess it was worth it - barely.

I just received the Frazetta DVD, "Painting with Fire" in the mail, and I'm looking forward to viewing it. I reckon I won't be ordering "Fire & Ice." Thanks for the review, Jim.

I bought Painting with Fire and watched the first dvd almost to the end, but not quite. It chronicles Frazetta's life and has many examples of his works, and interviews with peers and family. But I don't know, maybe I was expecting too much. Would be curious what O Ruairc thinks.

Maybe it's because I knew a lot about the man before going watching it.

The second dvd in the collector's edition, holographic case set I bought will show some techniques, which I may find more compelling.

To be sure, John. I aim'ta watch the DVD by and by. Other than what I recently read on the Internet, I'm not too familiar with Frank Frazetta. Oh, I could identify his artwork easy enough, but I know little about his personal life. This program might be a good place to start.

I was impressed that Neal Adams showed such admiration for Frazetta and his works. My knowledge of illustrators and artists is limited, but I consider Adams almost on par with Frazetta.

Thanks for the insights into Fire and Ice, Jim. Think I'll also pass on it.

John wrote: "Thanks for the insights into Fire and Ice, Jim. Think I'll also pass on it."

You're welcome. If you ever see it cheap, it might be worth picking up. I think I paid $10 for it. If I paid half that, I wouldn't have minded.

Robert Rodgriguez, The Director of the Sin City and Once Upon a Time in Mexico "El Mariachi" movies among others is a huge Frazetta fan and is hosting a weeklong exhibition of Frazetta's works in Austin, TX March 14-21 for those of you close enough to make it.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/...

Sounds quite interesting, Michael. Would that I could make it.

Speaking (writing) of Frazetta, I watched a video documentary about him called "Painting with Fire" (see previous posts) and found it fascinating.

Curiously, based upon what I learned, Frazetta wasn't much of a reader. If I remember correctly, besides painting, his real passion was sports, namely baseball. I find it intriguing that he was able to paint such vivid pictures of Conan, Tarzan, John Carter, etc, etc, etc... without even have read the stories.

Interesting stuff! I am not close enough to go see the exhibition, unfortunately. I too would have thought he'd need to read the stories. When I read those characters, it's Frazetta's images in my mind.

Same here. I didn't know that he didn't read them. He's still the best.