Frank Frazetta is dead.He was one of the most talented illustrators and painters of the 20th Century, and his amazing work was a big part of my formative years. As a teenager, I remember reading used Conan and John Carter Of Mars paperbacks, and marveling at the amazing artwork on their covers.
Beautiful, visceral, sometimes titillating images that captured exotic beauties, alien worlds, and an overall "bad-ass" quality that nobody else could quite manage. That was Frazetta's talent.
I also remember being amazed by the Death Dealer images on my father's Molly Hatchet albums. That dark, brooding bastard on horseback used to haunt my 6 year-old mind. In a good way.
Frank Frazetta was so awesome that in his 70s, ater suffering a stroke that made it nearly impossible for him to paint with his right hand, he taught himself to paint with his left hand. And his work was just as good! Bad-ass!
I'm going to watch Ralph Bakshi's "Fire and Ice" tonight, and then maybe listen to some Molly Hatchet, whilst drinking whiskey and swinging a broadsword around my cramped bedroom. It's what Frank would have wanted.
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