Frank Frazetta – The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta Taschen 40th Anniversary Hardcover Book

Frank Frazetta – The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta Taschen 40th Anniversary Hardcover Book

Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed king of fantasy art for 50 years, his fame only growing in the 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 in 1928 to a Sicilian immigrant family in Brooklyn, Frazetta was a minor league athlete, a petty criminal, and a serial seducer, possessing both movie star good looks and extraordinary 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 a 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 as addictive as potato chips.

ISBN-13: 9783836597951

Publisher: Taschen

Dimensions: 15.6 x 3.2 x 21.7 cm

Cover: Hardcover

Pages: 480

Writer: Dan Nadel

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Manufacturer Taschen Brand Frank Frazetta Pennies 100 Preorder No