Frank Frazetta art stretches far beyond comic books, paperbacks, and posters. If you’ve ever spotted fantasy scenes airbrushed on panel vans or shouted, “By the power of Grayskull,” you’ve got the Brooklyn native to thank.
There’s never been anyone like him and there never will be again. So where did The Grandfather of Fantasy Art’s style come from?
Frank Frazetta's Origin Story
"I want to do something that nobody has done before me. And I want to do it in such a way that nobody will forget me for it."
As a kid, Frazetta studied early comic strips and cartoons like Tarzan, Prince Valiant , Li’l Abner, and Popeye. Aside from the occasional petty crime and amateur baseball, it’s safe to say that his entire life revolved around comic books.
By 16, he was removing pencil lines and ruling panel borders for DC Comics legend Bernard Baily. He later created art for comic books and daily strips, eventually apprenticing under Ralph Mayo and horror illustrator Graham Ingels (who would eventually become his editor).
Maintaining Creative Control & Authenticity
He spent his 20s and early 30s traipsing his way through superheroes, science fiction, and westerns. But the turning point of Frazetta’s career – and one of the happiest periods of his life – was working for legendary horror publications, Creepy and Eerie. While the pay was low, James Warren gave him free rein to create whatever he wanted. This freedom had a profound influence throughout his life.
Fun fact: Disney’s animation department offered Frazetta a job. He turned it down to continue doing his own thing in New York City.
Typically, Frazetta would receive simple prompts for assignments and let his mind run wild. Unlike many of his peers, he maintained creative control even with commissioned work. After all, even though money was money, Frazetta wouldn’t compromise his style.
"I didn't paint any of that barbarian stuff because I wanted to. They were paying me!"
"That Barbarian Stuff"
Frazetta’s maverick streak is epitomized by the Conan the Barbarian series.
In 1966, Frazetta was assigned to generate cover artwork for Robert E. Howard’s collection of stories. Howard (founder of the sword and sorcery genre) had written them back in the 1930s, but they’d never been artistically rendered.
"I went right ahead and created this character that didn't even resemble Howard's description at all: mine is quite a different guy. He was what I thought a barbarian should look like, the ultimate barbarian."
Sure, it might have been a commissioned piece for money, but because of Frazetta’s adherence to his own iron-clad style and vision, Conan quickly became one of his most recognizable works of art.
Frank Frazetta's Influences
When you stare into Conan (or any of his pieces), Frank Frazetta artwork sits at the unique intersection of science fiction, classic Flemish masters, Pre-Code Hollywood, early comic books, and the human body itself. He defined a genre that’s impossible to put your finger on, but you know it when you see it.
Hal Foster
"Foster would be my main influence. From the sublime to the ridiculous... His ability to simplify and tell a story, that's a great artist."
One of the most celebrated comic illustrators and storytellers, Hal Foster is most famous for his adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and Prince Valiant cartoons. Of the former, Frank Frazetta stated: that it was “perfection, a landmark in American twentieth-century art that will never be surpassed."
Hal Foster’s heroes struggled against the exotic and unknown. Jungles teemed with hanging vines and wild cats. Unscalable cliffs and ancient citadels lurked with evils.
While “Nina” (1951) was never published, it is one of the finest examples of Frazetta’s comic work. Frazetta admitted that some of his fantasy images were inspired by Foster, and it’s certainly easy to see some similarities. But while Foster created worlds within comic strips, Frazetta was able to do so in single canvases.
"A sexy girl lost in some strange land by herself... why not?"
Within a few decades, Frazetta’s work was less about good versus evil and more about fighting for survival. Muscular vikings traipse wastelands, witches beckon heroes, warriors slay bloodthirsty beasts. It’s more about the adventure itself.
King Kong
While some might consider it primitive today, King Kong accomplished what no other film had done: develop a stop-motion character with believable visual effects. Straddling the line of jungle adventure, horror, and thriller, it’s a cultural touchstone for movie lovers. And it’s easy to see the parallels with Frazetta’s own take on the struggles between primitive creatures and maidens of beauty.
Frazetta claimed to have watched King Kong more than 4,000 times, making a deep impression on his aesthetic:
"The total work of art. The hazy, misty, wonderful quality of it is something I always shoot for. That mystery, that sense of wonder. That's what I try to capture."
Frazetta fans will recognize the vine-choked trees, exotic animals, and raw, animalistic power contained in a corporal frame.
Peter Paul Rubens
"My paintings are like classic Rubens or Michelangelo, but unrestrained."
A Flemish Baroque master, Rubens (1577-1640) is best known for painting the human form with incredible depth and movement. Men are given tanned, robust physiques while sylph-faced, voluptuous women are shapely with mortal “flaws” like cellulite, folds, and dimples (as seen in as seen in “Venus and Adonis”).
Always one to push the envelope, Frank Frazetta models are like Rubens’ on steroids. Pulp pin-ups have slim waists, visible ribs, and near-to-bursting hourglass proportions. Whether creating pin-ups or sci fi art, Frazetta’s women had the perfect blend of power and softness.
Movement and Light
Rubens was one of the first painters to master movement. This “Three Graces” prototype captures a gentle dance (evident by the positioning of feet and gauzy material). Using just few colors, the bold contrast between light and dark is maximized with a highlight across the models’ skin.
Frazetta’s fantasy drawings and paintings are famous for their kinetic energy and hazy-dream-like linework. Even though the subject is at rest here, her hair blows gently in the wind.
"Really, there's so little color that I might use it very sparingly as a focal point... muted coloring, soft-tinted areas, and suddenly, a bright spot!"
While the foreground bursts with colorful foliage here, the figure receives the same kind of light-handed, ethereal treatment that Rubens gave his models.
Michaelangelo's Anatomy Lessons
"I've always just understood perspective and space. I just had an eye for it. Some people are born with it, some aren't. I simply didn't focus on anatomy... I was faking my way through it."
Best known in the world of art for anatomical drawings, Michelangelo thought of the human form as a piece of architecture created by God. His human proportions didn’t just imitate nature: They perfected it.
Both artists captured the human form with incredible detail and dynamism, as though their subjects were about to burst out of their skin. While Frazetta wasn’t dissecting corpses for inspiration, he drew from a well of men’s magazines, pulp publications, and his own imagination to take his characters to the next level.
Butts, Rears, and Posteriors
While waxing philosophical on the depth and layers of Frank Frazetta art, we cannot overlook his profound fascination with buttocks.
"I am definitely an ass man."
"It blows my mind. Talk about simple shapes. Two very simplistic curves. It's so dumb, but they are fascinating as hell. It's more than that. It's the way the rest of the anatomy ties into that area -- incredible beauty."
While many artists tend to fixate only on female beauty, Frazetta was an equal opportunist: His collective work contains an endless array of perfectly formed backsides of all genders of creatures.
Frank Frazetta Art: Where Gold Meets the Canvas
"When it came to my art, I went my own way and didn't follow the trends."
Frank Frazetta art is singular in every sense, and it’s that same ethos that drives MetalMark. We’re exceptionally proud to introduce officially licensed Frazetta prints on the world’s first golden canvas.
