It seemed logical to approach a discussion of Frank Frazetta, the man, by reviewing the excellent documentary Painting With Fire. Regardless of whether or not Frank Frazetta’s work does anything for you, if you are a fan of a good documentary, I honestly believe you will love Painting With Fire. And no matter what I discuss in this post the documentary is infinitely better so don’t believe for a minute that this post will be a spoiler because it won’t. The documentary is simply fantastic. It is told by lifelong friends, his family, artists who influenced, admired and/or were influenced by Frank Frazetta, and the by man himself.
Early Years
As with any good story, this one starts at the beginning discussing Frank’s earliest art success. Here, I’ll let Frank tell you himself: “At the insistence of one of my teachers, my parents enrolled me in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts when I was eight. The Academy was little more than a one floor/three room affair with a total of thirty students ranging in age from eight-me!-to eighty. I still remember the professor [Michele Falanga]’s look of skepticism as I signed in. He was rolling his eyes and you could almost see the thought balloon over his head, ‘Oh no! Not another child prodigy!’ He sat me down with a pencil and paper and asked me to copy a postcard featuring a group of realistically rendered ducks. When he returned later to see how far I had progressed, he snatched up my drawing exclaiming, “Mama mia!” and ran off waving it in the air, calling everyone over to look at it. I thought I was in some kind of trouble.”
Eight years old! Frazetta is simply a genius. Early on he mentions that his talent is a “God-given gift…it had to be” and one could hardly argue seeing that he is an expert at everything he has artistically put his hand to: drawing, inking, watercolor, oil painting, sculpture, photography…life.
Despite being of an artistic temperment Frank Frazetta was by no means a sissy. Frank’s early years were spent in crime ridden, gang infested areas in Brooklyn in which he learned to fight and stick up for himself. He wasn’t one to pick fights but like the savage heroes he would eventually bring to life on the canvas he was quick to stick up for himself and to jump to the defense of others.
Frazetta also immersed himself in sports. He loved sports so much that in high school art began to take a backseat to his emerging loves: baseball and girls.
Listening to Frank and his friends tell the stories of his athletic prowess sounds like tall tales, except for the fact that the tales are true. Frazetta set many high school baseball records and was scouted by the New York Giants and offered a spot on their farm team. He was given the impression that within a year he would be playing in the major leagues. Frazetta turned them down cold, “I was involved with a girl at the time and going down to Texas and sweating it out in the minors for a year didn’t seem very appealing.” That simple quote says a great deal about Frank Frazetta and is one of the reasons I can identify with him. Frank Frazetta was a procrastinator whose main goal in life was to “have fun”. And despite being a hard worker this attitude remained with him throughout his life.
Art
The Painting With Fire DVD does such an incredible job of discussing the development of Frazetta’s artistic talent over the years that all I can do is summarize.
Frank’s earliest artistic work was in the comics field. As incongrous as it seems after seeing the pictures in yesterday’s post some of Frank’s earliest work was doing funny animal comic strips similar in style to the early work being done by the Disney franchise. His stuff was so good that Disney actually courted Frazetta but he declined. Frank was always one to to things his way and that certainly would not have fit the Disney mold. Frazetta drew a Tarzan-inspired comic called Thun’da, worked on Johnny Comet, did various comic cover work and for a decade was the ghost artist on Al Capp’s Lil’ Abner series. Some of my favorite Frazetta work was on the series of Buck Rogers covers he did for the Famous Funnies comics.
Original issues of these 1952 comics go for thousands of dollars on Ebay.
At the start of 1960 Frazetta quit working for Al Capp after Capp generously offered to cut his salary in half. There was a lean period while Frank searched for work. Despite his obvious talent there was a growing backlash against comics and his work was considered “old fashioned”. Frank’s dear friend, Roy Krenkel (a fantastic artist in his own right) came to Frazetta’s aid around 1962. Krenkel was doing covers for the Ace reprints of the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Roy Krenkel was notorious for getting behind and he gave some of his work to Frank, thus opening the door to the avenue that would bring Frazetta his long lasting fame: paperback covers. Frazetta was able to fulfill a dream when he produced his first Ace cover for Tarzan and the Lost Empire.
Frazetta’s early cover work, though definitely his own, had the flavor of what Krenkel was doing with his covers. As the fan letters started pouring in Frank began working harder on each cover, not wanting to disappoint this new legion of fans. The Frazetta style soon emerged and the rest as they say is history. It is incredible to watch the array of artists whose work I admire talking about the influence Frank Frazetta has had on them, their work, and our world. As promised the final installment on Monday will delve deeper into the influence of Frank Frazetta.
(Cover to Savage Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs)
Most of Frazetta’s most memorable works fall somewhere within the fantasy genre. He did however do a few science fiction paintings. Those he did maintained a decidedly Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers feel. Not surprising since he grew up in the era of Alex Raymond‘s Flash Gordon series.
(Cover to Writers of the Future #7 magazine.)
It is fascinating to listen to Frazetta talk in this DVD. It is like listening to your grandfather tell you exciting stories from his life. Frazetta’s work becomes more awe-inspiring as you hear him tell how he does not use references or models…how everything comes from his imagination. He admits that he has often had people sit and watch him paint from start to finish just to prove that he is telling the truth because the reality of his vision and the way he translates it onto the canvas is unbelievable.
Family
Despite loving Frank Frazetta’s artwork my favorite part of the Painting With Fire DVD is the chapter about his family. Various members of his family are actually present throughout the DVD and the overall picture of what family means to him is inspiring. But lets step back in time.
Frank Frazetta was a man’s man, and by the same token he was a lady’s man. His rugged physique and handsome looks insured that he had no end of relationships during his younger days. That all changed in 1952 when he saw 17 year old Eleanor Kelly, Frank was 24 at the time. Upon meeting Ellie, Frank said “I sensed that she would be forever loyal and I never ever had that feeling about any other girl I’d been involved with.”
After 4 years of dating they were married on November 17th, 1956.
Ellie was smart, spunky, stunning and throughout their life together has proven that behind every great man there is a great (or greater) woman! Listening to Frank discuss Ellie and their 4 children while watching home movies from their younger years solidified it for me. I knew watching that for the first time that Frank Frazetta was the real deal. He is who he portrays himself to be. He is a genuine good guy who adores his wife, loves his kids, and worships his grandchildren. I watched that chapter of the DVD before working on this post and it brought tears to my eyes. It is touching to see someone who could by all rights be aloof or egotistical actually be so down to earth.
Even more than bringing love and laughter into Frank’s life it is Ellie who has insured that Frank has a legacy. Ellie recognized early on that she needed to handle the business end of Frank’s affairs and in the 1970’s she took a risk and started a small company called Frazetta Prints. Over 30 years later this business has blossomed into a small empire of merchandise handled through Frank Frazetta’s official website. Frank is allegedly generous to a fault and over the years had given away paintings that today could be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ellie helped put a stop to that. The Frazetta’s eventually moved from New York to Pennsylvania to an area with alot of land and 2001 saw the opening of the Frank Frazetta Museum…another thing that can be directly attributed to Ellie. It probably goes without saying that a visit to this museum would be a dream come true. If you have ever seen an original of a painting you admire then you know that no matter how good the print is, the original is so much better. Ellie even gives tours of the museum and answers questions. Yes, thanks to Ellie, Frazetta fans the world over can buy quality merchandise for extremely reasonable prices and have a chance to actually see the masterpieces up close and personal. I have several Frazetta prints and can attest to their quality. She is a cute, sweet, devoutly religious and very amazing woman.
Bittersweet endings
While interesting and inspiring there is also a note of the melancholy in the Painting With Fire DVD. The viewer has a chance to witness an incredible life but also a life that has some regrets. A long time undiagnosed thyriod problem in the 1980’s followed by strokes robbed Frank of years of painting. The loss of these years is felt even more in the knowledge that he “messed around” alot figuring he would always have time to paint. The last stroke took away Frank’s ability to paint with his right hand. True to the dominate Frazetta spirit, however, he just started doing it with his left hand and discovered that the genius flows through that hand as well. In the extras on the documentary you can watch him draw a panther left-handed. What you see is Frank seemingly scribbling lightly on a blank space at the bottom of a poster and before your eyes appears the most amazingly detailed creature. It seems so unreal that you are certain you have been tricked.
There is so much more so I’ll encourage you again to buy, rent, borrow (from me) or netflix Painting With Fire. It is very well done and told with passion by people who want to share their love of Frank Frazetta and his work and his personal involvement throughout the DVD makes it infinitely better than it could have ever been without it.
Monday, Frazetta’s influence on literature, movies, pop culture, etc. Until then.
