A rendition of John Carter of Mars

Frank Frazetta died from a stroke today at 82.

I know a lot of you guys appreciate his work and the worlds he imagined for us. It's funny, I saw PG talking about him a couple of days ago.

"His interpretation of Conan the Barbarian visually redefined the genre of sword and sorcery, and had an enormous influence on succeeding generations of artists." -wikipedia

I just hope his visions of the fantastic didn't die with him. You certainly don't see too much of his style nowadays.

Post some of your favorites...

via Geekologie

A shame, I rather liked this guy's art. >:

Easily my all-time favorite 20th century artist, without question. His style is the anti-Square Enix, which is ironic, since they probably wouldn't have a business without his influence on the fantasy genre.

I've been dropping his name for over a decade in terms of what I like to see in an artist, and his death will only make me do it more. And he's one of those guys who I liked in just about every way, even aside from his work, unlike Michael Jackson. I rotate his artwork as my desktop regularly.

TRIVIA: His depictions of King Kong and other gorillas as beastly villains were one of three main sources for the Psycho Gorilla moniker.

Oh man this man had so much influence on my childhood. As a kid and to this day I have a bit of an obsession with fantasy. He is a great loss to the fantasy world.

Yeah, here's where my old History undergrad degree comes in handy.

Conan was mostly just a cool pulp/cult novel until his cover artwork. Then all of a sudden, it became a big hit. Conan influenced virtually every Japanese developer/concept artist. You know classic games like Golden Axe? Dragon Quest/Warrior? Final Fantasy? LEGEND OF ZELDA? Thank Frazetta.

Oh, and

Could POSSIBLY be an influence in there somewhere. Maybe. Definitely.

I just picked up "Legacy" for my coffee table. I've been needing to add some class to my apt and now just seemed like the right time.

His artwork is something that I've grown to appreciate more as I get older. When I was younger, I was more into Boris Vallejo (I didn't own a playboy, but I had a stack of Boris trading cards). If I had to separate the two artists, I would say Boris is more "high fantasy" and Frazetta is more "high adventure". It's more gritty and raw, foreboding and grand --- but always, always beautiful.

Thanks for posting that Castlevania comparison. It gives me a greater level of appreciation for it.

Holy shit. I knew he a lot of Japanese artists, but I never knew the Castlevania cover was based on one of his pieces.

Here's a good rule of thumb: EVERYTHING in fantasy is influenced by his work. Just start pulling up some fantasy paintings or movie/game covers and start doing some side by side comparisons to any given Frazetta painting. You should see common themes and layouts within minutes if not seconds.

Like this one, which I found just randomly searching for fantasy paintings, that's NSFW if your place of business is prudish towards fine art.

Also that last picture is pretty coo'.

I might make a Frazetta art dedication thread one of these days if one of you doesn't beat me to it.

This just came in the mail. It is awesome. I doesn't have any of the Conan covers and only a few of the John Carter series. No Death Dealer either. Doesn't matter. Everything in it is brilliant.

I also recommend ICON, although it's a little expensive for Amazon. Still, anything and everything Frazetta is worth it.

Anybody with a library card, go reserve some Frazetta stuff. You'll be glad you did.

Icon just came in. Now waiting on Testament. Thought I'd go ahead an finish off the Underwood collection.