Born in February 9, 1928 (Brooklyn, New York), Frazetta was enrolled by his parents in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts, at eight years of age.
Under the tutalage of the italian fine artist Michael Falanga, he attended the academy for eight years, after which and due to the death of Falanga in 1944 and the close of the academy, Frazetta had to start working to support himself.
With 16 years of age, he started drawing for comic books, including themes such as fantasy, mysteries and westerns, using the "Fritz" signature in some of his earliest comics featuring funny animal characters.
Having refused job offers from companies such as Walt Disney at the start his career, Frank Frazetta worked for EC Comics, National Comics and Avon in the early 1950's.
Having worked in collaboration with Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel, he later started working with Al Capp on his Li'l Abner comic strip and assisting Dan Barry with the Flash Gordon daily strip. At this time, Frazetta was also producing his comic strip Johnny Comet.
In 1961 and after working with Al Capp during nine years, he wasn't having much success finding work in comics and eventually joined Harvey Kurtzman in the Little Annie Fanny parody strip for the Playboy magazine.
In 1964, his painting of Ringo Starr for a Mad Magazine ad raised the attention of United Artist studios and he was invited to do the movie poster for the movie "What's New Pussycat ?", earning his yearly salary in one afternoon.
Frank Frazetta started illustrating paperback editions of adventure books and his work for Conan the Adventurer by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp (Lancer 1966) caused such stir that numerous people bought the book for its cover alone.
During this period he also did the covers for Tarzan and Barsoom (John Carter of Mars), both created by the pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs.
His work established a new style in the Sword and Sorcery genre, influencing future generations of fantasy artists.
The art of Frank Frazetta was also appreciated by famous artists, movie directors and producers, including names as Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Steven Spilberg and Sylvester Stalone, some of them his friends who have commissioned works for their movie projects.
After working with Ralph Bakshi on the feature "Fire and Ice" released in 1983, Frank Frazetta returned to pen and ink illustrations.
Fantasy Art illustrator Frank Frazetta passed away this morning of May 10, 2010 in the Lee Memorial Hospital (Fort Myers, Florida) at 82 years of age.
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