Art Titan Frank Frazetta’s Legacy Keeps Growing With New Projects And A Massive Retrospective

In an iconic painting by the great fantasy artist Frank Frazetta (1928-2010), a stoic barbarian, whose chiseled face resembles the artist himself, leans on his sword atop a mound of vanquished enemies, taking grim satisfaction in his bloody work. This piece, as well as any, represents the stature that the Brooklyn-born artist continues to enjoy more than a decade after his death, as a range of efforts across the media, entertainment and publishing industries continue to cement his legacy.

Unlike most of his artistic contemporaries in the latter 20^th century, Frank Frazetta didn’t try to impress the cultural establishment with his profound insights or stylistic radicalism. His subjects were beautiful women, heroic men and fearsome monsters, usually captured in dramatic scenes of action and adventure. His style was classical Italian Renaissance, sometimes compared to Michelangelo or Rafael, with an edge of Brooklyn attitude. The power of his imagination and his incomparable draftsmanship are credited with supercharging entire genres of literature and music, as the presence of one of his cover illustrations just about guaranteed commercial success for everything from fantasy paperbacks to heavy metal rock albums.

Frazetta’s work was so ubiquitous in the 70s and 80s – on posters hanging in dorm room walls, airbrushed on the sides of vans, embroidered into denim jackets – that it risks being ossified as a relic of that era. But a recent spate of new projects, combined with record-setting multi-million dollar sales of his original paintings at auction, suggests the Frazetta brand is stronger than ever.

This month saw the publication of The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta, a super-deluxe retrospective of Frazetta’s career in comics, art, illustration and advertising, edited by Dian Hanson for the high-end art publisher Taschen Books ($150), the latest and best entry in a groaning shelf of Frazetta art books that show off his well-developed muscles in every facet of drawing, painting, composition and design. The book also features essays (in three languages) by critic Dan Nadel and artist Zak Smith.

“This is the kind of book Frank Frazetta deserves and his fans deserve,” said Sara Frazetta-Taylor, Frank’s granddaughter, in a phone interview. “We did everything we could to make it happen, and were very grateful for the help of everyone at Taschen, right up to Benedict Taschen himself, for taking such an interest in making this such a beautiful edition.”

The book is only the heftiest manifestation of ongoing efforts to keep Frazetta’s work and creative vision in the spotlight. Sara runs Frazetta Girls, managing branding and licensing on behalf of three fourths of the estate, which was divided among Frank’s four children. The eldest, Frank Jr., manages his portion separately, including a museum at the family’s ancestral home in central Pennsylvania.

One of Sara’s projects is a second museum in Boca Grande, Florida, in the property that Frank and his late wife Ellie retired to in the 1990s. The museum hosts a collection of original paintings and works in an intimate, home-like setting. The opening in 2020 was unfortunately timed with the start of the pandemic, so after a difficult year and a half, it finally reopened in 2021 for appointment-only viewings. Next month, they are hosting a special exhibit of work by acclaimed figurative artists James Martin and George Pratt.

Sara said one of the family’s biggest goals is to give more people worldwide the opportunity to see the original works in person, either at one of the family-owned properties – which she admits are a bit off the beaten path – or through exhibitions of privately-owned work elsewhere in the world. “A lot of great work is held by individual collectors, including people like George Lucas and Robert Rodriguez,” she said. “We’re starting to see more exhibits and special shows popping up, where people can see for themselves his incredible technique.”

Another ongoing effort is to expand the “Frazetta-verse” into other media. Frazetta wasn’t a writer, but his work is proof of the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. In 2022, Frazetta Girls licensed the popular character “Death Dealer” to independent comics publisher Opus Press for a limited 15-issue series now in progress. That, Sara said, will be followed by a second series with a new creative team later this year.

Another comics project is a prequel to Fire and Ice, an animated film produced by Ralph Bakshi in the 1980s based on characters and locales found in Frazetta’s fantasy paintings, done in creative collaboration with Frank Frazetta. The comics, published by Dynamite Entertainment, will explore the backstory of that world and potentially set the stage for future media projects.

Finally, Sara pointed to a long-awaited collaboration with the massively popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published by HasbroHAS
subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, which has finally seen the light of day. She said fans have been waiting decades for the game, which is heavily steeped in the same dark fantasy milieu as Frazetta’s most famous works, to incorporate some of those iconic works directly in the game.

As for other media projects, Sara indicated that there is always interest, but the complicated situation within the family over ownership of rights has sometimes impeded negotiations. “We’d like [the estate] to be one entity; I think that’s what grandpa wanted, but the situation is what it is.”

Asked about the challenges of keeping Frazetta’s work fresh for a new generation of fans – especially considering his tastes in genre and subject matter – Sara, herself in her early 30s, was unequivocal. “GenZ is the newest generation loving his work,” she said “They love the larger-than-life heroes and powerful heroines, and respond to the sexuality in both the men and the women. They interpret the gender dynamics through their own lens.”

“My grandfather didn’t have any kind of agenda with his work,” she said. “It was built on design and beauty, and it’s open to interpretation. Every generation will find their own meaning in it. You can’t argue with great composition and a powerful style. That’s a good way to stand the test of time.”