5.11.2010

Frank Frazeta, master of fantasy art, dead at 82

FRANK FRAZETTA TIMELINE: A LIFE LIVED FOR ART (Pocono Record 5/11/2010)

Born Feb. 9, 1928, in Brooklyn, Frank Frazetta attends the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts at age 8.

He turns pro at age 16, after entering a painting in a scholastic art competition and is disqualified on the grounds that he had had professional help.

In 1944, Frazetta creates his first published comic, "The Snowman," a wooden idol resembling a snowman who comes to life to combat the evil of The Fang.

He paints the first Conan the Barbarian cover in 1966. The cover "knocked publishing on its ear," he said about the artwork in a 1985 interview.

Singer/entertainer Cher, making another comeback in 1979, had a new image in the form of bizarre costumes inspired by Frazetta's fantasy art.

In the early 1980s, Frazetta turns the upper floors of the former Masonic building at the corner of South Courtland and Washington streets in East Stroudsburg into a gallery. The art museum would be on the floors above Frazetta's Fantasy Corner and would not only house Frazetta's work, but offer display space to other artists in a separate gallery.

On July 17, 2009, his wife and business partner, Eleanor "Ellie" Frazetta, dies after a year-long battle with cancer. She oversaw the daily operations of the Frazetta Art Museum in East Stroudsburg. Frank and Ellie had been married 53 years.

Sources: Pocono Record archives; The Progress, Clearfield; "Fantasy Artist Frank Frazetta" by Cathi Sutton, hubpages.com; The Lawton Constitution, Lawton, Okla.

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