Frank Frazetta: Take Your Date to Church!

[Arizona_Mike]

As a sign of just how far our culture has changed, take a look at this 1950s era public service ad by Frank Frazetta (probably now the most famous artist working in the comic book and fantasy fields).

The ad suggests that taking your date to the religious services of your faith of choice might be a good way to get to know a young woman or young man in whom you might be interested, and that a young woman might be flattered by such an invitation. It’s difficult to imagine such an ad appearing in a comic book, or almost anywhere else, today. Pity.

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[Arizona_Mike]

Yeah, I would presume this is work for hire - still an interesting message.

This is a Superman ad for refugees…

 

[tomarin]

There’s a Frank Frazetta museum somewhere in Pennsylvania, I believe.

 

[tomarin]

By the way, Jharek, what do you mean by ‘good girl art’? I thought Frazetta was more famous (or infamous) for voluptuous slave maidens prostrating themselves before barbarian warrior-kings on pulp fiction paperback covers (that’s a bit longer than ‘good girl art’ I realize).

 

[edwest2]

“bad girl” art. As a long-time collector of different comics and anthologies, Frazetta did some paintings that crossed the line. I stopped collecting comic books in the mid 1980s because the “heroes” stopped being heroic. When not painting bad girls, Frazetta is the master of Fantasy art and some Science-Fiction art as well. His knowledge of what made an image great and compelling went beyond his knowledge of human anatomy. I can think of no contemporary painter or illustrator that comes close. Today, a few are very good draftsmen but do not know how to add that extra bit of magic - that you are truly looking at a scene from another world or time.

I thank the OP. This is a message I hope to continue in my future work - God willing.

Ed

 

[Arizona_Mike]

For what it’s worth, Frazetta was almost certainly baptized and raised as a Catholic, although I don’t know if he continued to identify as such.

Perhaps, the most noted Italian American comic book artist is Frank Frazetta even though his career in the genre lasted less than a decade. He earned much respect for his fantasy artwork, exquisitely drawn with many violent and sexual images that were later recaptured in posters, illustrations and cover paintings. Brooklyn-born Frazetta possessed innate artistic and athletic talents, while in High School, he was offered a baseball contract with the Giants, but instead chose art. His first job was as a 16-year old assistant to science fiction artist John Giunta at Baily Comics. For the rest of the 1940’s, he drew many comics, such as “Thunda,” “Conan,” and “Tarzan,” for Fawcett Toby, Pines, Prize, Fiction House, Avon, and others. Some originals of his work today bring auction bids of one hundred thousand dollars. Like Romita and others, he also drew newspaper strips: “Johnny Comet” 1952), about a muscular race care driver, and “Li’l Abner,” which he ghosted for Al Capp for nine years in the 1950’s. Frazetta regarded his Sicilian background as important to his work. -The Italian American Experience By Salvatore John LaGumina

Frazetta certainly had an appreciation and an ability to draw one of God’s most amazing creations, the female form. His commercial work often represented violent and sexual themes, but in charity, we could note that not a few Italian artists of the past two millennia did the same, and you can find many of those works in the Vatican museums.

A self-portrait of Frazetta. As others have noted, he bore a strong resemblance to Martin Sheen.

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[Gordon_Sims]

For what it’s worth, Frazetta was almost certainly baptized and raised as a Catholic, although I don’t know if he continued to identify as such.

I thought I’d read that he was a practicing Catholic. I know he was married to his wife for about 53 years when she died.