Description

For half a century, Frank Frazetta has stood as the unrivaled master of fantasy art, his influence only growing in the years since his passing. His paintings continue to break auction records, with *Egyptian Queen* selling for $5.4 million in 2019. Now, at last, his work is celebrated in this definitive monograph.

Born in Brooklyn in 1928 to a Sicilian immigrant family, Frazetta was as much an athlete and streetwise rogue as he was an artist. With movie-star good looks and extraordinary talent, he claimed to only create art when there was nothing better to do—his true passion was baseball. Yet by the age of 16, he was already working professionally in comics. His early career led him to the famed EC Comics before he transitioned to painting pulp covers for *Tarzan* and *Conan*. Though many artists had depicted these characters before him, Frazetta brought a new intensity to them. “I’m very physical minded. In Brooklyn, I knew Conan, I knew guys just like him,” he explained in the 1970s. Using his firsthand understanding of strength and masculinity, he reimagined fantasy heroes as larger, fiercer, and more imposing than ever before.

Balancing this brute force, he also introduced a new vision of women in fantasy art. As nude as censorship would allow, his female figures had pixie-like faces with voluptuous, realistic bodies—thick thighs, full hips, and ample curves. With soft stomachs and subtle traces of cellulite, they felt strikingly alive. Combined with dynamic action, fearsome creatures, and shadowy, atmospheric landscapes, Frazetta’s art became utterly irresistible—once you’ve seen it, you can’t look away.