Gustavo TurnerWe can safely call Frank Frazetta, who passed away at 82 today one of the most important, most influential fantasy illustrators of the 20th century.
(We could even go out on a limb (or a muscle) and say that Frazetta, through his visions of Conan and heroes with more muscles than it's physically possible, made the rise of Schwarzenegger possible.)
In the '70s and '80s Frazetta images became engraved on boys' (and more than a few girls') imaginations as epitomes of “dark ages” heroism and luxury–if Brian Wilson had been a teen in the '80s he would have sung “I wish they all could be/Frank Frazetta girls”:
Last year a company called Meatcards (which made exactly what the name implies) launched a contest looking for live-action reenactments of Frazetta paintings like the one on the right.
Boing Boing reported on the astonishing (ass-tonishing?) results.
Goodbye, Frank. Your work lives on in our teenage imaginations.
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