Like the guy from Bloodsport, only not Asian!

Frazetta Comics - Paintings coming to life

Death Dealer and alot more!

When people talk about artists such as Da Vinci or Van Gogh I can respect where they are coming from, but I just don’t see it. Maybe it’s just because their style of work is not my bag. To me, the Mona Lisa appears to be some dumpy old broad who is not attractive by any means. It’s just plain dumb. That would be the last painting I would want to stare at in my living room.

But that’s my opinion and it is what makes art an entity of it’s own. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it’s making more sense to me the older I get. To me, when it comes to art its guys like John Pound (Garbage Pail Kids), Basil Gogos (Famous Monsters of Filmland), Johnny Craig (Tales from the Crypt), Sergio Aragones (Mad Magazine), Kevin Eastman (TMNT and now ownes Heavy Metal), and Frank Frazetta that ruled my world. Their work caught my eye as a kid and still does today. My love for monsters, ghouls, and sheer insanity can be unmatched. These fellas have painted some amazing masterpieces that people all over the world share the same passions for such as I do.

So when Jay Fotos (Spawn, 68’) launched Frazetta Comics through Image back in 2006, to say I was ecstatic is an understatement. Frazetta Comics is a company that creates stories based upon Frank Frazetta’s original artwork. All of the stories and art are approved by the Frazetta Family which says a lot about the quality of the art and stories contained in each issue.

As a child I remember seeing Frazetta art and imagining what the story behind his painting Black Panther could have been. Another painting I remember called Princess of Mars had this fine chick riding a lizard and I would imagine my own stories involving the painting. (I’ll leave out what I thought about Vampirella!) His work is so imaginative when you look at any single painting you can come up with dozens of stories.

The first comic book launched was Death Dealer as a six issue series. Not to be confused with Glen Danzig’s early 90’s effort, Jay Fotos’ Death Dealer flew off the shelves in a record six hours. The second issue was released while the first was on its THIRD printing!

The story begins with a father telling his son about a war between the kingdoms of Edani and Oro that took place nine centuries ago in the land of Iparsia. During these vicious battles, a being only known as a legend called a Death Dealer would show up, not choosing a side but destroying everyone and everything involved. It was virtually unstoppable and cleared its path with no regret. But the father is interrupted and doesn’t finish the story due to the fact that his own village is under attack. As the son later tells of his village’s demise that the attackers seemed more demon like than human. The story switches to the Duke Atar’s daughter Adelia and her boyfriend Haden who are sneaking around in the forest together without their parents consent. After they are attacked by a horde of barbaric creatures and Haden gets slaughtered trying to protect Adelia, his blood seeps into this sacred tree where he falls to his death. From there you can get the idea of what may be coming next.

The story was written by Josh Ortega (Spider-Man, FREQUENCIES), the plot was written by Nat Jones (30 Days of Night, Rob Zombie’s The Nail) and lettered by Jason Hanley (who as you read on does the lettering in each comic for Frazetta Comics). Fotos did the coloring also. The entire story titled Shadows of Mirahan featured alternative covers for each issue and was highly successful – opening the doors for Fotos and company to launch a slew of other Frazetta Comics tales.

So far each of the one off issues have been very impressive to me. Each story has featured different artists giving the comics more of an individual feel rather than the same thing over and over.

Swamp Demon was released in July 2008 is a dark fantasy tale set as a prequel five hundred years before the events in Death Dealer’s story took place. The story was written by Josh Ortega and drawn by Josh Medors (G.I. Joe, Cellar of Nastiness).

Dark Kingdom is another one off issue that is a revenge tale told from a grandfather to his grandson about the legend of Red Morden. I am especially fond of the colors Fotos used throughout the issue. The story was written my Mark Kidwell (Bump, 68’, Creature from The Depths) and the artwork was done by Tim Vigil (Faust, Dark Utopia). It’s like a combination of Conan the Barbarian and Pathfinder. I hope to see this eventually become a series on it’s own because I really enjoyed it!

Creatures is an interesting story written by Rick Remender (Brian Posehn’s The Last Christmas, Fear Agent) about Theodore Roosevelt and his “Top Secret Regent of Dark Riders.” The plot is a document of the Dark Riders final investigation. The art a bit different from it’s predecessors which gives the comic it’s own entirely different feel. Peter Bergting (Hellboy, Owen & Lloyd) did a really cool job with the style of the comic books art.

Dracula Meets the Wolfman is another one off that completely carries a different feel than the other Frazetta Comic books. The illustrations are drawn to look more like a story that might have been featured in an old Eerie magazine. Everything about this comic book is cool, it’s very olds school. The original painting Frazetta drew of that this story is based on has always been one of my favorite pieces he did. You could say I was very enthusiastic to read this. Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre) wrote the story and Francesco Francavilla (Scalped, Zorro) drew it.

The really cool thing is that Image has just released these all into two collector book with a ton of extra stuff. So if you don’t want to try tracking down the individual issues you can get them in one shot that includes all sorts of bonus material that was previously unavailable.

The Death Dealer: Shadows of Mirahan includes a forward from Todd McFarlane, a biography written by Frank Frazetta Jr., pictures of all the Death Dealer covers, a script of ink gallery, and a collection of unpublished conceptual art. The book is huge and is a hardcover collectors piece. The art included is simply amazing.

As for the individual issues mentioned earlier such as Creatures, Dracula Meets the Wolfman, Dark Kingdom, and Swamp Demon: They are all included in one hardcover book titled The Fantastic Worlds of Frazetta. The extras are really cool in this book too and feature pencils to ink sketches, letters from the writers and artists on how they came to discover Frank Frazettas work, unpublished and concept art, and all the alternative covers.

Both books are totally worth picking up and can be purchased through Amazon. If you live in the Phoenix area Jay Fotos , Tim Vigil, and Josh Medors will be signing stuff at this weekends Phoenix Comicon in Mesa Arizona. The convention is being held at the Mesa Convention Center January 23rd -25th. The link to the Comicon website with more information is: http://www.phoenixcomicon.com/  

At this years International Horror and Sci-Fi Festival in Chandler AZ, Jay Fotos came out and did a Q&A after a showing of a documentary directed by Lance Laspina called Frazetta: Painting With Fire. Fotos told a story about a father and son’s visit to the Frazetta Museum and how the father told Frazetta’s daughter how much they enjoyed the comic books. The father had grown up a fan of his work and his son became a fan of the comics. Together they had a chance to bond more both being able to enjoy the same stuff. The story was cool to hear cause let’s be honest: When can you say you ever enjoyed the same thing like one of your parents!

This week marked the first of the 2009 series of Frazetta Comics, Frank Frazetta’s Moon Maid. The story was written by Jay Fotos and was drawn by Tim Vigil.

According to the Frazetta Comics Myspace the story goes as follows: On the dead moon of Kyra, a sheltered young Maid is torn between good and evil. As she comes of age and the equinox draws closer, the Maid learns her true identity and what purpose she has in the universe. The only trick is learning who she can trust... and how to survive her destiny!

Also projected for 2009 is a new series of Death Dealer II, Freedom, Neanderthal, Silver Warrior, Combat, Civil War Era, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Sorcerer.

I mentioned a while back that these stories have brought me back to reading comic books. I did a review in our archive http://www.icansmellyourbrains.com/?page=article&cmd=view&entryid=854 where I touched on it.

Now I go to one of the comic book stores monthly and pick up a gang of stuff at a time. With so much on the table and so many creative and innovative paintings created by Frank Frazetta there is no doubt in my mind that Fotos and company will be extremely busy for a long time.

And I’ll be busy reading them………. That to me is art.

Add Frazetta Comics on Myspace for updates and giveaways!

www.myspace.com/frazettacomics  

Some ugly fellas for 2009!!