Frank Frazetta RIP.

Frank Frazetta: February 9, 1928 – May 10, 2010.

I just thought I'd express my sadness to hear of yesterday's death (10th May 2010) of legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. It seems Frazetta, who was 82, died from a stroke.

Although he drew comics, Frazetta doesn't quite fit into the remit of this blog, as I never read any of them as a child. He did, however, paint a classic line of covers for the Conan paperbacks whose re-popularisation of Robert E Howard's barbarian led Marvel Comics to launch their own Conan comic, without which I would've had far fewer happy childhood memories.

My first exposure to his work came through seeing those Conan paperbacks in a bookshop on Sheffield's Chapel Walk. Sadly, that shop's long since gone and now Frank Frazettas joined it but, regardless, the memory of his work will live on for all of us who have a love of escapism.