Frank Frazetta, epic fantasy

Conan

Frank Frazetta (1928 – 2010) was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media. Frazetta was drawing comic books in many genres, including Westerns, fantasy, mystery, and historical drama. He also produced paintings for paperback editions of adventure books. His interpretation of Conan visually redefined the genre of sword and sorcery, and had an enormous influence on succeeding generations of artists. From this point on, Frazetta's work was in great demand. His covers were used for other paperback editions of classic Edgar Rice Burroughs books, such as those from the Tarzan and Barsoom (John Carter of Mars) series. He also did several pen and ink illustrations for many of these books. His cover art only coincidentally matched the storylines inside the books, as Frazetta once explained: "I didn't read any of it... I drew him my way. It was really rugged. And it caught on. I didn't care about what people thought. People who bought the books never complained about it. They probably didn't read them.

Conan

Conan

Frazetta's paintings have been used by a number of recording artists as cover art for their albums. Molly Hatchet's first three albums feature "The Death Dealer", "Dark Kingdom", and "Berserker", respectively. Dust's second album, Hard Attack, features "Snow Giants". Nazareth used "The Brain" for its 1977 album Expect No Mercy. Frazetta also created new cover artwork for Buddy Bought the Farm, the second CD of the surf horror band "The Dead Elvi".

And some album covers designed by Frazetta:

Dust "Hard Attack" (1972)

Nazareth "Expect no Mercy" (1977)

Molly Hatchet "self titled" (1978)

Molly Hatchet "Flirtin' with Disaster" (1979)

Molly Hatchet "Beatin' the Odds" (1980)