NEW FRAZETTA ART BOOK BY TASCHEN

There is no shortage of books featuring the art of the late, great Frank Frazetta. Since the publication of the first of several volumes entitled, THE FANTASTIC ART OF FRANK FRAZETTA from Peacock Press/Bantam in 1974 through today, numerous editions in varying quality have hit the shelves.

Scheduled for release next month is what is sure to be the definitive collection of Frazetta's artwork, THE FANTASTIC WORLDS OF FRANK FRAZETTA. Multi-lingual publisher Taschen is known for their high-quality art books and this one is sure to exceed anything yet produced. With a whopping 468 pages, the standard edition is $200 and available for pre-order. There is also a limited slip-cased edition (of course) that sells for $600.

From the publisher:

All Hail the King of Fantasy Art

Frank Frazetta finally gets the big beautiful book he deserves

Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed lord of fantasy art for 50 years, his fame only growing in the 12 years since his death. With his paintings now breaking auction records (Egyptian Queen sold for $ 5.4 million in 2019) he’s long overdue for this ultimate monograph.

Born to a Sicilian immigrant family in Brooklyn, 1928, Frazetta was a minor league athlete, petty criminal and serial seducer with movie star looks and phenomenal talent. He claimed to only make art when there was nothing better to do – he preferred playing baseball - yet began his professional career in comics at age 16. Strip work led him to the infamous EC Comics, then to oils for Tarzan and Conan pulp covers. Both characters were interpreted by many before him, but as he explained in the 1970s, “I’m very physical minded. In Brooklyn, I knew Conan, I knew guys just like him,” and he used this first-hand knowledge of muscle and macho to redefine fantasy heroes as more massive, more menacing, more testosterone-fueled than anything seen before. As counterbalance he created a new breed of women, nude as censorship allowed, with pixie faces and multiparous bodies: thick thighed, heavy buttocked, breasts cantilevered out to there, yet still, with their soft bellies and hints of cellulite, believably real. Add in the action, the creatures, the twilit worlds of haunting shadow and Frazetta’s art is addictive as potato chips.

This monograph is the biggest and most complete ever produced on the artist, done in collaboration with the Frazetta family and with top collectors.

THE AUTHORS

Dan Nadel is curator-at-large for the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis, and a contributor to the New York Review of Books and Artforum. Nadel’s books and exhibitions include Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence 1945–1976 (2020), Chicago Comics, 1960s to Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2021), and the forthcoming biography of Robert Crumb (Scribner, 2024). He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Zak Smith is an artist whose work is included in several public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Saatchi Gallery, London; and The Whitney Museum of American Art. He is the author of several books, writes a regular column for Artillery magazine and lives and works in Los Angeles.

THE EDITOR

Dian Hanson produced a variety of men’s magazines from 1976 to 2001, including Juggs, Outlaw Biker, and Leg Show, before becoming TASCHEN’s Sexy Book Editor. Her titles include the “body part” series, The Art of Pin-up, Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, and Ren Hang.

The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta

Famous First Edition: First printing of 6,000 numbered copies

Hardcover, clothbound with jacket, 29 x 39.5 cm, 4.87 kg, 468 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-9480-6

Edition: English, French, German (Famous First Edition)

TASCHEN RELEASES MASSIVE HISTORY OF EC COMICS

Huge news (literally) from the boutique publisher, TASCHEN. Now shipping is what looks to be the definitive retrospective of EC Comics. Covering everything from their horror titles to MAD, this 11.4 x 15.6 in. slab weighs in at 13.27 pounds! From the preview pages this looks like the usual beautifully designed art book that TASCHEN is well-known for. The text is written by "EC-authority", Grant Geissman. It's expensive at 200 bucks, but I suspect its worth every penny to an EC Comics Addict or someone interested in early horror, science-fiction and crime comic books, as well as the early years of MAD.

From the publisher:

In 1947, Bill Gaines inherited EC Comics, a new venture founded by his legendary father M. C. Gaines, who was responsible for midwifing the birth of the comic book as we know it during his tenure at All-American Comics, bringing the likes of Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to the world. Over the next eight years, Bill Gaines and a “who’s who” of the era including Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and Wally Wood would reinvent the very notion of the comic book with titles like Tales from the Crypt, Crime SuspenStories, Weird Science, and MAD.

EC delighted in publishing gory, morbid horror and crime comics that had snap, ironic endings—but they also pioneered the first true-to-life war comics, the first “real” science-fiction stories, and a series of tales about such then-taboo subjects as racism, bigotry, vigilantism, drug addiction, police corruption, and anti-Semitism. Too good to last, they were eventually caught up by various 1950s guardians of morality, who were convinced that EC’s often over-the-top content was causing juvenile delinquency. A year or so after a full inquiry investigating horror and crime comics, the incredible EC Comics were no more.

TASCHEN presents the full, fascinating story of this fabled company, written and expertly curated by EC-authority Grant Geissman. Even the most die-hard EC Fan-Addicts will find something new within these pages, with the Gaines family archives providing more than 100 rarities that have never seen print. Many of the cover images are reproduced from Gaines File Copies, which are widely regarded as the best surviving copies of the EC Comics.

Gathering more than 1,000 illustrations that include the rarest and most notorious covers, interior pages and panels, photos, vintage original artwork, and some of the most celebrated stories ever to be printed in four colors for a dime, this is the ultimate EC Comics compendium and a must-have for any comics enthusiast or pop culture historian.

The author
Grant Geissman is one of the world’s leading experts on EC Comics and Mad magazine, and the author and designer of four books on the subject, three of them nominated for an Eisner Award. He is also an Emmy-nominated guitarist and composer who co-wrote the music for the hit television series Two and a Half Men and Mike & Molly. He has fourteen albums released under his own name, including the jazz trilogy Say That!, Cool Man Cool, and BOP! BANG! BOOM!

The History of EC Comics
Grant Geissman
Hardcover, 11.4 x 15.6 in., 13.27 lb, 592 pages
ISBN 978-3-8365-4976-9
Edition: English
Price: $200

Order direct from the publisher HERE.