Frank Frazetta (1928 -2010)

Frank Frazetta, hands down, heavyweight champion of fantasy artists/ illustrators of the 20th century passed away today. His work permeates the fabric of what modern fantasy art and illustration is today. The influence of his work can be seen and felt in the composition of countless other fantasy or sci-fi illustrations and comic magazines. Whether it is said or not, films from "Conan the Barbarian" to "Disney's Tarzan" and even "Avatar" owe credit to Frank Frazetta's work.

His paintings like "The Barbarian" (called by some "the illustration of the 20th Century"), greatly contributed to the image of the "anti-hero" replacing the face of heroism in the past 40 years.

His only screen credit was as the producer (and art designer) of 'Fire and Ice", an animated feature he collaborated with animator Ralph Bakshi in 1983. Film producers such as Dino De Laurentis, John Milus, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and even Disney have all either attempted (and failed) to get him to work with them or admitted they were great admirers of his work.

Without Frank Frazetta, fantasy/ science fiction, in every medium, art, illustration, comics, animation or film would not be what we know it as today.

Mr. Frazetta, thank you so much.

Pandora's Box Opened

Hollywood is truly the land of sharks indeed. Ha. Ha.

In 1975, I begged my father and mother (I'm dating myself....I was 4) to take me to see the first movie I remember. Steven Spielberg's, "Jaws".

This was the birth of the summer blockbuster. Others would follow. Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the 70's and 80's never, and I mean never did Hollywood imagine a film making several hundreds of millions of dollars at a time like this. Movies grossing ten, fifteen times it's budget. The concept of "movie franchise" was still undiscovered country.

James Cameron's "Avatar" grossed almost $1.5 billion dollars in almost less than a month of its release.

What kind of Pandora's Box (no pun intended) has been opened? What expectations of success are going to be expected in the future? Don't get me wrong, who doesn't love money? But is greed going to win out over....yeah, I'll say it: integrity?

Thanks to a friend, I discovered a great documentary called, "Dream On Silly Dreamer". A 40 minute documentary about the "death" of traditional animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios greatly in part to....yes, the blockbuster.

After viewing this, Hollywood and Disney executives would do well to revisit one noteworthy classic fable: "The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs".

If you search around "Dream On Silly Dreamer" can be found on the net in its entirety. But I recommend buying the the DVD.