The Making of Frazetta's and Bakshi's Fire and Ice (1983)

Considering the buzz over the live action Robert Rodriguez Fire and Ice film in the works, and the resurrection of the Frank Frazetta museum, this was a nice find.  Enjoy and be inspired.

Vaughn Bode - Wizards and NYC Subway Art

Inner city NYC kids in the 1970's and 80's who had any drawing talent often carried not a sketchbook, but a black hardcover 'tag book'. Tag books were saturated from cover to cover with illustrations bleeding with color done in magic marker. This was a sketchbook for graffiti art. A 'tag' referred to a graffiti artist's nom de plume. Which usually was the subject of their art pieces found on subway cars.

Animated cartoon characters such as the Looney Toons, Disney and Marvel characters would often appear alongside these huge graffiti mobile murals, but the cartoon artist that arguably influenced graffiti art the most was Vaughn Bode.

Bode's characters Cheech Wizard, Lizard, Cobalt-60 or his voluptuous "Bode girls" like Belinda Bump were staples of graffiti art. Bode influenced many young urban artists to pick up a pencil (or a spray-can) inspiring them to create.

Bode entered the NYC underground comics world in the early 1970's along with his peers like Robert Crumb. Vaughn Bode called himself a "graphic animator" and and greatly desired to be an animator at Disney's. After a stint in California, Bode he made several unsuccesful attempts to enter the animation industry. This was pre-1975, roughly around the time Disney started its first animator training program.

It's only poetic justice that only a couple of years later Bode's work would inspire an animated feature film based on his illustration style: Ralph Bakshi's 1977 animated feature, "Wizards".

2012 is the 35th anniversary of "Wizards". A commemorative blu-ray and new book will be available later this year as noted on Cartoon Brew.

Below are three videos of a rare interview with Bode in 1974. (Thanks to mollybode on YouTube) He talks about turning down Stan Lee, his feelings about Disney and also mentions his friendship with the fantasy illustrator Jeffery Jones. (Catherine Jeffery Jones).

Vaughn Bode is the patron saint of all graffiti artists around the world and still continues to influence artists today. Vaughn Bode died in 1975. His son Mark continues to create art in the same style and spirt of his father.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Giving Sight To Vision

William A. Fraker, ASC, BSC. (1923 -2010)

William Fraker is not a household name, but he will be remembered by filmmakers as one of the most noteworthy cinematographers of the 1970's and 80's. Nominated for Academy Awards in Best Cinematography in films such as Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Spielberg's 1941 and Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin (I didn't know that until today!). Perhaps he will be most remembered for one of the most memorable film sequences that "upped the bar" for car chases in cinema: Bullit, starring Steve McQueen.



He should be remembered for being a solid cinematographer who helped his directors visualize the story in the best and most suitable way.

His work doesn't yell and scream "William Fraker, ASC, BSC". However for me, he does define a certain look that was consistent with the cinema in the 1970's. I love that clean look of 70's cinema and those earlier film stocks that were always a little grainy (which gave it life in my opinion) and favored cooler tones.

I think 1970's cinematography and William Fraker comes to mind.

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.

Hold Up A Mirror and What Do You See?

I remember in 1991, director Spike Lee fought tooth and nail, petitioning the do the biographical film, "Malcolm X". The banner of his campaign was that the story of Malcolm X had to be told by an African American person and not a white American.

Emotionally, I can see how Spike felt he was "obligated" to fight for this movie. But in on a creative and honest level, sometimes the best person to tell your story is someone else with an objective point of view.

Three directors come to mind: Norman Jewison (director of in the Heat of the Night and original director slated to direct Malcolm X), Edward Zwick and Steven Spielberg. All three have directed films (A Soldier's Story, Glory, The Color Purple, respectively) that arguably are amongst the best films depicting aspects of the African American experience.

Indeed, there are things that all these directors would never just "get" because they didn't grow up black in America. However, they do understand people and relationships. And they do have the liberty of being able to look at people or cultures objectively. Including some of our closely guarded idiosyncrasies.

Even Ralph Bakshi's "Coonskin", (as coarse as some people view this film) contained some levels of honesty through a twisted caricature of Harlem's underworld in the 1970's. A caricature that no black American would dare to do then or today.

I heard once, "Truth is, when you do an autobiography, intentional or not, you are going to tell your story "your" way. And you are going to paint the face you want to see and leave out things perhaps you don't want others to see."

The best person to edit your work is always another person with fresh and objective eyes. Sometimes the same can be said of those who are going to tell your story.

Creativity: Heart, Discipline.

I was thinking what was a good way to kick off this vanity project/ blog. Incidentally, I've been whining to myself about my right shoulder which I injured earlier this week. No, I'm not crippled, but it is annoying and I've used it as an excuse to not draw for a couple of days.

Artist/ illustrator extraordinaire Frank Frazetta, detailed his many emotional and physical struggles in the documentary "Frazetta: Painting With Fire". Despite being near death, he found a way to still be creative, still produce. Even after suffering a stroke, and losing the use of his drawing hand, (his right hand), Frazetta still pushed forward by switching to draw and paint with his left hand instead.

Ralph Bakshi, also featured in the film made a very plain but poignant note that, "Art begins in the heart and the mind. You don't draw with your hand, you just don't."