1940'S and Earlier

Early "Fritz" drawing from the 40's

The oldest of four children and the only boy in the family, Frank Frazzetta (he would later drop one of the "z"s) was born on the 9th day of February, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, discovered the wonders of drawing before he was three, when he sold his first crayon drawing to Grandma - for the tidy sum of one penny. It was through her interest and encouragement, that he continued his drawings through those early years. When he hit kindergarten, his teachers were astounded that there was a child only 5 1/2 drawing better then ten-year-olds. Throughout Elementary School, Frazetta created comic books with the main character a snowman and an array of assorted characters.

Frazetta began drawing his own comic books around the age of six. Intricate, labor-intensive colored pencil stories featuring his original characters like "Snowman" and "The Red Devil & Goldy" [sic] still exist and exhibit a level of style and sophistication that is amazing. One of his sisters would often take Frank's home-drawn comics and trade them to other kids for their store-bought issues of Famous Funnies. Frazetta's artistic ability wasn't a secret to his elementary school teachers. "Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving were my big days, " he remembers "I guess I drew more Santa's, bunnies, and turkeys on blackboards than anyone could count. At the insistence of one of my teachers, my parents enrolled me in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts when I was eight. The Academy was little more than a one floor/three room affair with a total of thirty students ranging in age from eight–me!–to eighty. I still remember the Professor Michele [Michael] Falanga's look of skepticism as I signed in. He was rolling his eyes and you could almost see the thought balloon over his head, "Oh no! Not another child prodigy!" He sat me down with a pencil and paper and asked me to copy a postcard featuring a group of realistically rendered ducks. When he returned later to see how far I had progressed, he snatched up my drawing exclaiming, "Mama mia!" and ran off waving it in the air, calling everyone over to look at it. I thought I was in some kind of trouble ."

Falanga, a fine artist of some renown in his native Italy, was impressed with Frazetta's natural ability and believed he had tremendous potential. "He died when I was twelve," Frank explains, "right about the time he was making arrangements to send me off to Italy at his own expense to study fine art. I haven't the vaguest idea of whether it would have really affected my areas of interest. I don't know, but I doubt it. You see, we never had any great conversations. He might look over your shoulder and say. "Very nice, but perhaps if you did this or that..." He spoke very broken English and he kind of left you on your own. I think I learned more from my friends there, especially Albert Pucci. Falanga would look at some of the comics stuff I was doing and say, "What a waste, what a waste! You should be in Italy and paint the street scene and become a very famous fine artiste!" And that didn't thrill me! After he died the students tried to keep the school going; we had become such close friends that we couldn't bear to close up shop so we all chipped in and paid the rent and continued to hold classes. I did nude life drawings and still lifes; we'd paint outdoors. It was all totally different that the way I work now, but it taught me a lot about brush technique and perspective and helped me to develop my own style."
An early appearance of Snowman as shown in RETROSPECTIVE

FRANK FRAZETTA BIOGRAPHY
NEXT PAGE
 1940: | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3 | PAGE 4 : 1950

© 2006 All Rights Reserved