October 2006 News | See Past News

Hello everyone,

Grandpa with granddaughters

With another summer passing bye, the beautiful colors of fall cover the mountains surrounding the Frazetta estate. This is one of the best times to visit the gallery with the brisk air and wonderful colors that glow across the hills all around the Pocono region. With most of the tourism over in our area, traffic is not as congested as it was earlier in the summer months. While at the museum, you are welcome to sit outside on the beautiful stone patio that over looks the small lake. A few fans have been fortunate enough to see large black bears that roam the fields in the afternoon hours. Not to be alarmed, they are seldom aggressive in this area unless defending their young cubs. But even with that, I have never seen a momma bear become aggressive at any time in my 36 years living in the Pocono’s. My only close encounter with momma and her cubs was outside by the garage. They were passing through the yard and in an instant she grunted to get the cubs attention and quickly ran off into the woods never to be seen again. As fascinating as these creatures are to see in the wild, I would be more scared of a stray dog that I may encounter face to face. But don’t let this story keep you from coming out to see us.

Below is one of the wonderful left handed paintings my father has been working on this summer. The gorillas are rendered beautifully while the entire painting possesses the Frazetta magic. It is also one of the larger paintings he has done over the years.

When there is no baseball on television or anything of interest to do, he will tinker with the painting a few hours at a time. The other painting below, Barbarian with Axe, has been revised from its original design. I’m not sure what it was used for when it was first published but I do know he was an older version of Conan with white hair.

The other photo my father is making minor adjustments on a new Death Dealer statue that will be available next summer. The sculptor, Steven Lord also did the Dark Kingdom statue that will be here in November. I will not be pre-selling these until they are in production and final painting has been approved. But now that I have found a foundry that will except a small order and has the ability to cast quality products, I do not foresee any major delays in production with this one.

My father is in good spirits and was excited with the New York Met's heading into the playoffs. But now that they have been eliminated he was not upset, more so discussed by the quality of play after the fabulous year they had. Like the sports journalist stated, if the Met's played to their ability, they should have walked through the playoffs until they had to play the Detroit Tigers. Maybe next year.

He has been to his Florida home a few times this year but his true home is back in the Pocono’s. Once he left Brooklyn in 1970, he never looked back. He always wanted to own a large parcel of land and enjoy the great outdoors. Till this day as he did some thirty years ago, will put a camera around his neck and one of his numerous pistols on his side and walk across the field over to my home. Just after moving out of the city where guns were not permitted, my father and I started buying guns like there was no tomorrow. From small .22 caliber pistols to the powerful .375 H&H magnum. We were amazed how accurate these guns were and with just a few weeks practice we could hit anything.

We laughed when Dirty Harry never missed the bad guys from a block away, while the villains couldn't hit the side of a barn. We figured that’s just Hollywood’s way of portraying the good guys. But soon after firing a few hundred rounds of ammo at a variety of targets, we were hitting 5 gallon jugs from 250 ft away with our 44 magnum pistol. It was amazing! Was it the gun or were we just becoming marksmen over night? In just a few short months, we had quite a collection of firearms of our own. My father and I shared many evenings together talking about what guns we were going to buy next. My father and I are very closely knit, and I needed few friends with a father like I had. If it wasn’t guns or stick ball, we would squeeze nine holes of golf in before sunset. These were just some of the things that kept us together without leaving the 75 acre estate. But now with all the children running around along with the Pocono region becoming over populated, our guns are rarely taken out of the gun cabinet.

I have some good news for anyone who has purchased a Dark Kingdom statue. They are about ship from the Orient via boat by the 3 rd week in October. For all your patience dealing with this long delay, anyone who purchases the statue before November 25 th, will receive a signed and numbered print that will go along with your certificate of authenticity. It has been mailed out along with the signed and numbered plate that adheres to front of your statue in about two weeks. It was mailed priority mail via-postal service with delivery confirmation. Anyone who did not receive your plate that has pre-ordered the statue please call me to track your package.

The museum will be open through the Christmas holiday and anyone with questions pertaining to the museum or ordering can contact us at 570-424-5833 or 570-476-4050, Cell# 570-242-6180.

I will be posting new originals in the gallery store of the web site by November 10 th. If anyone is interested in Christmas gifts please be sure to give ample time for delivery. Most of the popular images, “Death Dealer, Moon Rapture, Egyptian Queen of the Masters Collection are normally in stock, but we do sell through quickly at times so if you have any questions give us a call. Email at frazettatwins@yahoo.com or webmaster@frazettaartgallery.com . We can custom make any of the 149 prints in the gallery store for you in the Masters Collection, reproduced high quality canvas imagery framed, signed and numbered by Mr. Frazetta. The deluxe edition can also be personalized for you which gives it an added touch. Just call me at 570-424-5833 or email me at golf2000@ptd.net for this special customization. It will take 2-4 weeks to complete.

We will be offering a new hard cover book based on the history of Conan the barbarian titled “The Ultimate Guide To The World’s Most Savage Barbarian.” With over 300 color pages, this guide is a treasure trove of stories and art for fans both new and old. Written by renowned Conan author and scholar Roy Thomas and featuring a foreword by Todd Mcfarlane, this invaluable tome contains some of the genre’s foremost artists, including John Buscema, Frank Frazetta, Gary Gianni and many more. For Conan fans, this is a dream come true, and a dream seventy years in the making. We will be selling a limited quantity of signed and numbered copies exclusively on our site. Mr. Frazetta will be signing just 250 of these in-depth books covering the entire history of the Conan legacy. There will also be a large close up of the revised barbarian print put inside the book as an additional bonus. It will be initialed and numbered with the same corresponding number to match the book. These prints were made years ago but never offered to the general public. We should have them in stock in a few weeks. Anyone can pre-order the book now and expect delivery by the end of November.

There is a new Death Dealer comic book hitting the stands sometime next spring. It was put together by Jay Fotos and some associates. I believe the cover art will be all my fathers Death Dealer paintings and the series consists of seven comics for the complete story. The artwork inside is very well done and got the thumbs up from my father.

CAUTION: We cannot stress the importance of buyer-beware on any Frazetta art or memorabilia sold on internet sites such as E-Bay. Day after day I get emails pertaining to the authenticity of an item. I believe more than 20% of the items on E-Bay are either illegally printed or counterfeit. Below are a few things that should throw up a big red flag on a Frazetta item on E-bay that is not legit.

1. The price is good to be true, so know what you are looking at before bidding. Occasionally a Frazetta may be on auction for below market value but you really have to be cautious.
2. The seller states he bought it from an estate auction or from a comic shop and he is not sure if it is real or not. But he thinks it is.
3. The signature is not perfect. Normally one or two of the letters is not precise like in his paintings.
4. Be sure the seller is reputable, and confirm where he purchased it.
5. Any canvas print on E-Bay other than the ones we offer on our web pages are illegally printed. Most posters/all are reprinted illegally.

Anything of Frazetta being offered from another country, prints/lithographs, portfolios, ect are 99% illegally printed.

We are the only distributor of Frazetta posters at this time we are not selling them to anyone to my knowledge. Any original pen and ink drawings of good quality drawings selling for less than a few thousand are most likely Xerox copies.

I hate to go on about this issue, but so many museum patrons that made purchases on Ebay have had their hearts broken when we tell them they bought a fake Frazetta. And I’m not talking small purchases but thousands of dollars. With the computer age and laser copiers, it is difficult to tell the real from the fake unless they are side by side. We will be glad to assist you to its authenticity before you make the purchase. I could make a full time job chasing down all the guys selling illegal copies of my fathers work. At this time there are 5 or 6 counterfeit canvas prints for $40-$60 being offered on E-Bay. The sizes are all wrong and the seller refuses to respond to my emails. But we are dealing with them one on one through the authorities. I will be glad to help by simply emailing your questions or item to me at frazettatwins@yahoo.com.

One last note:

The new Australian band named Wolf Mother has licensed a few Frazetta images for their album covers. The Sea Witch is the main cover with golden girl and sound being used as inside single labels. Their music is sounds of a mix Zepplin and Black Sabbath.

For our younger audience please take a look in to it.

If you need special attention or service/questions about a new order feel free to call me at 570-424-5833 or 570-476-4050.

Once again, thank you for visiting with me for a few minutes and have a wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely,

Frank Frazetta JR