JAFO's NEWS - the FUN in FunKo
Friday, May 14, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Zenescope Update - Found Phoenix Comics
Woo Hoo !! Finally found this comic shop in Hicksville !! Caught up on about half of the past issues I missed out on the last few months !!!
- Live from New York ... it's from my iPhone !!!
- Live from New York ... it's from my iPhone !!!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Rest in Peace - Frank Frazetta 1928 - 2010
Thank You Frank ... and Rest In Peace
Frank Frazetta, an illustrator of comic books, movie posters and paperback book covers whose visions of musclebound men fighting with swords and axes to defend scantily dressed women helped define fantasy heroes like Conan, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars, died on Monday in Fort Myers, Fla. He was 82.
The cause was complications from a stroke, said Rob Pistella and Stephen Ferzoco, Mr. Frazetta’s business managers.
Mr. Frazetta was a versatile and prolific comic book artist who, in the 1940s and ’50s, drew for comic strips like Al Capp’s “Lil’ Abner” and comic books like “Famous Funnies,” for which he contributed a series of covers depicting the futuristic adventurer Buck Rogers.
A satirical advertisement Mr. Frazetta drew for Mad earned him his first Hollywood job, the movie poster for “What’s New Pussycat?” (1965), a sex farce written by Woody Allen that starred Peter Sellers. In 1983 he collaborated with the director Ralph Bakshi to produce the animated film “Fire and Ice.”
His most prominent work, however, was on the cover of book jackets, where his signature images were of strikingly fierce, hard-bodied heroes and bosomy, callipygian damsels in distress. In 1966, his cover of “Conan the Adventurer,” a collection of four fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, depicted a brawny long-haired warrior standing in repose on top of a pile of skeletons and other detritus, his sword thrust downward into the mound, an apparently naked young woman lying at his feet, hugging his ankle.
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The cover created a new look for fantasy adventure novels and established Mr. Frazetta as an artist who could sell books. He illustrated many more Conan books (including “Conan the Conqueror,” “Conan the Usurper” and “Conan the Avenger”) and works by Edgar Rice Burroughs (including “John Carter and the Savage Apes of Mars” and “Tarzan and the Antmen”).
“Paperback publishers have been known to buy one of his paintings for use as a cover, then commission a writer to turn out a novel to go with it,” The New York Times reported in 1977, the same year that a collection of his drawings, “The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta,” sold more than 300,000 copies.
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Frank Frazzetta was born in Brooklyn on Feb. 9, 1928, and as a boy studied painting at a local art school. (Early in his career, he excised one z from his last name because “with one z it just looked better,” Mr. Pistella said. “He said the two z’s and two t’s was too clumsy.”)
Mr. Frazetta began drawing for comic books of all stripes — westerns, mysteries, fantasies — when he was still a teenager. He was also a good enough baseball player to try out for the New York Giants.
The popularity of Mr. Frazetta’s work coincided with the rise of heavy metal in the early 1970s, and his otherworldly imagery showed up on a number of album covers, including Molly Hatchet’s “Flirtin’ With Disaster” and Nazareth’s “Expect No Mercy.” Last year, Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist for Metallica, bought Mr. Frazetta’s cover artwork for the paperback reissue of Robert E. Howard’s “Conan the Conqueror” for $1 million.
Mr. Frazetta married Eleanor Kelly, known as Ellie, in 1956. She served as his occasional model and as his business partner; in 2000 she started a small museum of her husband’s work on their property in East Stroudsburg, Pa. She died last year.
Mr. Frazetta is survived by three sisters, Carol, Adel and Jeanie; two sons, Alfonso Frank Frazetta, known as Frank Jr., and William Frazetta, both of East Stroudsburg; two daughters, Heidi Grabin, of Englewood, Fla., and Holly Frazetta, of Boca Grande, Fla.; and 11 grandchildren.
After Ellie Frazetta’s death, her children became embroiled in a custodial dispute over their father’s work, and in December, Frank Jr. was arrested on charges of breaking into the family museum and attempting to remove 90 paintings that had been insured for $20 million. In April, the family said the dispute over the paintings had been resolved, and the Monroe County, Pa., district attorney said he would drop the charges.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
ZeneGirl of the Month - Amy
CALLING ZENESCOPE GIRLS FOR 2010!!
Little Red thinks you should do it and so do we...
Do you want to be a Zenescope girl in 2010? Do you have a girlfriend, fiance or wife who you think should be the next Z girl? Submit a minimum of 3 pics dressed as your favorite Zenescope character to info@zenescope.com at any time starting right now... You heard us, go get that camera and get moving! Prizes will be announced next later this month. Entrants must be at least 18 years of age and a resident of the U.S. or Canada to enter this contest. All specific contest details, prizes and prize details to be determined by Zenescope in its sole discretion. Please make sure picture resolution meet the following specifications: 5"x7" / 150dpi.jpg / no more than 2MB in size
IMPORTANT! PLEASE DOWNLOAD,
SIGN & MAIL THE MODEL RELEASE FORM TO BE ELIGIBLE:
SIGN & MAIL THE MODEL RELEASE FORM TO BE ELIGIBLE:
Girl of the Month Release Form
*You MUST be at least 18 years of age and a resident of the U.S. or Canada to enter this contest. All specific contest details, prizes and prize details to be determined by Zenescope and/or contest sponsors in their sole discretion.