DALLAS, TX.- Frank Frazetta, the man who illustrated everyone from Buck Rogers to Conan the Barbarian to the Death Dealer to Mad Max, brought fine art to fantasy art; little wonder he holds the No. 1, 2 and 3 spots in
Heritage Auctions' list of world-record-holding comic-art works.
A hot and essential Frazetta lot includes, Tally-Ho Comics Unpublished Complete 10-Page Story Original Art (Bailly Publishing Co., c. 1944-45) is expected to capture the spotlight in Heritage Auctions' Comics & Comic Art Auction April 1-4.
The Tally-Ho Comics original art (estimate: $20,000+) includes 10 stunning, twice-up pages, penned and inked by Frazetta and featuring the artist's first character, The Snow Man. In 2015, Frazetta's son, Frank Jr., published the initial draft of The Snow Man to share his father's adorable first hero with fans. Although unpublished, the original issue only featured minor inking from Frazetta.
"That story is undoubtedly Frazetta," said Dr. David Winiewicz, a leading authority on Frazetta. "The style of the drawing and the panel compositions reflect very precisely the early sketchbooks he drew for his own amusement. That wonderful confident, singing, moving line of Frazetta would become his trademark later on."
Frazetta's The Living Legend Woman Illustration Original Art (Sun Litho Print/Frank Frazetta, 1981) (estimate: $8,000+) captures a woman taking a leap in a mushroom patch in an image that appears on page 79 of the book Frank Frazetta: The Living Legend. A COA from William Frazetta, as well as the printed page from the book, are included with this piece. The artwork crosses the block Friday, April 2.
Frazetta's work is enormously popular at Heritage Auctions, which has sold four Frazetta lots for more than $1 million, including Egyptian Queen Painting Original Art (1969), which sold in February 2018 for $5.4 million.