Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated
Issues #4-5
Quantum Cat Productions
Fans of fantasy will instantly recognize the name Frank Frazetta as the grand master of fantasy art. You’d expect nothing but quality from a magazine that bears his name, and Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated does an excellent job of living up to that high standard. Similar in format to Heavy Metal , FFFI is by far more interesting than HM has been in years.
Each issue features one of the master’s gorgeous paintings as a frontispiece (the legendary DeathDealer looms off the cover of #4, while The Snow Giants attempt to separate Conan from his head on issue #5). Inside, you’ll find scholarly discussion of said cover, and (as the magazine’s cover trumpets) “Illustrated Fantasy & Sci-Fi from the world’s greatest artists & writers.”
Issue #4 features an in-depth essay on Frazetta’s pen and ink work by Frazetta expert Dr. David Winiewicz (featuring full-page reproductions of several of the works), the gorgeous high-tech art of Steve Stone’s “Strange Cargo,” “Rogue’s Curse,” an ElfQuest feature written and illustrated by co-creator Wendy Pini, and “What Price the Unicorn?,” an amusing fairy tale written by Kevin Tucker and lavishly illustrated by Phillip Xavier. Issue #5’s highlights include the nightmarish sci-fi epic “Ulysses Squared” from writer Brian Haberlin and former X-Men artist Whilce Portatio, exciting space opera from the Hildebrandt Brothers (the stunningly beautiful “The Emerald Seven”) and writer Elio Leone and artist Tom Grindberg (the grittier “Spacejackers: The Continued Saga”), and Rob Prior’s spooky, atmospheric “The Stitchery Man.”
Each issue also features illustrated excerpts from upcoming novels by well-known fantasy authors (in #4, it’s Anne McCaffrey’s Nimisha’s Ship , while #5 features R.A. Salvatore’s The Demon Apostle ) and installments of two ongoing series, Leone and painter Dan Orizio’s “invasion from the center of the Earth” saga “Infernus Terra,” and artist Daren Bader and writer Lance Hutto’s anthropomorphic “Pridelands.”
All in all, Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated is a beautiful magazine that easily lives up to its mission statement. The master should be proud to be associated with this fine body of work.
Quantum Cat Entertainment, P.O. Box 3120, Winter Park, FL 32790; http://www.fffi.com
