• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Frank Frazetta's "Egyptian Queen" OA breaking comics records
3 3

147 posts in this topic

2 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Indeed. There are a few excellent painters who have worked in and around comics...Frazetta, Barks are the big ones...and the subject matter, to a great extent, is what holds a lot of this material back.

Carl Barks, for example, was a fine painter...but he painted "cartoon characters", so he's not going to be seen as a "serious" artist by those in the "real" art community...those who hang works in galleries and museums. As good as it is...it's hard to put a Barks Duck painting next to a Monet water lilies, and not see the stark difference. As talented as Barks was...and he was...the subject matter is "not serious." 

Frazetta chose to paint more realistic subjects, and is thus more palatable to the snobs in the "high art" establishment. You can hang Egyptian Queen in a gallery, or a museum, or a study, or a ballroom, and it won't be considered "not serious" or "quirky." It's every bit "high art" as anything Picasso or Wyeth or Rockwell did. 

It's hard to break out of that mindset. "Comics are for kids" still holds powerful sway over the artform. 

I have to stop you there.

Barks was a great B&W line artist and an absolutely amazing writer, but he was no great talent as a painter.  

Edited by Bronty
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Bronty said:

I have to stop you there.

Barks was a great B&W line artist and an absolutely amazing writer, but he was no great talent as a painter.  

Eh. Not the point I was making. Agree to disagree. 

Edited by RockMyAmadeus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Eh. Agree to disagree. 

Don't start.   If you're calling him a great painter, that's just demonstrably incorrect.   The paintings sell for high prices, but not because they are great works of art.    Lots of expensive pieces of comic art are by people that can't draw that well also.    There's no price = quality index.

I'd love to own a Barks oil, but I'm not under any pretense that he was an accomplished painter.   

Edited by Bronty
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Bronty said:
13 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Eh. Not the point I was making. Agree to disagree. 

Don't start.

I'm pretty sure "agreeing to disagree" is the very opposite of "starting." I'm also pretty sure the one doing the "starting" is you.

13 hours ago, Bronty said:

If you're calling him a great painter, that's just demonstrably incorrect. 

I called him a fine painter. And he was. 

Still not my point.

We gonna argue about tangents?

13 hours ago, Bronty said:

The paintings sell for high prices, but not because they are great works of art.    Lots of expensive pieces aren't by talented hands necessarily.

Not in dispute.

Quote

There's no price = quality index.

Who said there was? Who are you arguing with? Who was talking about value determining quality? 

I think you're having an argument with someone that hasn't posted. 

Edited by RockMyAmadeus
Gotta keep my double negatives accurate!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

With apologies to whomever owns this (I'd love to own it too), this is not the work of a fine painter.   Get your eyes checked :P

They are very average and he would have had a hard time getting steady work as an illustrator IMO

 

14-67+Dragon+Lady.jpg

Edited by Bronty
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Bronty said:

With apologies to whomever owns this (I'd love to own it too), this is not the work of a fine painter.   Get your eyes checked :P

(thumbsu

tumblr_inline_mm3bqpMsEV1qz4rgp-300x300.

It fits the theme.

Edited by RockMyAmadeus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, exitmusicblue said:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/paintings/frank-frazetta-egyptian-queen-painting-original-art-1969-/a/7209-91027.s?ic=Home-FeaturedItems-071515

The art was used as the covers for Eerie 23 and Creepy 92.

At $2.5 million after the first day (20 days left).  Already by far the most valuable comics lot auctioned by Heritage.  Final estimates at $5m+, but difficult to gauge.  This could soon become the most expensive comics-related item of all time, topping the Action 1 that went for $3.2m in 2014.

 

https://itsalljustcomics.com/2019/04/25/frazetta-egyptian-queen-painting-is-already-the-record-heritage-comics-lot/

 

 

Wonder who is bidding? Kirk Hammett? Leonardo DeCaprio?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:
5 minutes ago, Bronty said:

The paintings sell for high prices, but not because they are great works of art.    Lots of expensive pieces aren't by talented hands necessarily.

Not in dispute.

It's interesting how that happens in every industry.  There are comics that are valuable because their full composition is a masterpiece, cover, story, characters, etc.  There are other comics that are valuable because they have a different not-necessarily-great cover on them and no one cares about the story, but they didn't make many.  The same money can buy one or the other.  Similarly, there are absolute clunker automobiles that are rare which cost as much as the best designed autos of the same period, with possibly just as few in existence now... but they don't have 'name recognition'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, dupont2005 said:

It’s not that it’s quirky or cartoony, but that it’s corporate work for commercial purposes. Plenty of renown fine artists have worked in comics, I own comics by Femke Hiemstra, Tom Haubrick, Camilla d’Errico and probably a handful of other artists who you may find on the cover of any number of art magazines and hanging in any number of galleries. Almost every time though, the work they created for use in a periodical is not the same exact work they create for hanging in galleries. Fine art is usually created as fine art, not appropriated as such later because the artist is really popular. 

Of course. It's the subject matter that is the key.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

If I had a million dollars....(that song doesn't hold up so well, does it...?)

Oh, and this is a song title. It's a reference joke, It's not meant to be taken literally, boys. Yes, since the price is at $2.5M currently, it's going to take more than a literal million dollars to buy it.

lol

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool! I'm in art school again. Richmond, Virginia 1985. Chillen' in the Lee Adult Movie Theater on Grace! John Waters films at the Biograph! Gwar! The entire world is an open book!

Discussions in class about what's good and what isn't! I don't think anyone called others names. Times are changen'!

 

Edited by NoMan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This piece makes Frazetta's cover for Weird Science Fantasy #29, which sold at a record price of $380,000 10 years ago look dismal by comparison, but it was a record price for a piece of original art at the time.

And then came the $1MIL cover painting for At The Earth's Core.

This is surreal to watch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
3 3