Frazetta Cover Feature, News-Press Gulf Coasting

Howl Gallery shows work by fantasy icon Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta's paintings are full of larger-than-life fantasy: Brawny Vikings wielding bloody axes, bikini-clad warrior queens with battle tigers at their side, fire demons crouching in hell, dragons, cavemen, sorcerers, sea witches, snow giants and all sorts of assorted beasts and baddies.

So what did the late fantasy legend listen to when he wasn't creating those epic images for Conan the Barbarian paperbacks or Molly Hatchet album covers?

Hint: It wasn't Molly Hatchet.

It wasn't even hard rock.

"He liked Frank Sinatra," says his Sarasota granddaughter, Sara Frazetta. "He wasn't into the genre he painted. He liked soft rock and classical. And he really liked Michael Jackson."

The Boca Grande resident didn't even enjoy the genres of fantasy and science fiction that much — genres that are synonymous with his work. A new Howl Gallery exhibit featuring some of his most famous images opens Saturday.

"He was more into Laurel and Hardy," says Sara, 26. "And he didn't like Star Wars. … It's just how he made his living."

So much for preconceptions.

The Brooklyn-born Frazetta defied many of those preconceptions during his long art career, which started in comic books in the 1940s and '50s and eventually led to book covers, movie posters, album art for '70s hard rockers Molly Hatchet and Nazareth, and the 1983 cartoon movie "Fire and Ice" (which "Sin City" director Robert Rodriuguez plans to remake next year into a live-action movie).

Frazetta was 82 when he died of complications from a stroke at Lee Memorial Hospital in 2010. He'd moved from California to Boca Grande in the early '90s.

A series of prior strokes had forced him to paint with his left hand instead of his right. Even so, Frazetta kept making art until the end.

"It discouraged him, for sure," Sara says. "But he still had amazing ability, even in his left hand."

The Howl Gallery exhibit celebrates that ability with vintage '70s prints and new high-resolution prints of some of Frazetta's most iconic work. That includes the shadowy, red-eyed warrior on a war horse in "Death Dealer 1"; the club-wielding pack of cavemen in "Neanderthals"; the ticked-off Viking hefting two axes in "Dark Kingdom"; and many more. There will also be a few original paintings of his lesser-known work.

Gallery co-owner Andy Howl loves Frazetta's mix of comic-book-style imagery and classical painting technique. Plus the paintings are kinda cool.

"It's just dynamic and striking," Howl says. "He just had that eye. It just looks like magic. It's so effortless."

Howl particularly loves the famous "Death Dealer" series, including the painting that appeared on Molly Hatchet's self-titled 1978 album. "There's something about it that's timeless," he says. "But it's also dark and foreboding. And it has that element of the Grim Reaper."

Frazetta's paintings are famous for their hard-bodied, barely clothed warriors — both male and female — who wield blood-dripping spears and swords as they battle giant snakes, fiery demons, wooly mammoths, dragons, moth men and other assorted creatures.

But his granddaughter says he was often frustrated by the disconnect between his artistic intent and how the public saw his work. "He would say, 'People just don't get it. They don't get it. They think I'm all about violence, and I'm not. I'm all about romance.'"

Daughter Holly Frazetta, 50, thinks the paintings' simplicity also helped them become popular. Viewers can look at each painting and know instantly what's going on: heroic warriors fighting nasty beasts to save the world.

"It's good versus evil," the Boca Grande resident says.

For Holly and Sara Frazetta, looking at those paintings is almost like looking at a family portrait. At least, when it comes to the women of the family.

Sara says she and her mom share the same body type as her late grandmother, Eleanor, who Frazetta used as a model for many of his scantily clad heroines and curvaceous damsels in distress.

"He was always taking pictures of Grandma," Sara says. "The women are all kind of like my grandmother. They had the same petite but muscular bodies."

Frazetta's work has been seen everywhere from gallery exhibits to movie posters. But growing up in California, daughter Holly didn't think of him as the most famous fantasy artist in the world.

He was just Dad.

"I knew he was great and I loved what he did," she says. "But that wasn't my focal point growing up. He was just a great father."

Holly says she's hard-pressed to name a favorite painting by her dad, although she says she's partial to "Death Dealer" and "Neanderthals."

"I love all the pieces," Holly says. "They're all iconic to me. They're just gorgeous!"

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells (News-Press) (Facebook) @charlesrunnells (Twitter)

If You Go

•What: Frank Frazetta art exhibit

•Where: HOWL Gallery/Tattoo, 4160 Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers

•When: Reception takes place 7-11 p.m. Saturday. The exhibit continues through Jan. 3.

•Admission: Free

•Gallery hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday

•Info: 332-0161 or howlgallery.com

•More about the reception: The reception features an appearance by Frazetta's daughter and granddaughter, Holly and Sara Frazetta, plus craft beer and live music by Frankie Colt. Framed and unframed prints will be available for purchase.