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Born in Brooklyn in 1928 Frank Frazzetta (with two Zs) showed amazing talent even at an early age: his kindergarten teachers were amazed that he could draw better than most 10 year olds when he was only five. 
Aged eight Frazetta was enrolled in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Michael Falanga. He later said he learnt little from his teachers but a huge amount from his classmates.
Frazetra began working as a comic illustrator at the age of 16, initially for Bernard Baily, before moving on to Standard Comics.
And by the early 1950s Frazetta was working for a range of publishers: EC Comics, National Comics, Avon Comics, and several others.
He was then approached by Am Call to work on his Li'l Abner strip, as well as working with Dan Barry on Flash Gordon and producing his own strip Johnny Comet.
In 1964 Frazetta's career took another turn: United Artists had been impressed by a Ringo Starr spoof Frazetta had done for Mad Magazine, and asked him to create a movie poster for the film What's New Pussycat. It paid handsomely.
Frazetta would go on to create a range of movie posters over the years, but as well as posters he was beginning to work on book covers. One series in particular cemented his reputation as King of the fantasy artists...
