Good day, folks! It is time once again for a new Fabulous Find, and this week I’ve pulled out a few Frank Frazetta fanzines from my collection to share with you. First up, from 1969, is a fanzine entitled; Frazetta # 1. This is an officially licensed fanzine by Frank Frazetta himself. It is published by Attezarf (Frazetta backwards) and as I said it is copyright 1969. The Beatles merchandise sold in the U.S. was sold by Seltaeb (Beatles backwards) dating from 1964, so the use of a name backwards certainly was not something new.
Here the cover to the fanzine I own:
Frazetta Fanzine # 1 dated 1969
The fanzine is twenty-four (24) pages, including the covers, all printed in black & white. The fanzine features a couple of photographs of Frank Frazetta himself, as well as, a self-portrait (found on page 3) from 1962. The fanzine mostly reprints various Frazetta art, a couple which were used as book illustrations. The center two pages, or centerspread, features a nice La of Opar piece, that must be seen to believe.
Most of the pages are given to a reprint of the Thunda story; “King of the Lost Lands”, which runs ten of the twenty-four pages. Most of the pages reflect nudity, so I’ll refrain from showing it in this column, not that there is anything wrong with nudity!
A pretty nice little fanzine for two bucks! Actually there is a second version (2nd printing?) available of the same fanzine with a different cover. The cover to this edition features the artwork from the back cover of the edition that I own. Plus it sold for $2.50 rather than the $2.00 mine cost. Here’s the cover to that edition, as well:
Frazetta Fanzine # 1969 2nd edition?
Next up is Frazetta 100 Drawings. This non authorized fanzine is thirty-four (34) pages and also showcases Frank Frazetta black and white artwork. These tend to be mostly sketches and are mostly printed on one side of the 34 pages. Some of the pages reproduce up to ten drawings per page. Only the front and back covers are single page drawings. Though on the third page, it says the entire contents are copyright 1975 by Frank Frazetta, it is published as “a Theakfax production”, as I said above, the fanzine was not authorized by Frazetta.
Here’s the cover to this fanzine:
Frazetta 100 Drawings 1975
Next we have … The Sensuous Frazetta. This is undated and I believe it was authorized, but i am not sure. The information that I can find says that it was printed sometime during the seventies. It has twenty-eight (28) pages and is not stapled, as it is meant to be opened up full size, i.e. 11 x 17, for some of the large artwork to be enjoyed. The art in this fanzine is reprinted from Frazetta’s paperback book artwork done for Midwood Publishing.
And here is that cover:
The Sensuous Frazetta 1970s
I really like this one, as almost every piece of art in the fanzine/portfolio I had not previously seen before. A lot would fall into the category of “good girl art” and as I’m sure most, if not all of my readers, know how well Frank Frazetta draws the female figure!
And the last Frazetta fanzine I want to showcase today is; Sparkle Of Quicksilver. It is also from 1975 and was published by Frodo’s Press. This is more portfolio than actual fanzine. It has an illustrated front cover and the back cover is a self penned autobiography of Frazetta, with one additional illustration. Then there are seven, one page illustrations. I think five of them are from his Edgar Rice Burroughs work, one is from his Middle Earth Lord of the Rings portfolio. it is printed on low grade paper, maybe 20 or 24 bond weight, but still worth owning.
Here is the cover to this one, as well:
Frazetta’s Sparkle of Quicksilver 1975
So there you go, some little seen Frazetta fanzines for you to drool over. Sorry I didn’t give you a better look at the contents this time around, but as I mentioned a lot of the content would be considered adult in nature. The covers are suggestive enough, I would think.
So how easy are these to find today. Not too hard, but expect to pay premium prices. I looked on the bay and found a couple of the above being offered, but at a price much higher than I paid back in the day. For quality, I’d recommend the authorized Frazetta # 1, as well as, the Sensuous Frazetta and for sheer number of Frazetta drawings, you can’t beat Frazetta 100 drawings. Awhh, who am I kidding? You need them all.
That’s it for these week’s Fabulous Find, but please return next week for a new RETRO REVIEW. And until we meet again … happy hunting!
