You may remember that Frank Frazetta passed away this year, on May 10.

For those of you who don’t know Frank Frazetta — seriously??? — he was one of the greatest illustrators of all time, and even if you’ve never heard the name you must have seen some of his art work. Or if not his directly, at least the countless derivative works which were spawned from the incredible ideas he put onto canvas. He made the world of sci-fi and fantasy illustration what it is today, and defined the look of a number of icons, such as Conan the Barbarian.

In honor of his memory, many artists are doing tribute pieces, re-imagining some of this master’s most famous pieces. He has always been one of my favorite illustrators and painters, so I put together a little tribute as well. The following piece is a reworking of his amazing painting for Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Fighting Man of Mars, done in a quirky ukiyoe style with some Japanese themes worked in, and influences from my favorite printers (you may notice Yoshitoshi’s moon in there). I hope it evokes his memory without being too derivative.

A Fighting Man of Mars

The rest of the pieces, which are being hosted by Gallery Provocateur in Chicago, and can be seen on their website: http://www.galleryprovocateur.org/frazetta.html. The best of these ones will be displayed in the gallery and at Chicago Comic Convention next year.