I put Middle Earth Journal in hiatus in May of 2008 and moved to Newshoggers.
I temporarily reopened Middle Earth Journal when Newshoggers shut it's doors but I was invited to Participate at The Moderate Voice so Middle Earth Journal is once again in hiatus.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Edgar Rice Burroughs and Frank Frazetta

When I was in the 7th grade I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs.  My fascination with his stories continued through high school.  There was of course Tarzan but there was also Barsoom and Pelucider not to mention Venus.  Silly fantasy but it could have been worse - I might have become interested in Ayn Rand.  Burroughs  was a master of "graphic prose."  It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words: well Burroughs could do it with 20 words or less.  Fifty years latter I can't really appreciate Edgar Rice Burroughs like I did when I was young.  I watched the movie John Carter of Mars but wondered off to do something else abut a quarter of the way through it.  What I can do is think about what attracted me to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs.  It was the art work on the covers of those Ace paperbacks by Frank Frazetta.
There is little doubt that cover art can sell paperbacks and Frank Frazetta was a master marketer.
Or as an adolescent perhaps is was the scantily clad voluptuous females.
Frank Frazetta could sell books and was a great artist at the same time.  Edgar Rice Burroughs died in 1950 and Frank Frazzeta died in 2010 but they will both be with us for a very long time - that's as close to immortality as you can get.

1 comment:

Be Nice