Friday, July 17, 2009
Another Keelian Death?
Ellie Frazetta by Frank Frazetta.
The wife of the man who famously painted the Keelian Mothman cover for the May 1980 High Times has died.
It would be this painting which was later used on the cover of the Ron Bonds-published paperback book that fell off a shelf into the hands of the person who would recommend it be made into a movie.
Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, record-album covers, and other media.
Point Pleasant's sculpture of Mothman is based on Frazetta's moth-like representation of Mothman, even though the actual descriptions from the sightings in 1966-1967 told of an avian cryptid, the "Big Bird."
Frank Frazetta also did the cover for the 1970 paperback by Keel, Strange Creatures From Time and Space.
Into the early months of 2009, Frazetta lived with his wife Ellie on a 67-acre (271,000 m²) estate in the Pocono Mountains at East Straudsburg, Pennsylvania. They maintained a small museum, open to the public, on the estate. Ellie Frazetta was a guide for tours there.
On July 17th of 2009, Ellie Frazetta passed away after a year-long battle with cancer. (John A. Keel passed away on July 3, 2009, it will be recalled.)
My condolences to the family and friends of the Frazettas.
(Thanks to Theo P. for the alert to this sad news.)