Sean Clarke :: Frank Frazetta

Hand-colored Nina print

Artist: Frank Frazetta (All)

2 Comments - 1,325 Views - 4 Likes

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Additional Images:

Ellie Frazetta COA

"Beauty and the Beast" print from 1972

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Artwork Details

Title:	Hand-colored Nina print
Artist:	Frank Frazetta (All)
Media Type:	Paint - Watercolor
Art Type:	Comic Strip
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	1,325
Likes on CAF:	4 5
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	12/31/2020
Comic Art Archive:

Description

This Frazetta print is the topper for an unfinished (and never offered to syndicates) Sunday strip called Nina that Frank created in 1953. In 1972 Ellie Frazetta renamed it Beauty and the Beast, made prints and sold signed copies for $5 each. About three decades later, the Frazettas ran a number of new copies onto watercolor paper, which were then hand-colored with watercolors after Frank's stroke. These were signed and numbered.

Nina is my favorite thing by Frazetta (heresy, I know), so I had to have one of these. Each is colored differently. I obviously haven't seen all fifty of them, but most have some pinks and blues, and this variation with an earth-tones palette is my favorite of those I've seen.

Had Frazetta completed enough sample pages and successfully shopped Nina to syndicates, we could have had a full-page Sunday adventure strip that stood with the work of Foster and Raymond. Nina showcased Frank's artistic strengths, and moreover, things he liked to draw throughout his life: cavemen, prehistoric flora and fauna, and a beautiful female lead character. Sadly for the history of fantasy art, Al Capp came calling to offer Frazetta ghost work on Lil' Abner, relegating Nina to the scrap heap of what could have been.

Nina would have been a color Sunday strip. These watercolored prints, completed left-handed and half a century after Frank abandoned his female version of Thun'da, may be the only small, speculative window into what a color version of Nina might have looked like.

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About the Owner

	Sean Clarke Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	January 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
On CAF:	Premium Member Q&A Sean's Classifieds Sean's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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artless artmore
Member Since 2013

1 - Posted on 1/2/2021

Crazy to think of what might have been had Fritz penned a regular Sunday strip of this quality in this peak period rather than ghosting for Al Cap...but at least he produced a few fabulous tryout panels for this story. Thanks for posting!

Bill J
Member Since 2009

1 - Posted on 8/6/2024

Wow! That would have wild if Frazetta had sold a full-page Sunday adventure comic strip. I know that he was a huge fan of the work of Hal Foster and Alex Raymond. I can only imagine what incredible art he would have created if he'd had the chance. What a loss for the world to never have seen what kind of art Frank Frazetta might have drawn. I'm sure it would have been phenomenal.

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