Frazetta, Frank & Williamson, Al - Flash Gordon

I had the pleasure of picking this up at SDCC 2018 from Rob Pistella, who was also kind enough to share the history of the piece with me via an October 9, 2011 blog posting from Doc Dave Winiewicz. Doc Dave acquired the piece from Frank Frazetta and told the following story about it –

“It was the early fifties. Al asked Frank to draw a picture of Flash Gordon. Williamson, of course, was a Flash Gordon fanatic. He spent most of his youth drawing Flash a hundred different ways. He wanted to see how Frank handled the pose and the heroic posture. Frank said that he sat down, penciled a figure in a fantasy setting, then proceeded to ink it. In the midst of this Frank described the proper procedure for applying zipatone to give texture and depth. Al was looking over Frank’s shoulder the entire time. For some reason Frank stopped before finishing, but most of the scene was done. Al loved the figure and asked Frank if he could take it home to study the lines. Frank agreed. Al took it home and started drawing sketches around Frank's Flash Gordon figure. A couple of weeks later Frank asked Al where the drawing was. Al said that he covered it with sketches. Frank said: "It's mine. I want it back." Al had to return the piece. It was a point of principle. Al made a stat of the page before giving it back.

Frank forgot about it until we discovered it one day way in the back of a closet. Frank told me the story behind the piece, then concluded by saying: "And then Al had the balls to use my figure in an EC story." Al used the picture as the central figure on the SPACE BORNE splash page. He changed some elements, but you can easily see the resemblance.

Well, I thought this was quite an interesting piece of Williamson/Frazetta history. I bought the page from Frank. He really didn't care about it all. I think he was happy to be rid of it. For Frank it just represented an annoying memory.

I reluctantly brought the page to Al. I didn't know how he would react. To my relief Al was the consummate gentleman. He confirmed all the details of the story and he signed the page for me. It's a large 14 by 20 inches in size and quite impressive in a frame. Frazetta teaching Al Williamson all about Flash Gordon; it doesn't get any better!”

I could not agree more!