“[Hal] Foster would be my main influence.” — Frank Frazetta, 1994

A few months ago, I wrote a tribute to the hugely influential comic writer/artist, Hal Foster. In it, I used the Frazetta quote above and discussed the high esteem Mr. Frazetta held for the artwork of Foster. One of the Prince Valiant panels I included in that post was this one:

It depicts Prince Valiant attempting to lance a gigantic crocodile/’dragon’ which has slithered out of the ocean and is menacing the castle. Something about that pic kept nagging at me. I finally figured out what it reminded me of…

The above is a poster/commercial artwork that Frank Frazetta painted for an amusement park ride back in 1983. As I recall, the park was somewhere in the South and the ride was named ‘The Delta Demon’. As I recall.

Regardless of the particulars, the influence of that Foster panel is quite evident, in my opinion. The positions of the tails are similar, with Frank basically cutting out the knight and reversing the upper torso and head. Of course, that extra Frazetta magic is there and he improved things overall. Frank is still my favorite artist, not Hal. All that said, I sincerely believe that Frazetta had that Foster pic in his mind, however vaguely.

I don’t consider the ‘Delta Demon’ painting to be what artists call a ‘swipe’. There are numerous differences. However, others have spotted (what they consider) swipes from Foster by Frank. You can check out some of them here. For me, they show Frazetta at an early stage in his career and demonstrate just how fundamental Foster was to Frank. Frazetta was, by no means, the first or only artist to borrow from Hal Foster.

However, that particular Prince Valiant strip/panel didn’t just influence Frazetta. A decade before Frank painted his dragon-gator, that same strip inspired the main storyline for Conan the Barbarian #39—which happens to be the issue right after I discovered Marvel’s Conan. You can get the full story—complete with Foster’s and Buscema’s panels—over at Tim DeForest’s website.

When you inspire Frazetta and Buscema, you’re doing something right.