Frank Kelly Freas: The man, the myth, the legend.

“An illustrator, whether science fiction or otherwise, is essentially a story-teller who can’t type… Actually, being an artist is a bit like being a pioneer. Your real goal, like his, is freedom.”— Kelly Freas

To paraphrase the Bard of Avon, I must count my fanhood cheap. Not only did I miss the seventy-fifth birthday of Mike Kaluta by several days, I was also asleep at my post when the frikkin’ centennial of the one-and-only Frank Kelly Freas rolled around on the twenty-seventh of August. I guess I'll blame Putin. Regardless, it is time to gather the tatters and shreds of my honor and make amends.

As has been the usual here lately for yours truly, time is short. Thus, I quote this excellently succinct Freas bio from The Korshak Collection website:

"Kelly Freas, a prolific artist for over thirty years and considered the “Dean of Science Fiction Artists,” has remained a fan favorite whose quality of work matched its quantity. Along the way, he created some of science fiction’s most iconic images and illustrated for noted authors such as Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Clifford Simak among others.
Freas was an engineering and pre-med student who had always enjoyed science fiction stories, particularly those in Astounding Science Fiction in the early 1940s. After serving as a photographer in the Air Force during World War II, Freas returned home to a career in freelance advertising illustration and continued his art studies at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
Encouraged by a fellow student, Freas successfully submitted a painting to Weird Tales magazine in 1950 and by 1952 decided to give up his lucrative career as an advertising artist to move to New York to work full-time on science fiction illustration. Freas would create covers for countless science fiction magazines for three decades well into the 1980s. His works are known for their focus on people (whether alien or not), their character, their emotions, their expressions- all with a touch of humor.
'I always tried to say in my drawings and paintings something the author would have said had his medium permitted, and it was usually a human reaction which would have taken pages to describe.' – Kelly Freas (from The Art of Science Fiction)
Freas also created works for Mad magazine from 1957 to 1962 and depicted the magazine’s “What, me worry?” mascot Alfred E. Neuman on many of its covers. He also designed the shoulder patch for Skylab I astronauts and six posters for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The band Queen used his 1953 robot cover for Astounding Science Fiction magazine for their 1977 album cover for “News of the World,” in which band members were added to the image. A werewolf drawing by Freas is featured in a classroom scene in the 2004 movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."

As that piece demonstrates, Mr. Freas usually went by "Kelly" in person. What it didn't mention was that his surname is pronounced 'freeze'--he was cool like that.

Here is something from the official Freas website:

"The biggest strength of Frank Kelly Freas’ art was in bringing uniqueness to each character he illustrated, whether human or otherwise."

That is something I noticed very early on as a fan of SFF art. While otherwise great artists like Frank Frazetta or Jack Kirby would often use what can only be called a 'standard face' in many of their drawings/paintings/illustrations, Freas very much made every character in every painting unique. He had a real talent for that.

I have loved the art of Kelly Freas since I found a copy of The Seas of Ernathe in an abandoned farmhouse--no lie--when I was barely a teenager. If anything, that love has strengthened over the years.

Drink to the shade of Frank Kelly Freas upon the (belated) centennial of his birth, sword-brothers. We won't see his like again.

Feel free to enjoy the gallery of Freas art below.

Freas was a master of the painted image, but I also love his black & white illos, like this early one from Brackett’s “Lorelei of the Red Mist”.

A prelim painting for one of Kelly’s classic MAD Magazine covers.

I gave my cousin a copy of this in the late ‘90s. He had never seen Kelly’s work and was awestruck by the cover and interior illos.

Freas’ reprise of his first-ever cover for Weird Tales. There is a little bit of a story behind that which I might share later in this centennial year.