Fantasy art legend, Frank Brunner, turned seventy-five yesterday. His b-day snuck up on me, but I still want to pay my respects. A short bio and some pics from my archives will have to do.

Frank was born in New York, New York in 1949. He studied under the great Burne Hogarth at New York City's School of Visual Arts. Brunner has mentioned Al Williamson, Wally Wood and Frank Frazetta as early influences.

His first pro work in comics was for Major Magazines' Web of Horror mag. From that, he got work at Warren Publishing and as a 'staff artist' at Marvel. It was during this early period that he became friends with the mighty Neal Adams, who was a huge influence. The new editor-in-chief, Roy Thomas, quickly recognized Brunner's talent and assigned him to the failing Doctor Strange feature then running in Marvel Premiere. Within a year, sales had turned around to the point that Marvel gave Doc Strange his own dedicated series. This was followed by huge sales in 1976 for Howard the Duck #1--Brunner co-created the character. However, management decided to not give Frank a raise. He quit.

Brunner would still do occasional work for Marvel from then on, notably on The Savage Sword of Conan. He also did an Elric adaptation for Heavy Metal, which was one of the first things of his that I was personally aware of.

However, Frank's main source of employment for decades has been in animation. He moved to Hollywood around 1980, working on projects for Hanna-Barbera (Jonny Quest), Walt Disney Imagineering (Euro Tomorrowland movie), Warner Bros. (preproduction Batman design) and DreamWorks (Invasion USA). He was the head of character design for the Fox animated series X-Men.

The bottom line is: whatever Frank Brunner has worked on, you could count on it being a quality product. Happy birthday, Frank!