The Dean of Golden Age Science Fiction Art.

Has it been that long? Time does fly. Kelly Freas was the acknowledged ‘King of Golden Age Sci-Fi Art’. What Frazetta was to Sword-and-Sorcery, Freas (pronounced ‘freeze’) was to Sci-Fi from about 1955 to around 1980. That’s a hell of a run; longer than Frazetta’s, to be honest. I should also note that the two became friends and there are photos of the two titans together. Then, in 2005, Kelly took that final voyage beyond the stars. All fans of cool art should pause for a moment to honor Mr. Freas’ legacy, twenty years on.

The date of Kelly's mortality happens to coincide with National Science Fiction Day. In a just world, there would be a connection. However, it apparently honors Isaac 'The Creature With a Thousand Hands' Asimov. I would rather spend an entire day gazing in wonder at Freas' art than spend an hour grinding through Asimov's fiction--without question.

That said, Freas painted iconic works connected with Asimov; just as he did with Clarke, Heinlein, Brackett and many, many other luminaries of the 'Golden Age of Sci-Fi'. To my mind, the 'Golden Age' had more than its share of brass and pyrite in the mix, along with a massive portion of hubris. For me, that era is 'golden' primarily because of Freas' incredible artwork.

As I've noted elsewhere, Kelly Freas—often called Frank Kelly Freas, as well— began his career at Weird Tales in 1950. Not only did he paint iconic covers, but one of his illos for WT made it all the way into a Harry Potter movie. That is cultural longevity. Kelly had the chops to do fantasy/horror--as I wrote about here--but he preferred to do sci-fi.

By 1952--at the age of twenty--Kelly was doing covers for Gnome Press. Gnome Press was the prestige hardcover SFF publisher at the time. Freas created classic covers for the likes of Clifford D. Simak's City, C.L. Moore's Judgement Night and Robert E. Howard's The Coming of Conan.

From there, Freas took a rocket-ride to SF art stardom. Take a look at Kelly's chronological entry at ISFDB. His artwork was everywhere in the sci-fi field. Everybody wanted a piece of the Freas action. Then, in 1960, it all stopped. Then, in 1964, it started right back up again. What happened?

I no longer have the Freas biographical resources I did fifteen years ago. From what I recall, it appears that MAD Magazine happened. Kelly started doing some work for them in 1957, creating Alfred E. Neuman, for Crom's sake. It appears that the money was good and he went all-in for a few years. Freas stopped doing work for MAD in late 1962--from what I can tell--so that leaves a gap of about a year, though publishing lag-times must be figured in as well. I should add that Frazetta went through a similar phase in the '50s, working on Al Capp's L'il Abner exclusively for about five years.

Freas always had a playful, humorous side, moreso than Frazetta, perhaps. It can be seen in many of his SF covers. That said, lots of SF editors liked to run humorous stories.

However, Kelly also had his grim and/or cosmic side---which one would expect from an artist who began his career at Weird Tales. Many of Freas' covers prominently featured a 'face'--a trademark of his--and many of those faces were of grim/evil mofos...and each face was unique. At the same time, he could do 'cosmic' like nobody's business. Kelly Freas made the far reaches of the cosmos look like the coolest places you would ever want to be.

In the '60s, Freas' book covers were mainly painted for two publishers: Ace and Lancer. Kelly had a long-standing relationship with Donald A. Wollheim at Ace Books. That would continue on into the '80s. The discerning art director at Lancer--who would bring on Krenkel and Frazetta after they left Ace---also grabbed Freas. The results were some of the coolest covers that Isaac Asimov ever got.

By the 1970s, many of the art directors in charge of sci-fi cover art were going for a more 'modern'--i.e., 'lame' approach. Freas started getting shut out. A few morons claimed he was 'outdated'. Luckily, Don Wollheim fired up DAW Books, which provided a dependable venue. Analog was also a safe spaceport for Kelly's art, first under the editorship of Ben Bova and then Stanley Schmidt.

In 1973, Ben Bova would be instrumental in giving Kelly one of the most historic ‘art jobs’ of Freas’ entire career: designing the Skylab I mission patch. Apparently, NASA called Analog and then Bova called Kelly. He designed the mission patch and the rest is history. You can read more about it here.

In 1976, Roger Elwood launched Laser Books, an attempt to take sci-fi back to its roots. He chose Freas as the single cover artist for the franchise. It was a noble failure, but Kelly still painted several classic covers for the enterprise. Each cover focused on the face of the protagonist with the setting in the background. Classic Freas.

A couple years later, Kelly Freas created his own publishing imprint, Starblaze. It never made a huge impact, but it once again provided a great venue for Kelly’s art. Some of the luminaries Kelly and his wife published were Robert Asprin, John Myers Myers, Robert Silverberg, Michael Whelan and Robert Adams. Asprin’s “Myth” series and Adams’ “Castaways in Time” series would be picked up by bigger publishers later on.

The '80s saw some dwindling market demand for his work, but Kelly kept creating excellent art. The '90s dropped off about as much as the '70s did from the '80s. Mr. Freas' last cover was published in 2003...fifty-three years after his first iconic cover for Weird Talesand two years before his death.

Raise a glass in tribute to Kelly Freas, sword-(and raygun) brothers. Honor one of the greatest artists science fiction is ever likely to see.

A gallery of Mr. Freas’ art can be found here:

Some Classic SF Art From Kelly Freas