Frank Kelly Freas
Laura Brodian Freas
Art Guests of Honor
Frank Kelly Freas, the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists," is
universally recognized as one of the most prolific and popular
science fiction and fantasy artists in the world. His distinguished
career spans forty years. Since "The Piper" cover for Weird
Tales in 1950, his art has graced the covers of hundreds of
books and magazines, including Astounding/Analog
from the 1950s through the 1990s; Mad Magazine covers
from 1955 to 1962; cover art for Daw, Signet, Ballentine, Avon,
all 67 Laser Books (which are now collectors items) and over 90
covers for Ace books alone. He was editor and artist for the first
ten Starblaze books.
During his career, he was commissioned to paint the Skylab I insignia
design and posters promoting the space program (used by NASA and
now hanging in the Smithsonian); pinup girls on bombers while in
the Army Air Corps; comic book covers; the cover of Queen's first
two-million-selling album News of the World; and many
others, such as more than 500 saints portraits for the Franciscans
(executed simultaneously with his work for Mad Magazine).
He is very active in gaming and medical illustration.
Kelly has published several books
(collections of his artwork), and frequently gives
presentations. His work has
appeared in numerous exhibitions.
Among many other awards,
Kelly was the first person to receive ten Hugos. (He has been
nominated twenty times.)
Kelly's fame will soon be interplanetary: his cover for Fredric
Brown's Martians, Go Home!, featuring a little green
man spying on the viewer through a keyhole, will be included in a
portfolio of artwork documenting the changing views of Mars as part
of Visions of Mars, a collection of science fiction
stories, sounds and images on a compact disc. A copy of the CD-ROM
will be inside each of the two small permanent stations on Mars.
Organized by The Planetary Society, in cooperation with the Russian
Space Research Institute (IKI), the collection is intended as a
gift from our era to the future generations of humans who shall
one day explore, and perhaps settle, Mars.
No other artist in science fiction has consistently matched his
astounding record. His smooth and luminous images, amiable aliens
and sexy women have become part of today's science fiction visual
language.
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Last modified - 1997 by Jeff Poretsky