----- Original Message ----- From: "Rusty Burke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "REH Fans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 7:48 AM Subject: [rehfans] Frazetta's influence
> Sales 102: first they have to pick up the book and take it home and read > it. Many a fine author has languished unread, unsung, and finally > unpublished because the book *looked* boring, or looked the same as all the > other books on the shelf, etc. It's not being argued here that Frazetta > *made* REH popular, or that REH's success ultimately comes down to the > Frazetta covers. (At least, I don't *think* anyone is arguing that.) I am > not that big a Frazetta fan, but in my judgment (as expressed in my intro > to THE ULTIMATE TRIUMPH), Frazetta was a very big reason that people > initially picked up those Lancer books to give them a try. *At the time*, > his covers stood out vividly from everything around them, they *looked* > fabulously heroic, and I think he has to be given some credit for making > people, particularly teen-age boys, go "Wow! Look at this bad-ass dude!" This is so true. Farnsworth Wright knew what he was doing with those spicy Brundage covers. The package is everything and if it doesn't entice you in the first place then it is not going to get picked up and perused. There are 2 things that influence you picking up a book - the cover, or the author, and sometimes just the way it is displayed prominently - so 2 1/2. My point was that I'd come to the POV that Frazetta had more influence on making the books a selling success based mostly on our small group. But if you extrapolate that to the hundreds of thousands of copies sold it must have been true for many others. The people who have passed through REHfans and REHinnercircle make a good statistical model. Not only that, but the comments of many artists and others suggests that many art lovers or working artists picked up the books simply because of the art, and never even read the stories. I recall one artist selling off a large collection on ebay and he had carefully excised the covers from the books and put them in plastic sleeves. He had some 1200 items in the collection. although not all were Frazetta. Rusty is right, Frazetta was not responsible for Howard's Lancer success, but he was part of it. These covers did jump out at people and I remember lots of comments on them at the time. People don't comment unless they are impressed. However, we also have to look at the lousy Duillo covers on some editions. I'll have to check my figures later tonight, but I don't think they did as well, even though some contained real Howard. Frazetta didn't make Conan the Avenger as big a success as the other books. Ultimately for those who followed the series, it became obvious that despite the great artwork, the pastiches suffered and the number of printings echo this clearly. Word spread so that later buyers came to know to avoid the pastiches. Initially though, in the 60's, they set the world on fire. Due to the Lancer bankruptcy no Howard came out again until 1973-4. This may have actually worked well to have this hiatus as fans were ready and word had spread, so there was a ready market to lap up the Ace editions, and they did with the Ace editions anywhere between 16 to 24 printings over the years. Despite the poorer pastiche add ons, it still amazes me how well they did as well. There is answers for this too, but outside the scope of this discussion. The point is, Frazetta had part in the success. How much ultimately, is debatable, but I judge it to be 25%, possibly greater. It was a fantasy boom time so a lot of fantasy was being printed and read, and undoubtedly many picked them up simply due to this. I know I would have if I was not already a fan of Krenkel's and Frazetta's art. For me, this was bonus, and Howard was a name I already knew. The rest was history. Although these are my opinions, I have studied the various aspects of this phenomenon and I think the data I have gathered speaks for itself. Scotty Henderson
