Videogame Artists Pay Tribute to Late Fantasy Legend

Earlier this week, Frank Frazetta – an artist who all but defined the “heroic fantasy” look – passed away, and artists from studios like Blizzard and Double Fine have paid the legend a touching tribute.

It’s difficult to overestimate the impact that the late Frank Frazetta has had on the visual styling of contemporary fantasy. The man helped define the modern-day look of characters like Conan the Barbarian and Tarzan, and became renowned for pictures of awesome-looking, muscular and half-naked warriors and hot, scantily-clad fantasy babes – you know, everything that’s awesome about fantasy art.

On Monday, Frazetta passed away at the age of 82. Seeing as how Frazetta’s style had inspired generations of videogame makers and artists, our colleagues at Kotaku contacted some of the artists in question to see if they would draw a piece honoring Frazetta’s style, influence, and memory.

Sure enough, many rose to the challenge. You have pieces from Brutal Legend developer Double Fine, for one – and given that game’s art style, is it any wonder that they considered Frazetta an influence? Blizzard’s Sam “Samwise” Didier chipped in with Warcraft‘s Alliance and Horde paying tribute to the fallen, and the maker of Canabalt took a more pixelated, NES-era approach.

Perhaps the two most awesome pieces in the bunch, though, come from Capybara Games, a Canadian indie studio responsible for developing Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes for Ubisoft. Tri Vuong nails the dynamic “half-naked muscular beefcake and half-naked fantasy babe” Frazetta look perfectly, even if I’m not sure what that monster-thing is supposed to be. My favorite picture is from Capy Games’ cofounder Anthony Chan, though, who delivers a collection of Frazetta-inspired characters that is more than a fitting sendoff to a legendary artist.

The full gallery is available over at Kotaku, and it’s an excellent send-off to a man who inspired so many to pick up pencil and paper. Kudos to all of the artists who sent stuff in, and I hope we’ll see even more in the days to come.