After spending over half a century breaking new ground in the fields of fantasy and comic book illustration, Frank Frazetta finally gets his due in the form of this feature length documentary come love letter from director Lance Laspina. Even if you're not familiar with the name Frank Frazetta, whether you know it or not you have to have seen some of his artwork. It may have been a movie poster hanging in a theater, it may have been a magazine cover, it may have been a comic book, it may have been a record album cover, or it may have been one of the dozens of paperback covers that he was responsible for brining to life. But the fact remains, his artwork is everywhere – you just need to know what to look for.

Frank Frazetta – Painting With Fire takes a look at Frazetta's artistic legacy through some interviews with his contemporaries and with the man himself. The film uses plenty of examples of his artwork to accentuate just how powerful some of his images are, while educating us on such interesting side notes as the fact that Frazetta used no models for his work, the images came right out of his head and onto the paper – no small feat.

Gushing with praise for the subject are such renowned comic book artists as Neal Adams (best known for revolutionizing Batman in the 70s by giving him nipples!), Bernie Wrightson (co-creator of The Swamp Thing), Al Williamson (famed E. C. Comics and Flash Gordon artist), the late John Buscuma (who worked on many a silver age comic for Marvel), Dave Stevens (creator of The Rocketeer), Mike Kaluta (who worked for Warren Publishing and illustrated the definitive Shadow series in the seventies), Simon Bisley (best known for his work on DC's Lobo) and Kevin Eastman (co-creator of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Rock star Glenn Danzig (whose Verotik publishing company put out a few Frazetta inspired comics as well as a collection of his pencil sketches) and filmmakers Ralph Bakshi (who collaborated with Frazetta on Fire And Ice) and John Milius (who directed Conan The Barbarian based on Frazetta's take on the character) are also on hand to lend their expert testimony to his greatness. Even Bo Derek stops by for a comment or two on how Frazetta's work has touched her.

If it all sounds like a lot of gushing and praise, well it is. There's a context to it all but the film literally fawns over its subject to the point of tedium at times, and while this is an interesting movie, it really only has one moment of intrigue where some of the interviewees are asked about the legitimacy of Frazetta's work based on its subject matter – a move which kind of defeats the purpose of the documentary in the first place. Those issues aside though, Laspina's film does a nice job of tracing Frazetta's roots back to his childhood in New York where he almost walked into a major league baseball career, up through his days doing Lil' Abner through the paperback and Conan years right up until 2003 where the Frazetta Museum is opened up in Pennsylvania.

The highlight for many of us will be the look back at the time that Frank Frazetta spent working for the notorious E. C. Comics. He worked with Al Williamson on a few of the science fiction stories that E. C. published in magazines like Weird Science and his collaborative work with Williamson remains popular among fans and collectors to this day.

So while the feature lacks any real critical analysis or the like (and I honestly can't blame the filmmakers, I'd gush over Frazetta too), it does do a great job of filling the viewer in on Frazetta's origins and giving a nice look at just how widespread his influence has been in the fields of comic and fantasy illustration. Its admiration is sincere and heartfelt, and the interviews, art, and photos used throughout the movie prove to be pretty interesting.

Video:

Despite the fact that the packaging states that the film is widescreen on the back of the keepcase, it is in fact a fullframe presentation and this appears to be the film's original aspect ratio as framing looks pretty decent throughout. There is some mild compression noticeable in a couple of spots and some light edge enhancement but it's never severe enough to be distracting. The colors in the paintings and artwork look quite good and for a low budget independently made documentary, the image looks pretty solid on this DVD release.