I’ve always been a fan of old-school diving and octopus/mermaid iconography.
Why the Diver Did Not Return. Illustrated by Walther Püttner, Jugend, 1897
I even have some inked on me.
So I tried my unskilled hand at a more comical version.
Meh. Nobody said it was “good art.”
I decided to try my hand at an egret.
I need to keep trying, haha.
Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.
Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Frank Frazetta
Born February 9, 1928, Frank Alfonso Frazzetta (he later dropped one of the Z‘s and worked professionally as Fritz and later Frank Frazetta) was perhaps the best sci-fi and fantasy artist of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
He was always with a pencil in his hand as a kid and earned a spot at the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 8. By age 15, he worked for professional graphic artist John Giunta at the Bernard Baily Publications Studio who did outsource work for a number of comic to include DC.
By 1947 at age 19, he was working for Standard Comics and did everything from Westerns to War stories then moved on to work for EC, National and others.
Frazetta’s Flash Gordon send up from Famous Funnies III while he was working at the Bailey Studio
By the 1960s he hit his own stride and his work began to gain increasing notice, branching out into a series of excellent oil on canvas paintings, movie posters, album covers, and other commercial work all in a style that was increasingly his own.
Madame Derringer by Frank Frazetta
Sea Monster, 1966, by Frank Frazetta
Frazetta art used on Eerie#81-1977 2
Eerie #82 cover by Frank Frazetta
The Brave by Frank Frazetta
The Executioner by Frank Frazetta
The Indian Brave by Frank Frazetta
Cover art by Frank Frazetta for Orca the Killer Whale novel
Circle of Terror by Frank Frazetta
Bucking Bronco by Frank Frazetta
Return of the Mucker, 1973 by Frank Frazetta
Movie poster for the Clint Eastwood flick, “The Gauntlet” by Frank Frazetta. In all Frank did over a dozen film sheets
Battlestar Gallactica 1976 artwork by Frank Frazetta
Oh yeah, and he became the pencil behind all of the iconic Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan and John Carter covers as well as of course the Robert E. Howard’ Conan book covers that changed sci-fi and fantasy art forever…
Conan covers by Frank Frazetta
Conan the Buccaneer cover art by Frank Frazetta
His martial work really stands out,
Combat, 1969 by Frank Frazetta. The French MAT-49 is great.
The Lieutenant by Frank Frazetta. Great post-apoc stuff here. Love the Mini-14
Blazing Combat 4 cover by Frank Frazetta
Blazing Combat comic cover by Frank Frazetta
Blazing Combat comic cover by Frank Frazetta
Frazetta did a series of covers for George MacDonald Fraser “Flashman” series that covers the swashbuckling adventures of Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE, a fictional Victorian cavalryman who survives from the Charge of the Light Brigade to the Boer Wars, always coming out the better despite his attempts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Flashman on the Charge novel cover art by Frank Frazetta
Flash for Freedom cover art by Frank Frazetta.
His Death Dealer painting, which was first used on Molly Hatchet’s first album cover in 1978, went on to take a life of its own and has been used far and wide since then.
The Death Dealer, 1973. Frazetta’s single most iconic work
Since 1985 it has been the official mascot symbol of the Fort Hood based III Armored Corps who has both an immense outdoor statue and two smaller indoor depictions of the Death Dealer (which they term the Phantom Warrior) at their headquarters.
One of the smaller examples deployed with III Corps units to Iraq.
Phantom Warrior being installed at Fort Hood
One of the smaller Phantom Warriors
Sadly Frazetta passed away on May 10, 2010 at age 82.
He was a inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, and others as well as earned the attention and admiration of legions of men and boys over the course of his amazing career.
Self portrait. All he is missing is a sword…
The artist, complete with his 1911
His family maintains the Frazaetta Art Museum while a number of unofficial galleries showcase his work in great detail and in a number of ways. He also has a pretty serious group of fans.
Thank you for your work, sir.
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.
– Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday July 2 Helen’s daughter
Here we see the British Dido-class light cruiser HMS Hermione (Pennant 74) of the Royal Navy slicing through the Italian coastal submarine Tembien like butter on 2 August 1941, west of Malta. The (gouache on board) artwork is entitled, “A British cruiser ramming an Italian submarine” by Marc Stone. It is in the collection of the UK National Archives.
The 16 ships of the Dido-class, built to a prewar design, were some of the most modern fleet escorts in the Royal Navy and found themselves at the sharp end of the spear throughout World War Two. Originally designed to be a svelte 5700 tons, with a 1:10 length to beam ration (512-feet oal, 50-foot abeam), they were fast (33-knots) but lightly armored ships capable of swatting away aircraft, light combatants, and submarines from the fleet proper. Armed with ten rapid-fire 5.25-inch (133mm) guns in five dual-mounted turrets, as well as two sets of triple torpedo tubes, they were basically just really big destroyers– with a little bit of armor.
Where they had an advantage was in a 4000-nm cruising range of 16-knots, which enabled them to cross the Atlantic at a fair clip. This made them perfect for escorting convoys to places like Malta, Cyprus, or across the big pond.
The Dido‘s were all named after classical history and legend (e.g Black Prince, Bonaventure, Charybdis, Naiad, Spartan, et al) which made cruiser number 74’s name after Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen in Greek mythology, logical. As such, she was the Royal Navy’s third ship to carry that moniker, the first a Napoleonic war 32-gun frigate, and the second being a WWI-era Astraea-class protected cruiser, both with somewhat unlucky histories. The frigate’s crew had mutinied and surrendered to the Spanish while the old cruiser had grounded herself at least twice and was too obsolete to take an active part in the Great War.
The third would be the unluckiest of all.
Laid down at Alexander Stephen and Sons in Glasgow, Scotland in 1937, the war started before Hermione was commissioned on 25 March 1941. With just a few weeks in service, she was part of the Bismarck hunt, and served on the Northern Patrol in the Atlantic for two months. Rushed to the Med where the Royal Navy was fighting for its very life alone against the Italian, Vichy French and German forces there, she joined 1st Cruiser Squadron Force H, protecting the lifeline convoys running from Gibraltar to Malta and back, then convoys from Malta to Alexandria.
The (Town class) cruisers HMS Edinburgh, along with the Dido-class sisters HMS Hermione (center), and HMS Euryalus, steaming in line abreast whilst they escort a convoy as part of Operation Halberd, at the time the largest resupply effort to Malta, to which the entire Italian navy sortied to attempt to stop.
These runs carried fighters to Malta, oil and supplies to Montgomery’s troops fighting Rommel in North Africa, and other valuable commodities. As such, Hermione shot down attacking dive bombers, endured endless hours on alert for U-boats and fast attack craft, and had her ‘turn in the barrel’ everyday for over a year running this gauntlet.
The ship’s good luck charm “Convoy“, Hermione‘s ship’s cat, sleeps in his own hammock whilst members of the crew look on
On the night of Aug 2, 1941 Hermione encountered the Italian Adua-class submarine Tembien on the surface preparing to send a brace of torpedoes into the precious carrier HMS Ark Royal. Had the Ark been sunk, British naval power in the Med would have changed for the worse. It was on that evening the daughter of Menelaus sliced the Roman shark in two, sending her to the bottom.
*Sidebar on the unlucky Adua-class boats of the Regia Marina: These plucky 800-ton, 200-foot long vessels were well-designed but their crews were unprepared for war against the Royal Navy, which had a long tradition of killing submarines operating close to their ships. Of the 17 Adula’s operational during World War II, 16 were lost, almost all to the RN. The class did not chalk up many kills for all of their reckless bravado.*
For her role in sinking the Italian submarine, the cruiser Hermione was immortalized in wartime martial art, which was soon turned into war propaganda posters. Tragically, the cruiser had already met her own fate before the ink was dry on these posters.
Assigned to the 15th Cruiser squadron in the eastern Med, she came face to face with a boat who had already tried to sink her once the previous winter. On 16 June 1942, she was sunk after being torpedoed just off Alexandria by the German U-boat U-205 with a loss of some 85 of her crew.
Commanded by Kptlt. Franz-Georg Reschke, U-205 herself the subject of a blood vendetta by the Royal Navy, who sent her to the bottom near the coast of Libya 17 Feb, 1943, with the destroyer HMS Paladin finishing her off.
The Hermione‘s name was issued to a Leander-class frigate (F58) in 1967, a ship that by all accounts had a lucky and safe thirty-year life and whose crew share a reunion and remembrance association with that of the lost WWII cruiser.
Specs:
Displacement: 5,600 tons standard
6,850 tons full load, wartime overload, 7700-tons.
Length: 485 ft (148 m) pp
512 ft (156 m) oa
Beam: 50.5 ft (15.4 m)
Draught: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion: Parsons geared turbines
Four shafts
Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers
62,000 shp (46 MW)
Speed: 32.25 knots (60 km/h)
Range: 1,500 nautical miles (2,780 km) at 30 knots
4,240 nautical miles (7,850 km) at 16 knots
1,100 tons fuel oil
Complement: 480 (more added in 1941 to man additional AAA guns)
Armament:
Original configuration:
10 x 5.25 in (133 mm) guns,
2 x 0.5 in MG quadruple guns,
3 x 2 pdr (37 mm/40 mm) pom-pom quad guns,
6 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×3).
1941 – 1943 configuration:
10 x 5.25 in (133 mm) dual-purpose guns (5×2),
5 x 20 mm (0.8 in) single guns,
8 x 2 pdr (37 mm/40 mm) pom-pom guns (2×4),
6 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×3).
Armour:
Belt: 3 inch,
Deck: 1 inch,
Magazines: 2 inch,
Bulkheads: 1 inch.
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International
They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
I’m a member, so should you be!
Men of Iron by Don Troiani : Doughboys assault German positions in the Bois de Mort Mare during the Battle of St. Mihiel.
Battle of St. Mihiel, the Bois de Frière, Sept. 12, 1918
The 3/358th Infantry, 90th Division, was designated the assault unit for the American attack on the morning of September 12. As they were moving forward toward their jump-off positions before dawn, the unit was caught by German counter-battery fire. Major Allen, battalion commander, was wounded and evacuated while unconscious to an aid station in the rear. Regaining his senses, Allen removed his medical tag and sought to rejoin his unit, which had already advanced through the Bois de Frière. Allen gathered a group of men separated from their units and led them forward. They discovered a group of Germans bypassed by the first wave of American troops emerging from their dugout. Allen led his men in desperate hand-to-hand combat with the Germans. After emptying his pistol and despite his wounds, Allen fought with his fists, losing several teeth and suffering another serious wound.
Allen and his men are shown engaging the Germans in the trench. On the morning of September 12, American troops wore raincoats to protect against the rain. Allen is using his .45-caliber pistol which was standard issue for American officers. American tactical doctrine required the assault battalions to advance as quickly as possible toward their first objective line. Follow-on battalions were given the task of mopping up German strongpoints bypassed by the leading troops. The American early morning artillery barrage drove many German units into the protection of their dugoutsand many were passed over by the first wave of American troops. During the St. Mihiel offensive several American support units engaged in desperate battles to clean out small groups of Germans scattered throughout the woods.
Allen would rise to command the American 1st Infantry Division in North Africa and Sicily in World War II. Criticized for lax discipline, Allen was relieved of his command by General Dwight Eisenhower. Allen was then assigned to command the 104th Infantry Division and he led them through the Battle of the Bulge and Germany’s surrender in May 1945.
An American attack in the Seicheprey region, in a watercolor by the artist-correspondent Harvey Dunn.
