Frank Kelly Freas (August 27, 1922 – January 2, 2005) was an American science fiction and fantasy artist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He was known as the “Dean of Science Fiction Artists” and he was the second artist inducted by the Science fiction Hall of Fame.
Born in Hornell, New York, Freas (pronounced like “freeze”) grew up in Canada. Neither parent had an artistic leaning and Kelly’s craftsmanship came from pure talent and intelligence, not the product of an artistic environment.
He entered the United States Army Air Forces right out of high school (Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada). He flew as camera man for reconnaissance in the south Pacific and painted bomber noses during World War II. He married Pauline (Polly) Bussard in 1952; they had two children, Jacqui and Jerry. Polly died of cancer in January 1987. In 1988 he married (and is survived by) Dr. Laura Brodian.
The fantasy magazine Weird Tales published the first cover art by Freas on it’s November 1950 issue. His second was a year later followed by several Planet Stories and more Weird Tales covers and interior illustrations for three Gnome Press books in 1952.
With his illustration career underway, he continued to devise unique and imaginative concepts for other fantasy and science fiction magazines of that period. In a field where airbrushing is common practice paintings by Freas are notable for his use of bold brush strokes, and a study of his work reveals his experimentation with a wide variety of tools and techniques.
Oer the next five decades, he created covers for hundreds of books and magazines (and much more interior artwork), notably Astounding Science fiction both before and after its title change to Analog – indeed, from 1953 to 2003. He started at Mad magazine in in February 1957 and by July 1958 was the magazine’s new cover artist; he painted most of its covers until October 1962 (featuring the iconic character, Alfred E. Neuman). He also created covers for DAW, Signet, Ballentine Books, Avon, BAEN Books, all 58 Laser Books (which are ow collector’s items), and over 90 covers for Ace books alone. He was artist and editor [with Polly Freas) for the first ten Starblaze books.
Freas also designed the mission patch and painted posters for Skylab I; comic book covers; the covers of the GURPS worldbooks Lensman and Planet Krishna; and more than 500 saints’ portraits for the Franciscans executed simultaneously with his portraits of Alfred E. Neuman for Mad. He was very active in gaming and medical illustration. His cover of Queen’s album News of the World (1977) was a pastiche of his October 1953 cover illustration for Tom Godwin’s “The Gulf Between” for Astounding Science Fiction.
