If you’re a fan of the art of Frank Frazetta, you may want to check out a Lord of the Rings gem currently up for auction on Catawiki, one item in a wider Corner4Art Exclusive Auction.
On offer is a set of Hand Numbered Limited Edition The Lord of the Rings – Official Golden Collection, an officially licensed product from the Frazetta Girls, featuring seven scenes from Middle-earth. The prints carry the Frazetta’s original signature within the image, most of them with the copyright date of 1975.
This Official Golden Collection set brings together seven black-and-white compositions inspired by The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, interpreted through the unmistakable vision of Frank Frazetta, one of the most influential masters of fantasy art. The artworks include a title piece, featuring Gandalf, another of Éowyn and the winged beast – the warrior woman, shield raised, facing a monstrous flying creature with vast dark wings – and one of hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, his sword drawn as a great wolf watches him from behind a mossy fallen tree, an encounter from The Hobbit. And, of course, we get Gollum, too, crouched in his dark underground cave lake, under a cloud of bats
Frazetta builds each scene with bold solid blacks, fine pen lines and dynamic silhouettes, moving from epic battle to quiet suspense and gentle humour.
As most regular downthetubes readers will know, Frank Frazetta (Brooklyn, 1928 – Florida, 2010) is considered a defining name of modern fantasy art. His painted covers for Robert E. Howard’s “Conan” reshaped the sword-and-sorcery genre, and works such as “The Death Dealer”, on Warren’s Vampirella, and the film Fire and Ice with Ralph Bakshi influenced generations of artists and filmmakers. He received the Hugo Award in 1966 and was the first Spectrum Grand Master in 1995.
Frazetta’s illustrations of Tolkien’s world are a rare chapter in his career: a single series of ink drawings created in 1975 and first released as a signed portfolio limited to 1,000 copies. Far from his usual painted barbarians, they show his mastery of pure black and white, with humour, atmosphere and epic action.
Each piece in the set offered is part of a strictly limited edition of only 75 copies and features an engraved gold signature, which elevates the presentation within the Golden Collection.
The auction closes on Sunday 15th November 2026.
Run by Sergio Rincón, Corner4Art considers its mission is to bring great artists and their work closer to people who are passionate about art and collecting, in a responsible and affordable way. It grew from an animation and comic art gallery opened in 1988. Since then, the gallery has been selling thousands of artworks to many major studios such as Walt Disney, Warner Bros, Linda Jones Enterprises-Chuck Jones, Paws Inc-Garfield, Fox studios, Sowa Reiser or Hulton-Getty between others.
• Comic Artworks Auction (Corner4Art Exclusive) – Full Catalogue
• Frazetta Girls Official Site
The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta: 45th Ed. (45th Edition)
Multilingual edition by Dan Nadel, Zak Smith (Authors), Dian Hanson (Editor) Format: Hardcover | ISBN: 978-3836597951 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link
Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed king of fantasy art for 50 years, his fame only growing in the years since his death. With his paintings now breaking auction records, he was long overdue for this ultimate monograph.
Born to a Sicilian immigrant family in Brooklyn, 1928, Frazetta was a minor league athlete, petty criminal and serial seducer with movie star looks and phenomenal talent. He claimed to only make art when there was nothing better to do – he preferred playing baseball – yet began his professional career in comics at age 16. Strip work led him to the infamous EC Comics, then to oils for Tarzan and Conan pulp covers. Both characters were interpreted by many before him, but as he explained in the 1970s, “I’m very physical minded. In Brooklyn, I knew Conan, I knew guys just like him,” and he used this first-hand knowledge of muscle and macho to redefine fantasy heroes as more massive, more menacing, more testosterone-fueled than anything seen before. As counterbalance he created a new breed of women, nude as censorship allowed, with pixie faces and multiparous bodies. Add in the action, the creatures, the twilit worlds of haunting shadow and Frazetta’s art is addictive as potato chips.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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