Illustrator Oliver “Oli” Frey is well known for his work in many fields – as a book and magazine cover artist, and as a comics artist. Although he started his comics career in the 1960s on Fleetway’s War Picture Library, he’s perhaps best known for his work on “The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire” for Look and Learn, “Terminal Man” (written by Kelvin Gosnell, re-published by Oliver himself in 2010) for the computer magazines CRASH and Zzap64 .
He also drew “Dan Dare” for the revived Eagle of the 1980s, drawing two episodes of “Return of the Mekon” in 1982, the eight-part story known as “The Timads” in 1983, although the tale wasn’t given an official title in the comic itself; and a number of one-off Dare stories for various Specials and the 1984 Eagle Annual.
Oliver Frey studied film at the London School of Film Technique and began drawing comic strips to support himself, initially working for Fleetway’s picture libraries.
He continues to earn acclaim to this day for his celebrated 1930s-style opening sequence for the film Superman: The Movie, released in 1978.
Through the late 1970s and the 1980s Frey was a prolific creator of gay erotic art, usually published under the pen name Zack. These included “Rogue”, a comics series featuring a big, muscular bad-boy hero for HIM Magazine, a monthly gay male pornography publication which he and his partner Roger Kean owned, along with related titles.
(The entire strip was republished in Hot for Boys in 2011 – we suspect the current price for a copy of over £1000 may be an error).
Oliver also produced, edited, and illustrated several issues of Man-to-Man Magazine. Some of his gay erotic work was included in an exhibition at the British Library in 2014.
Oliver’s interest in Dan Dare began at an early age. Now a British resident, Oliver was born in Zurich in 1948. When he was almost eight, the Frey family went to live in Britain and on the flight, a steward handed the puzzled Oliver a Dan Dare badge.
He had never heard of the Pilot of the Future, but discovered, tucked under the cushions of a sofa in the hotel the family stayed in for a week, copies of Eagle comic, and the badge and the Dan Dare strip matched up.
At school in Wembley, he discovered his school friends were comics mad – a new experience, as the kind of weekly comics then published in Britain weren’t a feature of his Swiss life. He was immediately taken by the quality of the artwork in Eagle, immersing himself in the deeds of Dan Dare and the dastardly Mekon, and learning to draw in part by copying the stories, particularly influenced by Frank Bellamy’s work for the comic.
Despite pitching several times, he never gained work on the original Eagle but later in life he got the chance to combine his cover work for CRASH and Zzap 64 with his love of Dan Dare for two covers to promote two of Virgin’s Dan Dare computer games.
Shown below is the original artwork for both covers and the final, published cover of the issue of Zzap64 published in 1988.
Several of Frey’s painted front covers for Fleetway’s War Picture Library were reproduced from the original art in two of David Roach’s books, Aarrgghh!! It’s War in 2007 and The Art of War in 2008.
Frey has illustrated numerous books under his own name, and over twelve under the pseudonym Zack. The classic video gaming magazine Retro Gamer has also featured Frey’s artwork on its cover, and their are huge galleries of his art on his official web site.
Crash has recently been revived as an annual by Oliver, Roger Kean and Chris Wilkins. It’s been funded via Kickstarter and should be back from the printers soon. You can pre-order it from Fusion Retro Books.
Web Links
• Oliver Frey Official Site: oliverfreyart.com
• Zack Art: zack-art.com
• ComicArtFans: Oliver Frey Trigan Empire Gallery 1 | Gallery 2 | Gallery 3 | Gallery 4
Compiled by Geoff West from the Illustration Art Gallery/ Book Palace
• Back in 2010, Oliver self-published a collection of The Terminal Man, written by Kelvin Gosnell, back in 2010. The strip featured in Crash and Zzap!64 magazines in 1984 – 1986 and Oliver recreated three missing pages for the collection
• A Guide to The Trigan Empire strip
This site is the work of the Don Lawrence Collection and includes links to buy the high quality collections of the strip
• Jeremy Briggs’ Bear Alley piece about Oli Frey’s work on his short lived Frighteners magazine
The best online site dedicated to CRASH magazine (198492), with full screen covers, editorial detail and game reviews — a chance to see what much of Oliver Frey’s artwork looked like when it was plastered with cover lines
With thanks to Richard Sheaf and A Stuart Williams
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
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.
Categories: Art and Illustration, Comic Art, Comic Creator Spotlight, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
Related Articles
-
Comic Creator Spotlight: Artist, Colourist and Writer Angus McKie
-
Comic Creator Spotlight: David Williams, aka “Bill”, creator of “Dr. Panzwarmer” and other Gerald G. Swan characters
-
Take the Climate Change Denialism Challenge set by comic creator Léonard Chemineau
-
Coming Soon: The Art of Luis Garcia, focusing on the work of the top Vampirella artist