The Original

Death Dealer, Frank Frazetta 1973. I’m fortunate to have this signed Master print in my media room. 

My photo doesn’t even do the beautiful master print justice. The richness of color and some of the details are obscured. For example, there are three vultures in the right side of the painting, each with outstretched wings at different angles from each other. 

Frazetta’s work can only really be appreciated up close and in person

The Tor Books

Death Dealer II, Frank Frazetta 1987. This was used for the cover to Death Dealer: Lords of Destruction by James Silke. I agree with Burne Hogarth’s assessment that this paining evokes a strong nuclear apocalypse imagery. Frazetta disagreed with the assessment, but the imagery is hard to overlook.

Death Dealer III (original version), Frank Frazetta 1987. It’s so impressive that he finished three Death Dealer paintings in a single year. Later, he wanted to retouch this painting and ended up changing nearly everything.

Death Dealer III (revised), Frank Frazetta. Frazetta decided to alter the original because there were things he didn’t like about it. He did this to several paintings. 

Before long, nearly the entire work was painted over. His stance is wider, more menacing, the shadows are more intense. The color scheme is also far more intense, but some of the details are obscured. I love this version and it’s one of my favorite of his many masterpieces. 

This version is hanging in the fantastic Frazetta Museum on the family estate in East Stroudsburg, PA where he painted this work. 

Death Dealer IV, Frank Frazetta 1973. Blood on the axe? Check. Headless corpse bobbing in dank water? Check. Blood pools on the surface of the swamp? Shadow-covered face with demonic red eyes? Crazy old gator looking to fight over the body? Check, check and double check. 

Though this one lacks the ominous tones of its forebears, it still tells a captivating story about Frazetta’s signature creation in his violent and strange world. 

Death Dealer V, Frank Frazetta 1989. What an epic painting! The Death Dealer spears a marauder trying to storm the fortress while fires bathe the turret in a hot blood red glow. 

Frazetta captures weight, movement, and colors that only a master can. 

Look at the bend in the shaft of the spear, buckling under the weight of the dying warrior and the piercing thrust of the Death Dealer. You can almost hear the scabbard at his hip clanging as the chain catches from his movement, the roar of the fire, the chaos of the battle

The Verotik Comic Series

Death Dealer VI, Frank Frazetta 1996. Glenn Danzig wanted to showcase Frazetta covers on a Death Dealer comic series for his new company, Verotik. This was the cover for no. 3 and the last Feath Dealer painting before he suffered a stroke. After his stroke, he relearned how to paint with his left hand and roughed in a seventh Death Dealer. 

Album Covers

Frazetta had Death Dealer I and V as covers for Molly Hatchett and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Frazetta also licensed his paintings for two other Hatchett covers, Dust and Nazareth.