Jongor Fights Back Paperback Book Cover 1967

This paperback book cover, Jongor Fights Back, was painted by Frank Frazetta. I can imagine him wrestling with this composition, figuring out how to make it all hang together, the eye moving up towards that archer in the center of the canvas. There’s this kind of muted palette, browns and greens mostly, but then BAM! The archer's skin is like a spotlight, gleaming against the rest of the painting. And those two terrified women clinging on for dear life. I wonder if Frazetta knew how much his covers would inspire other artists? I’m sure he was thinking about all the other painters who’d come before him, all the illustrators who painted monsters and warriors, but he was also making something totally new and weird and his own. It’s like he’s saying, "I’m part of this conversation, but I’m also going to shout my own thing into the mix." That’s what keeps art alive, right?