Editing Kelly Freas (section)

==Career==
Freas began his work as a commercial artist in the late 1940s, mostly for television. His goal was to become a science fiction artist.<ref>''Past and Present Master: An Interview with Kelly Freas'', Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, January 1975 (Vol. 1, No. 1)</ref>
[[File:Weird Tales November 1950.jpg|thumb|left|''The Piper'', illustrating Wakefield's "The Third Shadow" for ''Weird Tales'', was Freas's first magazine cover, November 1950]]

The fantasy magazine ''[[Weird Tales]]'' published the first cover art by Freas on its November 1950 issue: "The Piper" illustrating "The Third Shadow" by [[H. Russell Wakefield]]. His second was a year later in the same magazine, followed by several  ''[[Planet Stories]]'' or ''Weird Tales'' covers and interior illustrations for three [[Gnome Press]] books in 1952.<ref name=isfdb/> With his illustrating career underway, he continued to devise unique and imaginative concepts for other fantasy and science fiction magazines of that period. In a field where [[airbrush]]ing 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.

[[File:AstoundingOct53.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'' cover, October 1953]]

Over the next five decades, he created covers for hundreds of books and magazines (and much more interior artwork), notably ''[[Astounding (magazine)|Astounding Science Fiction]]'', both before and after its title change to ''Analog'', from 1953 to 2003.<ref name=isfdb/> He started at [[MAD Magazine|''Mad'' magazine]] 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]]).<ref name=martin/><ref name=Virginian>{{cite news |last=Vincent |first=Mal |date=May 21, 2010 |title=As the Symphony gets ready to rock, we remember a local artist |newspaper=[[The Virginian-Pilot]] |page=E1 |url=http://hamptonroads.com/2010/05/symphony-gets-ready-rock-we-remember-local-artist |access-date=August 19, 2010 |archive-date=August 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827065722/http://hamptonroads.com/2010/05/symphony-gets-ready-rock-we-remember-local-artist |url-status=dead }}</ref> He also created cover illustrations for DAW, Signet, [[Ballantine Books]], Avon, all 58 Laser Books (which are now collectors' items), and over 90 covers for Ace books alone.<!--isfdb may support this but not easy to count--> He was editor and artist for the first ten ''Starblaze'' books. He illustrated the cover of [[Jean Shepherd]], [[Ian Ballantine]], and [[Theodore Sturgeon]]'s literary hoax, ''[[I, Libertine]]'' (Ballantine Books, 1956). That same year he drew cartoon illustrations for [[Bernard Shir-Cliff]]'s ''The Wild Reader''.

Freas also painted insignia and posters for [[Skylab I]];<ref name=martin/> pinup girls on bombers while in the [[United States Army Air Forces]]; comic book covers; the covers of the ''[[GURPS]]'' worldbooks ''Lensman'' and ''Planet Krishna''; and more than 500 saints' portraits for the [[Franciscan]]s executed simultaneously with his portraits of [[Alfred E. Neuman]] for ''Mad''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/arts/design/f-k-freas-who-drew-the-devilish-face-of-mad-magazine-dies-at-82.html |title=F. K. Freas, Who Drew the Devilish Face of Mad Magazine, Dies at 82 |first=Douglas |last=Martin |date=January 5, 2005 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=June 14, 2017}}</ref><ref name="guardianobituaries">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jan/13/guardianobituaries.books |title=Obituary: Frank Kelly Freas |first=Stephen |last=Holland |date=January 13, 2005 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=June 14, 2017}}</ref> He was very active in gaming and medical illustration. His cover of [[Queen (band)|Queen]]'s album ''[[News of the World (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'' magazine.<ref name=Virginian /><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Godwin |first=Tom |title=The Gulf Between |magazine=[[Astounding Science Fiction]] |date=October 1953 |pages=8–56}}</ref>

Freas published several collections of his color and black-and-white artwork in the volumes ''Frank Kelly Freas: The Art of Science Fiction'' and ''Frank Kelly Freas: As Others See it'', as well as in a spiral-bound collection of his black-and-white illustrations from ''Astounding Science Fiction''. He also frequently gave art presentations, and his work appeared in numerous exhibitions. He was among several of the inaugural recipients of the [[Hugo Award for Best Artist]] in 1955 and was recipient under different names of the next three conferred in 1956, 1958, and 1959.<ref name=SFAwards/>{{efn|name=hugo1950s}} With six more Hugo awards to his name (1970 and 1972–76), he became the first person to receive ten [[Hugo Award|Hugo awards]] (he was nominated 20 times). No other artist in science fiction has consistently matched his record and output.

Freas was twice a Guest of Honor at [[Worldcon]], at [[40th World Science Fiction Convention|Chicon IV]] in 1982 and at [[61st World Science Fiction Convention|Torcon 3]] in 2003, although a fall suffered shortly before the latter convention precluded him from attending.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.kellyfreas.com/frameset_default.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=February 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211074410/http://www.kellyfreas.com/frameset_default.htm |archive-date=February 11, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He died in [[West Hills, Los Angeles, California|West Hills]], California and is buried in [[Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery]] in [[Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California|Chatsworth]].
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