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Sunday,
January 2, 2005 Frank Kelly Freas, a long time friend and
associate and the dean of science fiction illustrators, died peacefully in
his sleep at 4:36 PST last night. His daughter Jackie and his second wife
Dr. Laura Brodian Freas, were with him. The funeral will be tomorrow, Monday, in
Canoga Park.
I first met Kelly in about 1960. He was already a giant, responsible for
many pictures and illustrations out in the mainstream, as well as science
fiction illustrations. One of my favorites, the Mad Magazine parody of
"Great Moments in Medicine"
(Kelly's was "Presenting the Bill")
nearly
caused my flight surgeon to die of laughter, and it was years before I
realized that painting was Kelly's. He could draw in many styles, and while
the "Kelly Freas Style" is instantly recognizable, some of his best work is
entirely different.
Like most science fiction friendships, our was largely confined to
conventions, where I would meet Kelly and Polly several times a year, and we
often ended up in the same late night parties. Polly died of cancer some
years ago, and Kelly began to fade, until he met Dr. Laura Brodian. Their
marriage gave him a new lease on life.
Kelly did the illustrations for my first published science fiction
stories, both short fiction and my novel Spaceship For The King; indeed he
did illustrations for that several times, both interior illustrations and
the cover for Analog, then for the DAW books publication, for the British
edition, and for a consolidated novel including other stories. He later
showed me the sketches he had done for that book, and gave me a couple of
them. The sketches showed just how closely he had read the novel. Kelly
never did anything by halves. His interior illustration for "The Mercenary",
the first of my Falkenberg stories, actually influenced the way I saw my own
character; Kelly may have paid more attention to some of the details than I
had.
Kelly also did the covers for the short-lived Laser Books novels. I had
three of those, all put back in print after Laser's demise, each with a
Frank Kelly Freas cover: and although he was doing four covers a month for
that series, it was clear enough that he had read each novel, and each of
the covers had details peculiar to the story. He was a professional and a
craftsman as well as a gifted artist, and it all showed in his work.
If Kelly had an enemy I never knew it, although I suppose some of those
he skewered with his illustrations might have felt a few twinges of rage. In
person, though, he was so unfailingly pleasant that even when he was angry
it was hard to detect that.
Kelly was the "star" of a famous science fiction skit called "The
Capture", based on the premise that a World Science Fiction Convention
was held on a cruise ship in the Bermuda Triangle, and the inevitable
happened: all the passengers were taken aboard an alien spaceship. The skit
was done as a series of reports by the alien expedition commander. Most of
the reports received advice from headquarters that "Gremlins do not exist,"
although it was clear from what was going on with the detainees that perhaps
there was a gremlin among them. It would be no favor to Robert Asprin and
Phil Foglio who created this remarkable presentation to try to summarize it,
and I don't suppose it was recorded, which is all our loss.
My wife reminds me that "pixie" might be a better description of Kelly
than "gremlin" but both are apt; and of course Kelly's famous cover for
Martians Go Home! was the definitive study of little green men. He created
many other such lasting images.
Kelly was the founding Presiding Judge of the Artists of the Future
Contest, which is an annual event begun by L. Ron Hubbard and includes
the Writers of the Future Contest of which Larry Niven and I, among many
others, are judges. His kindness to aspiring young writers and illustrators
was legendary.
Now that Ted Cogswell, Poul Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Frank Herbert,
Cliff Simak, are no longer with us, what used to be known as "The Old Guard"
has disappeared from science fiction conventions. Kelly was one of the last,
and his room was often the scene of late night parties where we all drank
too much and sang the old songs. That era ended some time ago, and perhaps
better so. We all drank far too much in those days, and the old songs may
not have been as good as we thought they were. Some were pretty good,
though, and now there are few who remember them.
God Bless you, Kelly.
Fire and fleet and candlelight,
and Christ receive thy soul.
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