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Roger Kean
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The Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey Paperback – 13 April 2006

by Roger Michael Kean (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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Oliver Frey is one of the most important artists working in the medium of commercial illustration. This lavish book documents his work between 1970 and today. The prime focus is on his staggering output in the 1980s and early 1990s when, as a director of magazine publisher Newsfield Ltd., he produced hundreds of magazine covers, software games inlays and incidental illustrations that set the video games market alight internationally. Frey’s early history reveals his work on some of Britain’s greatest comic institutions such as the Fleetway War Picture Library, Dan Dare in Eagle, and The Trigan Empire in Look & Learn, as well as his celebrated 1930s-style opening sequence for the film Superman, The Movie. The book also throws light on Frey’s techniques, from line-and-wash to the airbrush, and more recently his computer-generated work. While the paintings will be familiar to many magazine readers, few will have ever seen the originals as beautifully reproduced as this, and free of the commercial sales lines and slogans that cluttered them as magazine covers and posters.

Famous artwork reproduced as it has never been seen before.

Contents divided into topic-specific sections.

Commentary on the paintings by the artist.

Art techniques revealed and discussed.

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  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Thalamus Publishing
  4. Publication date
    13 April 2006
  5. Dimensions
    23 x 1.9 x 28 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1902886062
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1902886060
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details

Product description

From the Author

Oliver Frey is uncomfortable with being referred to as an ‘artist’. He calls himself a ‘commercial illustrator’; yet despite the modesty of the term he has entertained and often inspired generations with his unique vision of the world. His prolific output is definitely of a fantastic nature although the imagery is almost always bound to a sense of reality.

My involvement with Oliver has been a long and rewarding one, and continues to be so. I first met him in January 1969 when we were both starting a two-year course at the London Film School, and we have worked together in one capacity or another ever since.

Since I have been a witness to and a participant in many of the events described in this book, it is inevitable that my presence hovers above the text. However, I am uncomfortable at mentioning myself in the first person because I feel it intrudes on the narrative, and for this reason on the occasions my presence crops up, I have referred to myself in the third person.

Over the years, Oliver Frey has gained a huge and appreciative fan base – which knows him familiarly as ‘Oli’ – and yet, because he is first and foremost a commercial artist, much of his most exciting work, especially for magazine covers, has been designed for and defaced by the blather of ‘cover lines’ selling the contents. Few people will ever have seen the unadulterated originals without them; surely the only excuse needed for this book?

From the Inside Flap

Oliver Frey is one of the most important artists working in the medium of commercial illustration. Frey worked on some of Britain s greatest comic institutions the Fleetway War Picture Library, Dan Dare in Eagle, and The Trigan Empire in Look & Learn, as well as his celebrated 1930s-style opening sequence for the film Superman, The Movie. For a whole generation of boys, Frey s extraordinary artwork expressed the exuberance and sheer excitement of the games they played. But it came to mean more, eventually defining the whole European videogame movement. This lavish book a must for every collector of graphic art documents his work between the 1970s and today. The prime focus is on his staggering output in the 1980s and early 1990s when he produced hundreds of computer game magazine covers, software games inlays and incidental illustrations that set the international video games market alight. While the paintings will be familiar to many magazine readers, few will have ever seen the originals as beautifully reproduced as this, and free of the commercial sales lines and slogans that cluttered them as magazine covers.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thalamus Publishing (13 April 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1902886062
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1902886060
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 23 x 1.9 x 28 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the author

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Roger Kean

Roger Kean

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After careers in film, journalism, magazine publishing, and historical reference publishing, Roger M. Kean settled down to pen gay fiction. To date he has written FELIXITATIONS, THUNDERBOLT: TORN ENEMY OF ROME, and the “Empire Trilogy” of late Victorian action-adventure novels A LIFE APART, GREGORY’S STORY, and the mammoth HARRY’S GREAT TREK. In between battling through the deserts of Sudan, he wrote the 30,000-word novella about British Premier League football (soccer) WHAT’S A BOY SUPPOSED TO DO.

Both Felixitations and A Life Apart have been Goodreads.com M/M Romance Group Books of the Month.

Writing under the pen name of Zack, Kean’s “Boys of…” series extends to five full-length novels. The Adventures of American Gil Graham and Brit Mike Smith are set in the early 1980s, all published by Bruno Gmünder in paperback and ebook formats. By the same publisher also as Zack he has written BLOOD AND LUST, THE WARRIOR’S BOY, RAW RECRUITS and DESERT STUDS. Already published in the "Boys of Imperial Rome" series are DEADLY CIRCUS OF DESIRE and THE SATYR OF CAPRI, with THE WRATH OF SETH due in August and TWISTED BLADE IN THE ARENA in the spring of 2017. Under another pseudonym, Bruno Gmünder recently published Kean’s pulp fiction novels MISSISSIPPI HUSTLER and a story of 1950s Hollywood MULHOLLAND MEAT.

In his time Roger M. Kean has written about subjects as varied as the utilization of electronic publishing techniques for pre-press, video games, and gay life in London. His published reference books include histories of the Roman Emperors, Byzantium, Ancient Egypt, and pirates. Other fiction includes five mainstream YA adventure stories.

He lives in a medieval town on the borders of Wales with his lifelong partner.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
16 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Bryan
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great artists of the 70's/80's
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 June 2010
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As an artist myself (who has published work under the pseudonym BML) I was saddened to see how Roger Kean, who was very influential in the gay publishing market of the seventies, was rather dismissive of Oliver Frey's erotic artwork during the same period. He comments that the book is not the place to describe his artwork of this period though he does mention posters created for the London nightclub, Heaven, and it's Cellar Bar, a popular haunt for leather-clad men. Personally, I was influenced by the artwork of Tom of Finland, Mark and Oliver Frey and owe them a great debt in my study of the male form in pose and connection.
Oliver Frey illustrated for Him gay magazine primarily during the seventies as well as spin-off gay magazines like Man To Man, where he illustrated erotic comic strips and Him Gay Library (published by Street Level Limited) in the eighties. Possibly the most famous character Oliver Frey is associated with is Rogue, whose erotic adventures appeared in Gay Monthly and were collected, in part, in one volume in 1981 entitled Rogue - The Collected Stories (occasionally available through sellers on Amazon). With so many inoffensive illustrations available throughout this important period of Oliver Frey's career, I am sure Roger Kean could easily have included some artwork to use as perspective against his later pieces for Crash magazine. As a matter of interest, some of Oliver Frey's erotic comic strips have been collected and will be published in a 96-page paperback volume later in 2010 as Bike Boy by Zack and published by Bruno Gmunder Verlag GmbH.
With all this gripe aside, Roger Kean's book on Oliver Frey's artwork is extremely well presented and makes interesting reading. It is divided up into sections and the boyish illustrations reflect back to earlier artwork. Produced as a large, glossy page format, I recommend this book to anyone who is familiar with Oliver Frey, anyone who appreciated the artwork of the seventies/eighties, or just anyone who appreciates fine art.
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Mr. D. Nicol
5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous book, a must for the fantasy art lovers
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 March 2012
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I had known of Oliver Frey's artwork in two ways, through Crash magazine, the computer gaming mag for the ZX Spectrum user and The Trigan Empire. Sadly, while Don Lawrences Trigan work has been reprinted, none of the subsequent artwork has, including Olivers which is a very nice style.

This book comes printed in really nice quality paper and is stuffed full of content. There's small commentary on most of the pictures, though some areas are a bit more detailed. The artwork, much of which is covers from Zzap 64, Crash and Amtixx are reproduced beautifully, and without all the cover adornments like the magazine logo and feature titles.

It's not just covers though, there are parts of the strip "The Terminal Man", which featured in Crash and Zzap, this strip has been reproduced on the net with the authors blessing. There are also images from publications like a stunning 2 page spread showing 19th Century Africa highlighting the Victoria Falls.

In short, if you like your artwork, this book is well worth the price.
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Roy M Benson
5.0 out of 5 stars Retro Computing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2016
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If you are into your retro computers, then you will know the art of Oli Frey - Crash and Zapp 64 magazines would regularly feature his artwork on their respective front covers.... My personal favourite was the comic strip (from Crash) 'The Terminal Man'

A great coffee table book
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John Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2016
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A beautiful collection of Oli Frey artworks from video games magazines of the eighties. Beautiful
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C. FARMER
5.0 out of 5 stars Crash mag classics
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 December 2016
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As a gamer in the 80s this book brought back some fabulous memories
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Alan Lenton
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2007
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Ollie Frey set the direction for computer games art in the era of the 8-bit machines. The cover art of games, and games magazines is his creation. Fabulous pictures and the story of Newsfield Magazines. A true blast from the past.
One person found this helpful
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Sebastian Rice
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Art, Interesting Biography
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2009
A very nicely produced art book, which tells a great story. Unlike many artbooks, this one has a very detailed and well researched bio, which is entertaining to read.

All of Frey's major paintings - and many not so well known pieces are included, with large full page images for most. At the end, there is even a helpful section of thumbnail images showing the paintings as they appeared on the various magazine covers.

If you are interested in the UK video games and computer industry in the 80's and 90's, then this is a great buy.
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Top reviews from other countries

T. Ryan Arnold
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and Exciting art from one of the UKs masters of Magazine Cover Illustrations
Reviewed in the United States on 29 October 2009
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I didn't learn about Oliver Frey until I started reading about his art in Retro Gamer Magazine. Not growing up in the UK I was not familiar with most of the magazines that Frey produced covers for. But I am a big retro gamer so I am familiar with many of the games that Frey's covers were based on.

This book is extremly high quality. The printing and paper quality is first rate which allows one to enjoy Frey's airbrushed masterpieces unhindered. If you are a retro game fan, or a enjoy high quality early 80s fantasy art this book is simply a must own. I highly recommend it. There is even a fair amount of information included by the artist about how each piece was created. A fascinating look into the craft of one of the UKs most compelling illustrators.
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Steven White
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice collection of classic artwork - well worth a look! (long live the C64 and Zzap64!)
Reviewed in the United States on 28 October 2014
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If you owned a Commodore 64 or was a kid in the 80's.. you'll know this guys artwork - and it will take you to a better place. This book shows us many classic examples of Mr Frey's work - though sadly ripping out all the pages and framing them isn't too practical. Worth having in your collection.
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