>A more sober cocktail to mark this point in time.

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Recently Ive been having a ball posting what I’ve decided to dub the ‘cocktail blog’ and for the most part I think people have enjoyed it.

Today however its more of a few drinks in honour of two great individuals that have in this past month passed away.
I have posted recently about birthdays of iconic individuals and such – but today’s post marks the passage of more modern icons whose imprint on history is still being felt and has in some ways only just begun.

I speak of the astoundingly talented and creative artist Frank Franzetta and the one and only inimitable Ronnie James Dio who is a rock/metal icon and arguably the man who made ‘raising the horns’ an inseparable part of rock and metal culture.

“Raising the horns”

For those in the know, Franzetta is one of the most well known and respected names in the comic industry and in a wide variety of fields where art is involved such as in the music industry (doing cover art for bands like Nazareth and Molly Hatchet) and Hollywood, the latter had him doing his first piece for the Peter Sellers starrer “Whats new pussycat?” and earning a years salary in an afternoon. Apart from these he also worked on paperbacks, posters and has been an
influence almost everywhere!

Frank Franzetta – self portrait (Feb 9th 1928 – May 10th 2010)

But all his other work aside, what made him the name that he is today was the work he did in comics – a field he began working in from the young age of 15. His most landmark work being the work he did waaay back when for Robert E. Howards legendary Conan the barbarian, and the rest as they say is history. His mind-boggling work on Conan completely redefined the way that people looked at Fantasy as a genre and there is no shortage of people across the globe who will have seen numerous works by him in their lives but never know it as such.

For the sake of this piece I have chosen two of his artworks to post, the first is simply called “Death Dealer” and in many ways is his most iconic and recognisable work. The second is called “The Silver Warrior” and has always been a personal favourite of mine.

The other legend to pass into myth recently was the man known as Ronnie James Dio. Ronnie James Dio (July 10th 1942 – May 16th 2010)

Frontman for the landmark music act that we know today as Black Sabbath after Ozzy’s departure and singing for many bands over the years – Elf, Rainbow, Dio and most recently Heaven & Hell which was formed with former Sabbath members.
Ronnie has long been respected as having one of the most powerful voices in metal – and if you know your metal (or not), you know thats no mean feat!
Once invited to Julliard, he gave it up to pursue his interest in rock music and today we mourn his passing, raise a toast to his memory and lets rock our brains out to RJD on stage.

Cheers!