Roy G. Krenkel
(July 11, 1918 -- February 24, 1983)
Roy Gerald Krenkel, Jr. was born in the Bronx and was a lifelong resident of New York. He studied at Burne Hogarth's School of Visual Arts, and began his artistic career at EC Comics, where he became friends with artists Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta.
Krenkel won the 1963 Best Professional Artist Hugo and was nominated for the 1964 Best Professional Artist Hugo. He also received a special award at the World Fantasy Convention in 1982.
He worked briefly with Williamson in the comic book field in the 1940s [using the pseudonym of Roy Williams], and began doing pen and ink illustrations for the SF digest magazines in the early 1950s. During a brief comic book career in the 1950s-1960s he worked for several comic book companies, including ACG, EC, Harvey, ME, Marvel, and Western Printing.
Krenkel was the cover artist on many Burroughs paperbacks in the 1960s and also did cover paintings and pen-and-ink illustrations for Canaveral Press's hardcover editions of Burroughs during this same period. He also was a major contributor to fanzines such as Amra, and in the early 1970s did many covers for Comic Fandom Monthly.
His first professional SF cover art was for Weirdbook 11 in 1977. Later he did cover and interior art for several Robert E. Howard collections published by Donald M. Grant. Critics feel his best work was in the field of heroic fantasy. Over the years he collaborated several times with Frazetta.
Krenkel's art has been showcased in Cities & Scenes from the Ancient World (1974) [with text by L. Sprague and Catherine Crook de Camp], in Jungle Love: A Portfolio of Drawings by Roy G. Kenkel (1974) [12 ink and pencil drawings in an illustrated envelope], in his Seven Wonders of the World (1975), and in Swordsmen and Saurians (1989) [introduction by William Stout].
The only issue of the EC fanzine Quo Brot (1989) contained Bruce Benner's "Krenkel and Frazetta Art Index"; and Ophemera, a fanzine published by comic fan Bhob Stewart, was devoted to Krenkel and his work. Some of Krenkel's artwork appeared more recently in James Van Hise's The Fantastic Worlds of Robert E. Howard (2001). See also Roy G. Krenkel: The Illustrations of R. E. H..
| Person | 1918—1983 |
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