Kelly Freas obituary

January 04, 2005, 12:30:43 PM

Freas was famous for his humorous LGM (little green men) and BEM (bug-eyed men) illustrations and was a mainstay at Analog and Asimov's, among other prozines. (I have his autograph from the '72 Worldcon somewhere...) Jan. 4, 2005. 07:04 AM Freas, 82, was Mad artist LOS ANGELES—Kelly Freas, an influential illustrator who produced sleek, stirring images for science fiction and fantasy books and helped shape the image of Mad magazine mascot Alfred E. Newman, has died. He was 82. Freas died in his sleep Sunday at his home in Los Angeles, said his wife of 16 years, Laura Brodian Freas, the host of a Los Angeles classical music program. The cause of death was old age, she said. "He always wanted to be a science fiction illustrator, and the life of a science fiction illustrator led him to so much more,'' she said yesterday. "Life with a Mad artist was never boring.'' In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Freas illustrated the covers or the pages of books by writers including Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, A.E. Van Vogt, Poul Anderson and Frederik Pohl. His science fiction and fantasy illustrations included emotive images of pained robots, insidious aliens and exotic women. Beginning in the 1950s, he spent seven years as the main cover artist of Mad, creating stylishly detailed portraits and helping to make famous Alfred E. Newman, the freckled, front-tooth-deprived purveyor of the phrase, "What? Me Worry?'' Freas (pronounced "freeze'') also created the cover of Queen's 1977 album News of the World, and a picture of a werewolf that appeared in the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Born on Aug. 27, 1922, in Hornell, N.Y., Frank Kelly Freas attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and went on to win 11 Hugo awards for his achievements in science fiction, five of them awarded in consecutive years. Besides his wife, Freas is survived by a daughter, son, and six grandchildren. ASSOCIATED PRESS