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After nine years of working with with Al Capp, Frank Frazetta returned to comic books in 1961. He also joined Harvey Kurtzman to co-create the parody strip Little Annie Fanny in Playboy magazine. Frazetta drew the Annie figures, while Al Jaffee and others did the backgrounds.

Accordng to Cliff Biggers, Roy G. Krenkel and Frazetta began working on Ace F edition covers of ERB material in 1962; by early 1963, Frazetta was doing some of the covers on his own, although his handiwork was evident in some of the covers attributed to Krenkel as well. Throughout 1963 and into 1964, Frazetta contributed a large number of paintings to Wollheim's Ace editions of Burroughs works.

"We liked Frank's work," Elsie Wollheim told Biggers in the late 1970's, "but we never knew he would become so amazingly popular. If we had, we would have taken better care of some of the original paintings."

Ms. Wollheim went on to relate how, in some cases, Frazetta originals done on illustrationboard had been tacked to the wall rather than being framed, a tale that brought chills to Biggers' heart! Kelly Freas, who also did a great many paintings for Mad Magazine, was another regular cover painter for Don Wollheim's Ace Books line, and it may well have been Freas who helped get Frazetta the Mad assignment.

In October 1964, Frazetta painted a Ringo Starr caricature for a Mad magazine advertising parody (The issue's cover, #90, is shown right, the Frazetta ad, which ran on the back cover, is seen below.)

Although the Ringo-painting barely scratched the surface of Frazetta's massive talents, it provided another high-profile showcase for his work.

At this point, Frank Frazetta was no longer just a pencil and ink artist who assisted others. He was a now painter in his own right, and the best was yet to come.