Algis "A.J." Budrys was born in East Prussia in 1931 as Algirdas Jonas Budrys. His parents took him to the United States in 1936 when fleeing Nazi expansion. After studying at the University of Miami and Columbia University, Budrys worked briefly as an assistant editor at Gnome Press. In 1952, he made his writing debut with two short stories, which appeared in Astounding and Space Science Fiction.

Budrys' early novels included False Night (1954) and Who? (first published in 1958). The latter novel is about American scientist Lucas Martino, who is maimed in a laboratory accident and falls into Russian hands, his body rebuilt and his face hidden by a mask.

Budrys returned to editorial work in the later 1950s and 1960s; he also wrote book reviews for Galaxy and Fantasy and Science Fiction. Budrys also published the magazine Tomorrow, initially with Dean Wesley Smith, which had a print run of 24 issues until 1997 and continued online until 2000.

Frank Kelly added the last name Freas after his stepfather adopted him, and he was often known professionally as Kelly Freas. A self-trained artist, after serving in World War II, Freas submitted a sample of his work to the science fiction magazine Weird Tales, which led to his first assignment creating the magazine's November 1950 cover.

Over the following decades, Freas painted hundreds of covers for several scifi magazines and many book publishers. He also painted for publications outside the scifi genre, including for Mad Magazine and portraits for The Franciscan Book of Saints (1959).

Freas won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist 10 times between the years 1955-1976, in addition to other awards and accolades. After his death in 2005 he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.