Another entry in this series... this time a man whose famous rendition of Red Sonja strongly influenced basically my entire artistic journey. And yet I know very little about this guy.
I'm talking about Frank Thorne.
This guy got started doing comics in 1948 at the age of 18 and drew comics basically until his death at age 90. Talk about a life of comics! The first time I saw his work and knew his name was with the 1970s Red Sonja series, which he drew most of the issues of. Striking covers and beautiful interiors, lush with fantastic imagery and the bodacious chainmail bikini itself. This iconic image stuck in my head as part of my DNA.
It is strange to think that Thorne spent the first 28 years of his comics career drawing things like Tomahawk and Perry Mason... good solid work, but not the kind of bombastic stuff I know him for. Something happened in 1976 when he took over drawing Red Sonja. After that... it was GAME ON and the rest of his life was spent drawing beautiful women kicking ass. And we're all richer for it.
Very accurate. With Red Sonja he got to indulge himself a little, and then WHAM he's doing quasi- and actual porn with "dirty old wizard" Frank Thornes accompanying the Sonya figures. Ghita of Alizarr's probably the sweet spot where there's still an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read it all. Actually, I only read Red Sonja and The Iron Devil. I own Ribbit but haven't read it (got those comics 20 years ago and STILL haven't opened them up!! I'm awful).
DeleteIf anyone is the true scion of the chainmail bikini, it's Frank Thorne. His Red Sonja comics were some of my favorites growing up. I should take a look at collecting a few these days, surely there's an omnibus or something out there...
ReplyDeleteIt's not that hard to get hold of the original comics. Or at least it didn't seem to be when I did it... but that was 10 years ago so who knows. I am not turning my attention to getting this other comics that I don't have. I have no Lann, Ghita... or Moonshine McJuggs!
DeleteI have a big enough (largely pointless consumerism) shopping list as it is, but here we go adding Red Sonja to it. Do you recall the Conan comics which were much larger than normal comics? They were magazine sized, I think they were related to Savage Sword of Conan. Black and white interiors as I recall. I want to say I still have some, somewhere. I was fascinated by them as a kid, being dimensionally different from all other comics I had.
DeleteYou're not talking about Giant-Size Conan, right? Those are color. I don't know which ones you mean! Other than Savage Sword, I don't know of any older Conans that were black and white.
DeleteNo sir! Sorry it took so long to get back to you with an example but it's been Quite A Week for me.
DeleteHere's what I mean: https://dungeonsandpossums.com/wp-content/uploads/photo_2024-08-10_10-09-54rl.jpg
These comics were magazine dimensions, 11" tall by 8" wide, and had black and white interiors. There's a normal Iron Man comic next to it for a sense of scale.
Ah, yes. Conan Saga. I had a few of these. I think they were essentially reprints of older Conan comics. If I remember correctly, the first issues were reprints of the first Savage Sword issues. I think.
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