Red Sonja's Frank Thorne Draws Romance, Cinderella Love 12 at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: frank thorne, purple sonja, Romance Comics, St. John Publications

Frank Thorne, finest recognized for his work on the comedian e-book character Red Sonja, started his comics profession pencilling romance comics.

Article Summary

Frank Thorne’s earlier work contains romance comics for St. John.
Known for Red Sonja, Thorne started with Standard Comics and newspaper strips.
Thorne’s creations spanned from Red Sonja to erotic fantasy comics for adults.
His story in ‘Cinderella Love’ #12 incorporates a faculty scholar turned taxi driver.

Comic e-book author/artist Frank Thorne, finest recognized for his work on the comedian e-book character Red Sonja, started his comics profession a long time earlier pencilling romance comics for Standard Comics, in addition to the Perry Mason newspaper strip for King Features and Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, The Green Hornet, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Tomahawk, Mighty Samson and Enemy Ace comics for Dell. For Marvel Comics, Frank Thorne drew the Red Sonja character in her personal title, taking up from Dick Giordano for many of her seventies solo collection. He was additionally recognized for attending comedian cons in his persona, The Wizard, to evaluate Red Sonja cosplay contests.

Frank Thorne additionally created a variety of erotic fantasy comics, together with Moonshine McJugs for Playboy, Lann in Heavy Metal, and Danger Rangerett in National Lampoon, the 1989 miniseries Ribit! for Comico, in addition to the Fantagraphics /Eros Comix graphic novels Ghita of Alizarr, The Iron Devil, The Devil’s Angel, and The Illustrated History of Union County. The Devil’s Angel was seized by prosecutors in an obscenity case in opposition to the Planet Comics and Science Fiction Store in Oklahoma.

But it is a few of Frank Thorne’s earliest work that is up for public sale from Heritage Auctions, the romance comedian e-book Cinderella Love #12, revealed by St. John in 1953. His story, Taxi Sweetheart, sees faculty scholar Peggy filling in for her taxi driver father when he falls unwell and finds herself combating for one among her passengers, Peter, although he’s already engaged to the aggressive and snobbish Sandra. Playing off the recognition of the then-recent Cinderella film from Disney, the title was initially revealed for eleven points by Ziff-Davis earlier than the writer collapsed and it was picked by St John as one of many solely profitable books from that line, in addition to Romantic Love, Kid Cowboy, and Wild Boy of the Congo.

Cinderella Love #12 (St. John, 1953) Condition: FN-. Richard Cardiff painted cowl. Frank Thorne, Jack Abel, and Bernard Sachs artwork. Overstreet 2023 FN 6.0 worth = $48.