Frank Thorne R.I.P.

Dynamite Entertainment posted on their Twitter that comic creator Frank Thorne has passed away last March 7, he was 90 at the time of his death.

Thorne started working in comics in 1948 , but was best known for his work on Red Sonja, a character he started drawing in 1976, when the character was being developed in the Robert E. Howard Conan comics universe for Marvel by Barry Windsor-Smith and writer Roy Thomas. Frank provided most of the art for the Red Sonja solo series, which ran from 1977-1979, all reprinted by Dynamite last years, if I remember well.



Thorne also created some of his own characters, including Ghita of Alizarr in an original graphic novel, Lann in Heavy Metal, Danger Rangerette in National Lampoon, and others.



In Italy we were quite lucky to read these characters in nice hardcover books published in the Eighties by then Sci-Fi publisher Editrice Nord (now a publisher specialized in romance books!).

Thorne worked for Standard Comics and DC in addition to Marvel; he did newspaper strips, including Perry Mason (!); then he wrote a number of books for Fantagraphics Books and did magazine illustration work for Playboy, Hustler, High Times, and Vanity Fair.

In its Fb page, former DC publisher Paul Levitz described Thorne as "an artist who progressively developed his style into a more and more personal expression" and "a man of talent, charm and great wit".

Hermes Press has released a number of collections of Thorne’s creator-owned work in recent years and Dynamite Entertainment is the publisher of Thorne’s Red Sonja word.

Barry_Allen wrote:Dynamite Entertainment posted on their Twitter that comic creator Frank Thorne has passed away last March 7, he was 90 at the time of his death.

Yet another amazing talent lost. I really need to step up my plan to read more of these works, those done by creators who are gone, from the 60s and 70s.

A shame, he was a real talent in his day. Another great loss to the industry. There was a heartfelt tribute online somewhere from Wendy Pini, but I can't seem to find it now.