PAUL SLADE:
Published between 1981 and 1984, Dave's six Swords Of Cerebus volumes were his first attempt to collect the book in a more permanent form. He gave each story included in these volumes a prose introduction, explaining where the book stood when he'd been working on that particular issue and how he was thinking of its prospects at the time. This example's taken from Swords volume 1. Also check out the full 'Swords Of Cerebus' Introductions Index.
Frank Thorne, who Dave discusses here, drew Marvel's Red Sonja comic in the late 1970s. He went on to create Ghita of Alizarr, his own female warrior, for the Warren magazine 1984.
A panel from Cerebus #3:
"I was trying to do Frank Thorne's Sonja, inked like Barry Smith does,
only more hair and aw nuts it doesn't look like anything," says Dave.
Next week: The arrival of Elrod.
Next week: The arrival of Elrod.
4 comments:
Well so, Dave, did you?
Did you get a sketch after the Swords intro?
Steve
I'm not really sure, Steve. There are definitely a number of letters and sketches from Frank Thorne in file drawer #1 of the Cerebus Archive. His Cerebus & Sonja finished piece that was in CEREBUS No.2 is on the wall next to Bill S.'s CEREBUS JAM cover on the second floor of the Off-White House and is still a wonder to behold. There is really something amazing to a veteran cartoonist's work when he starts "clicking" on a title as Frank did with RED SONJA. Particularly when you're trying to do hair the way that he does. I can SEE it, but BLASTED if I can DO it. Same thing with the chain-mail bikini. Perfect weight and balance and lighting and you can tell he wasn't even breaking a sweat.
Well, as regarding Red Sophia's chain-mail bikini top, Cerebus himself said, "maybe if you... they would heal over."
But, what fan-boy DIDN'T wet himself when she did that?
"...THESE?"
I did leave a phone message for Frank awhile ago as part of my SDOAR research and never heard back. He was really the first of the Alex Raymond clones, hired to draw the comic-strip version of PERRY MASON.
He met Raymond a couple of times at National Cartoonists Society events and, evidently, it was a very unpleasant experience on both occasions: Raymond cutting him dead on the spot. Which I just sort of registered in the back of my mind when he told me about it and then remembered a couple of years back. Frank freely admits he was a LOUSY Alex Raymond clone but the discourtesy still seems odd. It was Frank's first major gig and Raymond must've known a) how important it was to get a kind word from someone you (obviously) idolize b) that even doing a daily strip BADLY at the age Frank was at the time was a ball-busting experience. You could at least commiserate about THAT.
Unfortunately, Frank has been losing his eyesight for some years which is, obviously, traumatic, so when I didn't hear back from him, I just figured that was what it was about. Glad I've still got all his CEREBUS letters and sketches. Wish I still had the DR. GUY BENNETT original and all his KORAK SON OF TARZAN era letters!
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