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

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

Frank Thorne, best known for his work on the comic book character Red Sonja, began his comics career pencilling romance comics.

Published Tue, 13 Feb 2024 13:47:09 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Frank Thorne's earlier work includes romance comics for St. John.
Known for Red Sonja, Thorne began 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 features a college student turned taxi driver.

Comic book writer/artist Frank Thorne, best known for his work on the comic book character Red Sonja, began his comics career decades earlier pencilling romance comics for Standard Comics, as well as 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 own title, taking over from Dick Giordano for most of her seventies solo series. He was also known for attending comic cons in his persona, The Wizard, to judge Red Sonja cosplay contests.

Frank Thorne also created a number of erotic fantasy comics, including Moonshine McJugs for Playboy, Lann in Heavy Metal, and Danger Rangerett in National Lampoon, the 1989 miniseries Ribit! for Comico, as well as 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 against the Planet Comics and Science Fiction Store in Oklahoma.

But it's some of Frank Thorne's earliest work that's up for auction from Heritage Auctions, the romance comic book Cinderella Love #12, published by St. John in 1953. His story, Taxi Sweetheart, sees college student Peggy filling in for her taxi driver father when he falls ill and finds herself fighting for one of her passengers, Peter, though he is already engaged to the aggressive and snobbish Sandra. Playing off the popularity of the then-recent Cinderella movie from Disney, the title was originally published for eleven issues by Ziff-Davis before the publisher collapsed and it was picked by St John as one of the only successful books from that line, as well as Romantic Love, Kid Cowboy, and Wild Boy of the Congo.

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