Marvel Feature No. 6 p. 27 (Red Sonja) by Frank Thorne

I've long wanted a good Red Sonja page by Frank Thorne and I think I succeeded in finding one for my collection. This page is from a multi-issue crossover with Conan the Barbarian concocted by Roy Thomas that involved, among other things, a cat fight between Sonja and Conan's partner, Belit, as well as, through the casting of a sorcerous time warp, a fight between Conan and King Kull.

Virtually every page of Thorne's Sonja run was chock-full of dark fantasy elements, highly detailed ornate costumes and dense backgrounds. He also added a gleeful, schoolboy (albeit Comics Code Authority approved) eroticism that made reading Red Sonja seem like such naughty fun. I mean, of course a chain mail bikini is silly and serves no practical purpose other than titillation, even a lowly hormonally challenged teenager can figure that out, but, damn, Thorne made it look good (it also provided Dave Sim with one of his best gags ever, but I digress).

Also, while this page shows off those elements quite nicely, it also shows just how good Thorne was at presenting panel-to-panel action. The flow of it, from the full body shot in panel one that establishes the peril of Sonja's impending doom in the maw of the alligator man, to the closeup of Sonja's thigh as she unsheathes her dagger and then Sonja's head about to be devoured and then two GRONNKing thrusts of the knife into the monster's skull... that's good comics right there.

Thanks go out to Andrew for the trade.

PS
The "CONTINUED AFTER NEXT PAGE" stat at the bottom fell off when I took it out of my portfolio to scan the page properly. I still have it, but I didn't try to glue it back on for the scan.