RIBIT! 2 COVER BY FRANK THORNE

Another Thorne entry for my birthday and another cover.

(I realized that I’ve been posting a new Thorne piece each year for some year and if I can continue to do that on a yearly basis, I’ll be a very happy collector).

Ribit was a strange animal in Thorne’s independent production (released by Comico in 1989) as it not as sexually explicit as some of his other series, probably due to the fact that the heroine looked like she was between childhood and early teenage years.

A more straightforward adventure series with magic, science and still sexiness, as Thorne could not help himself (and one could argue that his style is per definition sexy), but certainly fun and interesting as one could perceive bits of a shared world in this one if being attentive, like that of a Thorne-verse if you will.

And this cover offers the usual Thorne greatness. A busy scene with tons of fun details to look at and yet remaining crystal clear a visual read.

Just look at all the intricate details on the gigantic villain’s armor and especially his sword.

All the little dwarves creatures escalading the giant and fighting Ribit are super fun and it’s clear that Thorne enjoyed himself a lot by drawing them as each and every one of them carry a different weapon. I especially like that the one with a canister on his back whose liquid is slightly tilted to match the creature’s position and the overall composition of the piece. That is a great attention to detail.

The tilted angle makes for a dynamic composition and accentuates the sense of pilling up melee and fighting brouhaha one gets from the piece.

One last bit that’s not obvious here is that Thorne chose to color his heroine all green and I always found it was a bold and interesting design choice.

Another artist who was in a class of his own, both as a stylist and storyteller and who commanded even more respect for being an idiosyncratic independent artist in an era when not working for the big two meant taking a huge risk.

(the art is oversized, as is often the case with Thorne's, which is an obvious plus for any art collector)

This is part 8 of my 2026 CAF birthday party.