Relentless Inquiry

So I recently got on a nostalgia kick and got issues 1 – 15 of Red Sonja (“She-Devil with a Sword!”) of 1976 – 77 Marvel vintage. I was very pleased to see them again– until I got to issue 11.

Bleah! The lyrical artwork of Frank Thorne, who was artist, colorist, and calligrapher all in one, was replaced by 'guest artist' John Buscema, whose stuff I've never really liked– and this was before he really came into the fullness of his art, so it's darn doggy compared to Thorne. Other issues have Sal Buscema and/or John again. Sigh. I gave up somewhere in issue 13– the writing is not sufficiently good to sustain the book with only vaguely serviceable artwork.

The Thorne stuff is still awesome, though. How he can be THAT expressive with so few brushstrokes is marvelous. Sort of on the opposite peduncle of the artistic style is another long-missed Marvel artist, Johnny Romita. He did a lot of FF in the 70's, and had an incredibly fine-line detail-oriented style that, when observed up close, even penned in highlights in the eyes or the shine of a lamp on someone's lip gloss. Outstanding. While we're waxing all nostalgic here, I miss the old fantasmic stylized Stan Lee art in things like The Eternals (tailor-made for him– not an unheroic physique in the lot, male or female, and LOTS of fancy explosions, magma, etc), as well as his treatment of The Inhumans and the occasional FF cross-overs he did (who knew Dr Doom had all those *muscles*?!).