Red Sonja – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Frank Thorne —Emperor Of Doom

April 16, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Savage Sword of Conan #23, October 1977

Frank Thorne original comic art featuring Red Sonja --- from the collection of GREG GOLDSTEIN

Here’s a gorgeous and splashy Frank Thorne washtone page from a terrific Red Sonja story published in the black and white Savage Sword of Conan magazine.

Thorne is one of those artists that I enjoyed as a kid but did not fully appreciate until much later. Excellent draftsmanship, storytelling, and an imaginative sense of design.

And, of course, beautiful women. That part was always obvious.

I acquired this page earlier this year at OAX. Paid too much for it.

But not sorry about it.

Sean Chen — Savage Team-Up

March 29, 2023 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Red Sonja Conan #1, July 2015

Red Sonja and Conan together again, as they say, on this great cover by my pal, the very talented Sean Chen.

That’s it. That’s the post.

*Red Sonja made her first appearance in Conan #23, and appeared on the cover one month later in issue #24. Both issues feature glorious art by the legendary Barry Windsor Smith.*

Aaron Lopresti — Lost Beauty

March 24, 2023 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Unused Cover, Sword of Red Sonja: Doom of the Gods #1, October 2007

In an age of variant covers, exclusive covers, incentive covers, et al, sometimes a cover simply gets lost in shuffle.

It happens. (Take it from a former publisher. It definitely happens.)

Case in point: This stunning Red Sonja cover art was scheduled for Sword of Red Sonja: Doom of the Gods #1, got shuffled around and by the time the mini-series was complete, had not been published. I’m sure it didn’t help that another artist turned in a similar composition for a later issue.

I had a chance to catch up with Aaron last month and he thinks it may have appeared in a later trade collection or elsewhere at some point, but he couldn’t swear to it. And neither one of us could find it.

So, unpublished until we hear further. (Bonus points for the Marvel cover paper — all covers look better on that board, even if they weren’t actually produced by Marvel.)

*All four published Lopresti covers from the original mini-series.*

Frank Thorne — Angels From Hell!

March 21, 2023 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Red Sonja #10, July 1978

Frank Thorne on Red Sonja? Sign me up.

It took me a while to acquire a piece of art from his run on the famed female barbarian, but I ended up with a cool one.

To this day, the wildest convention events I have ever personally witnessed were the live performances featuring Red Sonja (Wendy Pini, Linda Behrle, and others) and Frank Thorne playing a wizard: “Sonja and the Wizard.”

They called themselves the “The Hyborian Players.”

It was indeed the 70s. Trippy, dude. Trippy.