Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Savage Sword of Conan

Frank Thorne —Emperor Of Doom

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.

John Buscema & Tony DeZuniga — Skull On The Seas

Original Art and The Artists

Savage Sword of Conan #191, October 1991

Roy Thomas returns to Conan for the first time in 10 years, and partners with superstar artist John Buscema, pretty much picking up where the pair left off in terms of innovative and exciting Conan stories.

In addition to astonishing talent, Buscema could be very productive in terms of his total output — in this stretch of Conan he is providing layouts and rough pencils only, freeing him up for other projects. Here Tony DeZuniga provides some nice finishing touches for John. (I think here you can see John’s obvious handiwork, which was not always the case with DeZuniga inks.)

Lots of ink — as it were — has been spilled on who was Buscema’s best embellisher on Conan.  See here, here, and here for illustrative discussions.

My opinions have varied over time, and sometimes from issue to issue. The debate itself is fun.

And the talking skull? Spoiler alert: It belongs to King Kull’s arch nemesis Thulsa Doom. (In fairness, Thulsa eventually gives Conan much grief as well.)