Cartoonist Frank Thorne, had Early Roots in Rahway
Submitted by Al Shipley, City Historian and Rahway Library Research Consultant
The artistic talents of Frank Thorne (1930-2021) were recognized early by his classmates and members of the faculty at Rahway High School. In a career that lasted 70 years, Thorne’s success as a pen and ink illustrator surpassed even the loftiest predictions made regarding his future. During the decades of the 1950s and 1960s he drew and wrote comic strips for Dell and D.C. Comics, two giants in the industry. In 1976 he penned his best known character, Red Sonja, for Marvel Comics. Fascinated by the female form from an early age, he would later create erotic fantasy comics and characters for a number of magazines including Playboy, National Lampoon and Hustler. A master illustrator, he worked in every area of cartooning, combining realism with a whimsical humor that even in his later more risqué creations was never meant to be offensive.
After graduating from Rahway High in 1947, Thorne enrolled in Manhattan’s Art Career School, the highly regarded institution for serious individuals planning a career in the competitive field of commercial art. During his second term, he was given a two week leave to work on a project as a graphic artist for Koos Bros., Rahway’s upscale furniture store. He was sent to the Dominican Republic with Koos’ premier designer to look over each empty room of the just completed summer palace of the notorious dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The young artist’s assignment was to sketch the rooms as they would look if arrayed with furnishings from the Rahway store. He must have done a commendable job as Koos got the contract to furnish the entire estate.
Thorne’s next illustration job came from the publishers of the Elizabeth Daily Journal who hired him to draw and write the text for a feature called The Illustrated History of Union County. The first installment of the cartoon panel began on January 8, 1950 and ran for a total of 173 issues. The column proved to be so popular that the Elizabeth paper re-ran the series in the early 1960s and in 2005 the entire collection was published in book form.
The comic book world was introduced to Thorne in 1952 when he was hired to pen Perry Mason, a syndicated newspaper strip for King Features. From here he went to work for Dell Comics writing and illustrating Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Green Hornet, Tom Corbit-Space Cadet, and Mighty Samson. D.C. Comics hired him to create Son of Tomahawk and Korak-Son of Tarzan. It should be noted that for most of his work, Thorne had total control over the visual character and narrative, an arrangement that was highly unusual for a commercial cartoonist during that time.
A major break in Thorne’s career came in 1976 when he began working for Marvel Comics joining the staff producing Conan, the Barbarian. In the second episode of Conan, Thorne introduced Red Sonja, a fierce, buxom beauty who was both powerful and sexy. Described as a “she devil with a sword,” the character gained so much popularity that a solo spin-off started in January, 1977 that would run for the next two years.
Thorne’s ability to draw beautiful women made for an easy transition into the market of adult publications. During the 1980s he would create humorously indecent heroines for several adult venues including Moonshine Mcjugs for Playboy Magazine and Danger Rangerette for National Lampoon. Although some might find his work during this period of his career offensive, his female characters were largely presented with good-humored satire and wit with story lines that were generally farcical.
With an extensive volume of work behind him, Thorne was ready to settle down, go into semi-retirement, and write his memoirs. Over a five-year period (1998-2003), he published three autobiographical books describing his years growing up in Rahway. Barrington Hall (1998) was a nostalgic look back at his home town in 1942 when he was a young lad of 12. The title comes from the fanciful name given to his St. Georges Avenue home by his father from whom the boy got his sense of humor. The book is loaded with references to people and places in Rahway, many now long gone. He also tells of his early interest in reading Marvel Comics and his two dreams of drawing and one day playing the trumpet like his idol, Harry James.
In 2000 he penned Drawing Sexy Women, a chronicle of his days as an art student and his growing fascination with and love of the female form. In the last chapter, he gives basic instructions on how to draw the figures.
The Crystal Ballroom (2003), my favorite, is an account of his memories of being a senior at Rahway High, his growth as an artist, and his goal of playing with a band at the Crystal Ballroom, a dance hall in Keansburg, New Jersey. All three books are filled with pencil drawings that make great additions to the text.
Winner of several awards for his artistry, including a National Cartoonists’ Society Award, a San Diego Inkpot Award, and a Playboy Editorial Award, Frank Thorne was one of American comic’s finest craftsmen. He passed on May 7, 2021 at the age of 90. I think Frank would want me to mention that Marilyn, his loving wife and companion of 69 years, passed on the same day.
