You know, I don't know if Paul Gulacy was the first person to draw this, but it's for sure that it was the first thing I thought of when I saw this.
Newsarama's ten-page preview of Shanna the She-Devil simply reinforces my opinion of Frank Cho: The man can draw his way out of adamantium and can't write his way out of wet tissue paper.
Posted by Greg at January 18, 2005 3:48 PM
I've never really been a fan of Cho's art (certainly he's a talented artist, I just don't like it) but for some reason I find Shanna's new origin inferior to the old one. This is not a case of just hating it when they change something... I just think 'product of Nazi experimentation' is pretty damn played out, whereas 'fighting veterinarian' is not an angle I've seen a lot of.
I always had the yen in Shadowrun, given its near-future time and fantasy/giant beasts setting, to play a "combat veterinarian". Probably punning off of "combat veteran" is a character flaw of a serious nature. I'd guess it'd've been essentially a Frank Buck "Bring 'em Back Alive" character.
(As a practical matter, of course, such a character would make a far better novel protagonist than RPG protagonist.)
In this case, I gather that this is explicitly not set in the MU and therefore not a new/revisionist version of the origin of the Shanna who's married to Ka-Zar in the Savage Land, plus how could it more possibly play to Cho's strengths of perty girls and dinosaurs? I'll be buying it 'cause it's pretty.
It's easier to be a talented artist when you only ever draw one female character with different wigs on.
Well, like I said, I don't care so much that they revised her or didn't or whatever (I mean, I'm not that big into continuity) so much as I think it's not as cool. But like you said, mostly naked women and dinosaurs. If it had a sixty foot gorilla in it I'd probably have to buy it.
Cho's expressed interest in Dejah Thoris makes me wonder if he's considered doing a Barsoom comic.
I would not speculate at this point that Shanna does not have a giant gorilla in it.
Joe, Cho's done a few other female character types. All of the attractive ones look like Brandy, to be sure, but he's not particularly more or less impoverished in differentiation than Art Adams or Terry Dodson, to point at a couple of other good-girl artists of the modern day.
But putting aside the question of whether he can draw more than one attractive women, there's nothing about his facility/limitation in drawing Brandy that should undercut his terrific efforts with dinosaurs, apes, and other Burroughsian subjects. He's comparable to Mark Schultz, I think.
I like Adams' work quite a bit, but I usually LOATHE "good girl" art. I guess Adams' always seems to just offer a bit more. And he does have at least two faces, I think. I just hate, hate, hate boobie art. I don't see the point.
Joe, turn down the thermostat and you will. (Okay, cheap gag.)
You guys know Marvel is downgrading the amount of boobies, right?
Ralf, surely you are not the only person on the planet who doesn't think that Marvel is going to produce a limited-edition hardcover "Director's Cut" Shanna with all nipplege restored?
I realize they haven't announced this yet, but they'd have to have some extraordinary kinds of moron up there not to see a big-money opportunity like that, given the pathetic sort of people like me who buy comics like that.
(I think it was comics writer Christopher Priest who coined the word "nipplege", at least the first that I heard it, and it is a truly impressive neologism.)
"If it had a sixty foot gorilla in it I'd probably have to buy it."
Well, this is Frank Cho, so the chances are good a giant gorilla will figure into it eventually. He does tend to return to the themes of dinosaurs, gorillas and naked girls.
I don't know. I like Cho's art, but his writing...he's been recycling the same six punchlines in Liberty Meadows for almost a decade. Grow a little.
