Red Sonja #4 - Video Review by ComicBook.beer

Taking it way back to July of 1977 with Red Sonja issue number four from Marvel Comics. Love the cover artwork here. Frank Thorne, my man. You could have been reading this issue while waiting in line to see Star Wars for the first time. This one is titled The Lake of the Unknown, and it’s a very cool Red Sonja story — a little bit unusual, actually. Frank Thorne does the illustration work. He’s just… nobody else is, nobody else was like Frank Thorne. He was unique. Roy Thomas does the editing and writing. Clara Nodo does some of the writing.

Sonja and this guy named Mikal approach this city called Athos or something like that, and there’s this lake bubbling and churning, and these weird monsters come out of it. It doesn’t seem all that unusual for this kind of story, but it gets a little weird as they’re greeted by two golden lions — clearly monsters — and they enter this town, the Theater of Monsters. Once again, just admire Frank Thorne’s page layouts and the detail he puts into every panel. I’m a huge fan of his.

Humans are watching monsters fight for entertainment. It’s like Red Sonja meets dystopian AI‑generated future meets customizing vans in the 1970s. Wizards, dragons, Atari 2600 graphics — it’s all here. Sonja fights and kills creatures, and the story keeps getting stranger. There’s a lake, a city beneath the sea, and we learn these things are actually aliens. They took the shape of animals from Earth. They’re kind of like Transformers, except they don’t transform into cars — they’re just monsters. They have to drink blood, which is why they keep attacking Red Sonja. They’re not actually bad; they’re just hungry. I’m not going to give away the ending except to say it’s really cool, and you kind of feel bad for these things.

And look — Star Trek. It lives. Back when Star Trek was awesome. Actually, this is before the first movie even came out. You can just go through this and admire the detail in the artwork. Frank Thorne’s very unique style. He’s famous for being pervy and stuff, but in addition to that he was just a terrific and very gifted illustrator. I like this issue a lot, so I’m going to recommend this one for sure. As you probably figured out by now.

It’ll cost you a couple bucks. These Red Sonjas are worth a few because they’re really good. And if you can find one in good condition, it’s just a terrific read. The whole series is good. It’s not that long, unfortunately. Eventually Frank Thorne got sick of having his work approved by the Comics Code and bailed on the series to do his own thing, which was… well, very pervy. But before that, he did this. Red Sonja: She‑Devil with a Sword, issue number four, approved by the Comics Code and comic book Dot Beer. Eyes on her eyes, fellas.