A BIRTHDAY SALUTE: The modern-day “good girl” master turns 54…
There are a handful of big-name artists working today who would have been very much at home in the Golden Age “good-girl art” days of, say, Fiction House. Frank Cho is certainly one of them.
Cho, who turns 54 — he was born Dec. 2, 1971 — is, let’s face it, a purveyor of cheesecake. That’s not a knock at all. While it’s not for everyone, there’s no question that he’s really, really good at it.
One of his more memorable renditions is Marvel’s Shanna, the She-Devil, a 7-part mini from 2005. Shanna, of course, bears absolutely no resemblance to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle or Lorna, the Jungle Girl. Or any other scantily clad woman who calls the jungle her home. At all.
She’s also absolutely nothing like Jana, the Jungle Girl, the character he plotted for Dynamite just a couple years later. And this Jana has zero connection to Jana of the Jungle, the 1978 Saturday-morning cartoon created by Doug Wildey for Hanna-Barbera.
No, these were all created in a vacuum. But who cares whether they were or weren’t? Frank Cho is a master of the form.
Dig these 13 COVERS:
—
MORE
— 13 COVERS: A FRANK CHO Birthday Celebration. Click here.
— 13 STUNNING PAGES: Inside Frank Cho’s SAVAGE WOLVERINE Artist’s Edition. Click here.
December 2, 2025
I love Frank Cho’s artwork!
December 2, 2025
Frank Cho is interesting as overall I am a big fan of the art.
As much as it’s cheesecake, his draftsmanship is exemplary and the woman are essentially rendered in realistic proportions (compared to J. Scott Campbell or old school Image from 30 years ago).
The humor in his sketch covers leaves a lot to be desired, though I recognize the attempts at satire.
December 3, 2025
Not sure why Marvel didn’t buy Sheena back in the 1970s.
I was helping Dynamite try to acquire the Sheena rights. Dynamite would have been better but Paul Aratow decided to go with London night comics. Later Paul said “I should have listened to the fans.”
Later the new Sheena owner Steven de Souza who wrote Die Hard worked out a deal with Dynamite comics.
There might be a new series arc in 2026.
2025 is the 70th anniversary of the Irish McCalla Sheena TV show.
December 3, 2025
He can draw well, but I seriously doubt if he has many female fans.