Frank Cho, figure artist of women, dinosaur enthusiast, an overall simple storyteller. You probably have a few ideas when you think about this guy. Especially when it comes to using internet outrage as ads. In fact critics seem divided on his storytelling on things that I happen to like. Maybe they’re expecting bigger payoffs, but honestly there’s a reason Cho’s work they remain popular and it’s not just how he makes women.
Frank Cho: Strips Down To Comics
Duk Hyun Cho’s simple storytelling arguably starts in his college days. University² is where you see Cho getting his bearings. Because when your parents make you study nursing instead of art, flaws are going to show. But even back then, Cho demonstrates the ability to tell character and backstory by building off of his designs. So after graduation and a short story rejection, Cho reimagines the University cast into Liberty Meadows. Here, the funny animals of the old comic develop beyond their caricature roots, gaining more dignity than their dimwitted human co-stars. Those same cast members who I can’t help feel Cho put bits of his own personality into. For example, there’s a vet named Frank who has a crush on Brandy Carter, the titular place’s animal psychiatrist. I mean Brandy has both the name and partial appearance of Lynda Carter.
However, a few problems come up that pushes Cho away from this strip. One problem is censorship, something that Cho finds himself in a lot of the time. Then there’s burning out of the strip’s restrictions for a third of the publisher’s 15 year contract. Getting an Ignatz by self-nomination isn’t enough to keep Cho on Liberty Meadows. Comics’ Independent Spirits weren’t as strict as they are now.
It’s A Jungle In The Panels!
Even with uncensored physical books and getting the rights to his creation back after so much, Liberty Meadows just couldn’t pay well. After Cho’s divorce from his first wife, he had to find more profitable work. Mostly in comic covers or anthologies, getting a bit of a reputation for drawing women in certain poses. Not that it stopped Cho from getting the opportunity to work on Marvel’s Shanna the She-Devil. She’s basically the lady counterpart to Marvel’s Tarzan, Ka-Zar, her husband.
But instead of making her yet another on-the-outs defender of wildlife, Shanna’s revamped into a Nazi weapon. Her story is a simple arc, working with a group of crashed American soldiers in the Savage Lands(?) and growing beyond her origins. But it’s the grand sense of presentation and danger that make it so exciting. Like a raptor shown as a huge menacing obstacle under a swastika banner. All with unpredictable plot threads that says anything goes. Too bad the imprint Marvel Knights still had limits on what the comic could show. The uncensored version Cho wanted to put in Marvel MAX never even came through.
Frank Cho: Jungle Queen Sketcher
This wouldn’t be the only time that Cho would work on queens of the jungle. Shanna practically awakened a passion in Frank Cho for this archetype and Lost World setting. At Dynamite, he got to show off his and the genre’s strengths in Jungle Girl. Every character has some kind of motivation and backstory that’s grounded in some reality. But it’s how and where they clash that gets the plot moving, improv at its best. Drawing dinosaurs and scantily-clad women are fun and all, but if you’re in something for the long run, you can’t just have something for shock value. That’s despite how outlandish things get in this series, but as long as you read it in the full package you realize things never get boring or out of place.
Compare that to Savage Wolverine. This mini-series is a Shanna series in disguise with Wolverine being just a cross promotional ad. Plus Amadeus Cho, Greg Pak’s usual shill plays a role. Then the Hulk appears near the end because… it looks like Frank’s flying by the seat of his pants.
Here’s the difference between improv and shock for shock’s sake. Improv is a collaborative effort that requires people bouncing off of one another at its best. Just about all of Frank Cho’s superhero art have good looking action but practically have nothing to say in character. These as well as 50 Girls 50 have the other creatives go off in different directions.
Bring On The Pulp
Frank Cho’s visual storytelling is best told through the collaborative element, even alone. Probably because it builds on the improv comedy he did in Liberty Meadows.
Take for example Skybourne, a simple premise of an immortal wanting to die. It looks like Excalibur can do the job from what it did to the immortal’s sister. But it’s wielded by Merlin who’s ready to unleash the mythological world on the mundane one. So now the immortal has to stop him but he’s woefully unprepared. A few twists and turns that don’t come out of nowhere, and an ending that’s satisfying for the reader but not the main character.
Then there’s Fight Girls with AWA/Upshot. I don’t mean the women and the dinosaurs they fight, but the way it gets people to think about the background. Is the contestant for an empire’s queen a lost heir? Why are the event organizers so upset about her? As I thought about the scenarios and saw the results, I saw the twist with satisfaction. Not only did I not see it coming, it made me appreciate something of a mantra:
“Keep it simple stupid!”
The silent majority seem to agree since this is a popular title on AWA’s GlobalComix profile despite divisive critics.
Frank Cho: Never Boring
So there you have it everybody, despite his reputation, Frank Cho is someone you can have fun with. I know that he and Thomas Sniegoski are trying to do that at Flesk Publications to publish World of Payne. Something between a comic and a prose novel… it could work. I wonder if this same publisher would have him do prints of Xenozoic; It definitely fits his profile: keeping things simple in pulpy stories.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels.