Apes & Babes

by Frank Cho

From the award-winning and critically acclaimed creator of LIBERTY MEADOWS, Drawing Beautiful Women, ZOMBIE KING, and Jungle Girl, this collection showcases FRANK CHO's past and present illustrations of the female form and fantastic beasts, and why he's one of the most sought-out talents in the business.

Genres: Art, Graphic Novels, Comics, Nonfiction

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 9, 2009

About the author

The second of three children, Frank Cho was born in Seoul, Korea in 1971, but moved to the United States at the age of six and was raised in Beltsville, Maryland.

Cho received no formal training as an artist. He got his start writing and drawing a cartoon strip called University2 for The Diamondback, the student newspaper at the University of Maryland, College Park. After graduation, Cho adapted elements of this work for use in a professionally syndicated strip, Liberty Meadows.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Showcases a lot of Cho's work for Marvel and Dynamite. Cho is one of my favorite artists in comics. His work is just so clean and concise, along with some cheesecake. I like how for a lot of it we get to see both the pencils and final artwork.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just apes & babes in this artbook, but 100% pure awesomess Frank Cho style!

Perfection.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly superhero artwork, I believe they were used for covers. There's a bunch of Conan, Red Sonja, Jungle Girl stuff too. I liked seeing his pencil work too.

It's mostly a fans only release, lots of these images I've seen before in the comics.

I would have liked to see more process stuff.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Frank Cho's Liberty Meadow comics back in the 1990s, but haven't really followed his work since as he seemed to mostly be doing covers. This book offers a chance to catch up on a bunch of those covers from the early 2000s and be reminded of how sexy and bold his art is. It's all cheesecake and beefcake, with a little bit of nudity and a few dozen dinosaurs.

My main problem with the book is that aside from some copyright notices on the verso page there is a lack of any notation as to where the art originally appeared and who exactly all the characters are. Based on my own research, his Marvel work is represented by covers and sketches from The Mighty Avengers (2007) #1-7, Black Panther (2005) #3, 8 and 18, Ms. Marvel (2006) #1-5, New Avengers (2004) #14-15, Amazing Spider-Man (1998) #46-48, and Shanna the She-Devil (2005) #4-7. Other publishers are represented with covers from series like Fear Agent, DevaShard: Dark Before Dawn, Jungle Girl, Liberty Meadows, Dejah Thoris, Conan the Cimmerian, Red Sonja, and many more. Tributes to Tarzan, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom/Warlord of Mars, Masters of the Universe, and Poison Ivy also pop up.

Now that Cho is on my mind again, I might try his Jungle Girl series sometime soon.

[Dannan Tavona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection

Art book comics
Frank Cho is obviously very talented and is capable in both humorous as serious art. His work is even lovingly crafted, and he acknowledges the debt he owes to his various colorists.
The only mar to my mind is that of Amazon's software. With the kindle I can zoom in to check the details. With Kindle for PC, I get no zoom option at attention. I pay the same price for my books, but one format gives complete access and the other, non-proprietary format text so tiny I can't read it? This not only graphic book I've discovered with this problem. Fix it, Amazon.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to see a collection of Frank Cho's drawings, covers, and character sketches, you got hold of the right book. If you do not like Frank Cho, skip it.

Thanks Hoopla, for a chance to look at this book.

[Jaime Guzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Cho's art work is the best in the biz and his depiction of the female form is top notch. He uus definitely one of my top favorite artists.

[RND · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a Frank Cho artbook, so you know what you're getting (it's in the title) and whether you like it or not.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

DPL hopla

[Tim Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accurately showcases Frank Cho’s work, from superhero to fantasy to cheesecake.

Come to realize the colour takes away from his work. If this was all pencil work I would have been satisfied.

[The_J · Rating 3 out of 5]

The visual medium expressed in pleasing form. Not to mention some distinct physiological details that might be considered risque out of biology texts.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

Apes and Babes should be the first art book of Frank Cho feature more of his action and superhero comic art. It's a 144-page hardcover with a dust jacket.

The book features comic covers he has drawn for Marvel, Jungle Girl, Liberty Meadows and Mars. I'm not sure what Mars is but it's something like Conan, Xena, Frank Frazetta kind of art. For many of the illustrations, he has included the pencil line art version so you can see the before and after. Even though the subject is similar, the feel of the art is very different when colours are added on.

The most impressive part about is art book is probably his knowledge of anatomy. Even though the characters might still be a bit stylised, the anatomy adds a more realistic dimensionality to the character designs. I like the way he uses extremely thin lines to portray muscle contours. The colouring — in this case probably called lighting — is fantastic.

This book is recommended to superhero art collectors and Frank Cho fans.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to rate an art book because you either like the art or don't. It's hard to fault a book that follows the two tenants of art books: be mostly art, include process work. I didn't give this book five stars because it had no content beside art. I expect that in a sketch book, but not an art book. I wanted a least a few words from the artist sprinkled throughout about his work and especially pertaining to specific works. Mike Mignola's Art of Hellboy does this excellently.

The version I read has "Book One" in the title, so I'm hoping there's more to come because I was particularly interested in reading a bit about Cho's "Outrage" drawings and sketches. It may be a tired subject, and the drawings in question are mostly sketches as opposed to complete works, but I was hoping to get a condensed account and reflection from the artist.

Would definitely recommend to Cho fans. The paintings in the back were excellent -- especially loved seeing Donald Duck.

[John Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Cho is at once a modern artist
and a classic at the same time
His work is instantly recognizable
as harkening to the pulp era
when everything
was
Apes & Babes
Beautiful and incredible
with out any story
what so ever
the art work here
is captivating
One of the most amazing artists working today

[Viktor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's exactly what the title says it is.
The babes all look like they just had boob jobs that were still swollen from the surgery.

I really enjoyed seeing the pencil sketches on one page and the final result on the next.

[Duzzlebrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooooh pretty.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Cho's artwork is amazing and this book captured more of his recent work perfectly. The only think I would have liked more would have been Cho describing his methods to creating the art.

[Dana Jerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye candy and a lesson in drawing monsters at the same time!!

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cho and babes.
Nuff said.

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of artwork from a great comic illustrator. Text accompanying the pictures about the art itself or his process would have greatly improved this book.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book of Frank Cho's drawings. Not a comic book.