Cavegirl Art:1 Dian the Beautiful

Cavegirls in fur bikinis have inspired some truly dreadful art in the last forty years or so. I can see what the artists are trying to get over: a mixture, usually, of fiesty, independent huntress and vulnerable, innocent babe in, of course, very (small) tactile fur or doeskin clothes. Some artists manage it better than others and the first attempt I will examine is by former New York policeman and comic book artist Joe Jusko.

This picture is actually entitled Dian the Beautiful and she really comes under the category of "Lost World" babe rather than "cavegirl". It comes from a set of Marvel trading cards under the title of "Joe Jusko does Edgar Rice Burroughs" from 1994. Dian is a character from the 1914 Edgar Rice Burroughs subterranean world novel At the Earth's Core. This was filmed in 1974 with Caroline Munro playing Princess Dia (more of which another time).

This picture is a classic CiFB effort. She has the fur (rather than hide) bikini. She has the typically anachronistic sophisticated boots (more Viking than cavegirl, in reality). She has a necklace made from alarmingly large teeth and she has a spear that could be made of stone (although the point is far to fine for a flint-knapped effort). Best still, she has an accompanying Sabre-toothed cat (or what used to be called a sabre-tooth tiger when I was small).

It's not a bad effort but is rather flat in execution and the colours are a bit garish. Neither the girl nor the smilodon look like they are really firmly on the ground, which is itself, along with the background rocks, rather hastily done. Dian herself looks like a big, strapping muscular sort of girl looking remarkably like Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess (which actually aired a year later). Her bust has that rather silicone look about it so beloved of American fantasy artists (no doubt something to do with the girls they use as models) but all in all it's not a bad effort.

Cavegirl Rating: 6/10