Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Estaban Maroto....
Sent to me via CROMSBLOOD...here is the Estaban cover featuring for the very first time Sonja in her chain mail bikini.
Laurie B
Laurie B does art for Top Cow's War of the Witchblades. Here is an image of Red by Laurie B via Badbartopia. Kinda looks like the pic is from a camera phone, so add the glass and things got a little fuzzy. You should check out Badbartopia sometime.
Chain Bikini
As told by Roy Thomas in the introduction of Red Sonja Adventures Volume 1 (Dynamite Entertainment) Spanish artist Esteban Maroto submitted an uncommissioned illustration to him when he was editing the magazine Savage Sword of Conan where he redesigned the character and for the first time showed her wearing what would become her famous costume, the silver “metal bikini”, which resembled other fantasy costumes that other Maroto heroines sported in the 1970’s. This illustration was printed for the first time in black and white in Savage Sword of Conan #1, was later reprinted in Marvel Treasury Edition #15 colored but poorly reproduced, and finally restored and colored by José Villarrubia as an alternate cover for the Dynamite Entertainment edition of Red Sonja #2. Maroto drew her in this costume for her first solo adventure in Savage Sword of Conan #1, and John Buscema drew her in this costume in the same magazine. Buscema drew her again in this costume in issues 43, 44 and 48 of Conan the Barbarian (1974) and Dick Giordano in the first issue of Marvel Feature (1975) before Frank Thorne took over from issue 2 (1976). The "bikini" proved popular, becoming well known through the paintings of Boris Vallejo and others.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Erotic Worlds of Frank Thorne #6
The Erotic Worlds of Frank Thorne was published by Eros comics. This issue is from June 1991. The entire issue is devoted to a story many Savage Sword of Conan readers might know, "The Wizard and Red Sonja Show" which has the short comic of a wizard summoning the spirit of Red Sonja, only to get her five aspects. The beginning of the issue talks about the live show of said comic staring Frank Thorne, Wendy Pini, Angelique Trouvere (below), Linda Behrle, Dianne DeKalb, Wendy Snow, David Mead, and Walt Rittenhouse.
And Then There Was That Time:
When Red Sonja was in a trippy montage scene with a Unicorn.
"In secret bowers and glades they spend the hours, needing no company but each other's."
-From Red Sonja #1
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Invitational. art by Cromsblood
This one was sent in by fellow blogger and contributor to the Crom - the ultimate CONAN fan blog blogger CROMSBLOOD he has a really great eye for action. Pretty impressive...
Invitational. art by Jeff Brennan
Here is a wonderful pc by a fellow Kubert school classmate of mine. He has a really cool website anyone interested should check it out @ jeffbrennan.com
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The Femazons at DC kept coming
There were blades a plenty at DC as the women warriors kept on coming....Travis Morgan the WARLORD had a love of his life as well..her name was TARA if she aint a SONJA clone if ever I saw one!!!
Then came ARAK another attempt to compete with CONAN by DC but this one was different it was created by longtime Marvel,editor and Conan scripter Roy the boy Thomas. In this series he introduced an character even moreso directly inspired by Joan of Arc than Sonja was...in fact she looked exactly like Joan...it was VALDA the Iron Maiden....both comics did have respectable runs...but still...no match for Marvels liscenced properties by REH.
SONJA'S - Directly Current counterpart...
During the 1970's Marvel comics was booming with it's sword and sorcery titles. Conan the barbarian was the hotteset book at the time selling just as many copies as Spidey and Hulk.
Red Sonja was selling a fair amount of comics too. Enough to be noticed by market competitor DC comics...so in an effort to compete they hashed this one out and even used an artisit who worked for both companies doing freelance work. Let me see if anyone of you can tell me who that was? Anyway STARFIRE was no match for the Flaming haired one and lost her battle.
One thing though...I have to say she went down swinging!!!
Friday, September 4, 2009
the art of the SHE DEVIL....invitational
The plan is to post some drawings of the Mighty RED one by some people who share a love and interest for the character. So...anyone out there got any Drawings of RED SONJA they wanna share?...here is mine
Red Sonja Miniatures
Since I have been doing miniatures at Adventures in Nerdliness, I thought I'd add a few here too. Not the best I have done, but they are Red-tastic!
This one is from Australia. Ground Zero Games, perhaps? As I was looking through my collection I noticed I bought two of these, and actually painted them both.
This is a Ral-Partha dwarf that is obviously Red Sonja. The only thing that makes it a dwarf are the stubby little legs.
That's all for now on the mini front.
This one is from Australia. Ground Zero Games, perhaps? As I was looking through my collection I noticed I bought two of these, and actually painted them both.
This is a Ral-Partha dwarf that is obviously Red Sonja. The only thing that makes it a dwarf are the stubby little legs.
That's all for now on the mini front.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
My First Encounter
Let me tell you a story about death, flaming red hair, heroic last stands and four year olds. Let me take you back to an age of undreamed of: an age of irresponsible parenting we like to call the 1970's.
I was a very young boy. I must have been four years old because that is when my first memories are. My mom was a single parent and she took me to a friend's house. The friend had a four year old daughter. Me and the girl were told to play together while the parents talked.
We had no clue what to play together. I remember sneering at her Barbies. She had no interest in playing Tarzan with her stuffed animals. We sort of sat in near terminal boredom till I saw that she had a couple of comic books. Most of them were of Donald Duck but one of them had a bizarre group of half naked people fighting against impossible odds. That was the one I liked.
It is a very strange memory. I remember being enthralled by this one comic. I remember a redheaded woman wearing a blue bikini that just fascinated me. There were other heroes with her, but all I cared about was the redhead. I couldn't read but I had the impression she was loud. I had the impression that this girl did not play with boring Barbies and cute fuzzy non-violent animals. Looking at this fictional comic character, I had my first feelings of yearning. This redhead looked like she was fun to hang out with.
Since I couldn't read, I don't know what the plot was. I remember the heroes traveling to a hill, and then being surrounded by an army. I have the distinct impression that the heroes did not survive. Looking back as an adult, I know that is ridiculous and the most likely thing that happened is that it ended on the cliffhanger. To my young mind though, they died in a heroic last stand. I think I may have gotten teary eye.
I have no other memory of that night. I am not sure if I even ever saw that kid again. I would love to know why her parents bought their girl a violent barbarian comic with a nearly naked chick in it but hey, it was the 70's. Comics were for kids.
But what I do remember was that feeling that some women could be cool. Well, they could be cool to a four year old at least. The barbarian redhead fought, killed and seemed to yell a lot. She was pretty much like me, except she had interesting clothes that she filled out in very interesting ways.
Years and years later, I got into Conan comics and recognized the mysterious warrior woman from my past as Red Sonja. It was a strange feeling. It was a lot like finding out that Santa Claus worked down the street and he liked visitors. Now I could read her adventures and keep up with the character. And she has a movie coming out? Holy crap.
As an adult I certainly think the sex appeal is a large contributor to the character's popularity but I think my own childhood experience is not that rare. Comics in the 70's were terribly lacking in strong female characters. Even though Wonder Woman was running around in comics, she was very distinctly an ideal for women to aspire to. Red Sonja is more of an adolescent male ideal of a woman. She is a killer. She is brash and headstrong. If she had testes, she would be your favorite drinking buddy. The fact that she was drawn like, well like Red Sonja, was just bonus.
On a side note, I have never found the comic that I looked at as a child. It is entirely possible that what I read was a small company's knock-off of Red Sonja. In my mind, that shows how strong of an ideal Red Sonja is.
I was a very young boy. I must have been four years old because that is when my first memories are. My mom was a single parent and she took me to a friend's house. The friend had a four year old daughter. Me and the girl were told to play together while the parents talked.
We had no clue what to play together. I remember sneering at her Barbies. She had no interest in playing Tarzan with her stuffed animals. We sort of sat in near terminal boredom till I saw that she had a couple of comic books. Most of them were of Donald Duck but one of them had a bizarre group of half naked people fighting against impossible odds. That was the one I liked.
It is a very strange memory. I remember being enthralled by this one comic. I remember a redheaded woman wearing a blue bikini that just fascinated me. There were other heroes with her, but all I cared about was the redhead. I couldn't read but I had the impression she was loud. I had the impression that this girl did not play with boring Barbies and cute fuzzy non-violent animals. Looking at this fictional comic character, I had my first feelings of yearning. This redhead looked like she was fun to hang out with.
Since I couldn't read, I don't know what the plot was. I remember the heroes traveling to a hill, and then being surrounded by an army. I have the distinct impression that the heroes did not survive. Looking back as an adult, I know that is ridiculous and the most likely thing that happened is that it ended on the cliffhanger. To my young mind though, they died in a heroic last stand. I think I may have gotten teary eye.
I have no other memory of that night. I am not sure if I even ever saw that kid again. I would love to know why her parents bought their girl a violent barbarian comic with a nearly naked chick in it but hey, it was the 70's. Comics were for kids.
But what I do remember was that feeling that some women could be cool. Well, they could be cool to a four year old at least. The barbarian redhead fought, killed and seemed to yell a lot. She was pretty much like me, except she had interesting clothes that she filled out in very interesting ways.
Years and years later, I got into Conan comics and recognized the mysterious warrior woman from my past as Red Sonja. It was a strange feeling. It was a lot like finding out that Santa Claus worked down the street and he liked visitors. Now I could read her adventures and keep up with the character. And she has a movie coming out? Holy crap.
As an adult I certainly think the sex appeal is a large contributor to the character's popularity but I think my own childhood experience is not that rare. Comics in the 70's were terribly lacking in strong female characters. Even though Wonder Woman was running around in comics, she was very distinctly an ideal for women to aspire to. Red Sonja is more of an adolescent male ideal of a woman. She is a killer. She is brash and headstrong. If she had testes, she would be your favorite drinking buddy. The fact that she was drawn like, well like Red Sonja, was just bonus.
On a side note, I have never found the comic that I looked at as a child. It is entirely possible that what I read was a small company's knock-off of Red Sonja. In my mind, that shows how strong of an ideal Red Sonja is.
Hello and Thanks
Sorry I have not been around much, but that's kinda the point of the multi-contributor blog.
Welcome to all you followers. I know most of you, and appreciate you interest in this latest endeavor. (I am terribly polite. I was once accused of being Canadian. Oh, if I only were... [sigh] :-)
Thanks to all the contributors too. Great stuff so far. Lots of things I have not seen before.
Again, if anyone would like to contribute, let me know and I'll send an invite, or just email me something, like our friend Bubba Shelby did:
Very cool. To quote the artist, "I was bored at work, so I sketched this. Use it or don't - it's your call :)"
How could I not share?
Welcome to all you followers. I know most of you, and appreciate you interest in this latest endeavor. (I am terribly polite. I was once accused of being Canadian. Oh, if I only were... [sigh] :-)
Thanks to all the contributors too. Great stuff so far. Lots of things I have not seen before.
Again, if anyone would like to contribute, let me know and I'll send an invite, or just email me something, like our friend Bubba Shelby did:
Very cool. To quote the artist, "I was bored at work, so I sketched this. Use it or don't - it's your call :)"
How could I not share?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
RED SONJA / JOAN OF ARC
"It came to me one night as I was surfing the net. Sonja and Joan have very similar backgounds and it could very well be that Joan of Arc was the inspiration for the Red tressed she devil.
Joan fronted the armies of France during the hundred years war back in the 1400's...she was inspired to pick up a sword because she heard words of a Holy nature speaking to her.
The King who commisioned her betrayed her as a heretic and had her burned alive. She was 19 at the time of her death. Many many years later in the 1920's she was canonized as a Saint. Not too long after that. Robert E Howard created the prototype for the heroine we adore today. Basically recreated and reinvented. Red Sonja the she devil with a sword!! "
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