Do I see a little fur peeking out of Sonja's bikini?

I noticed that one of my Savage Sword of Conan magazines contained a Red Sonja story this weekend. As I flipped through the pages to the story ("The Road to Zanadu"), I stumbled upon some Sonja pinups.

The chain-mail bikini comes and goes...

Sadly, "The Road to Zanadu" itself wasn't one of the better scripted or illustrated Sonja stories I've seen (and the whole "Sonja giving herself up to a simpering weakling despite his inability to best her in any way" aspect of the story was a little disconcerting), so I won't be sharing any of those pages...but there was another discovery in that Conan magazine: I discovered an ad for several different artists' portfolios and the sample image for one of them, a Blas Gallego portfolio, sent me on a quest for more. With a cursory Google search, I discovered a lot of non-Sonja images, but also one image that was clearly Sonja and Conan together.

The fur-lined chainmail bikini and psychotically grinning Conan are too funny.

Bruce Timm does Red Sonja

You simply gotta love this guys work. He has a flair for action and movement most would not understand. But being an animator his skill is apparent you can see Sonja flying through the air and slicing and dicing up the ugly monster.

" the SONG OF RED SONJA "

as depicted in this fantastic CONAN cover recreation by BOB LAYTON.

Red Sonja - Sorcerer's Realm

Another beautiful JOE JUSKO piece. Not only is the work and skill beautiful but JOE makes SONJA a stunning and breathtaking vision to behold.

RED SONJA ~ Original cover art

Walt Simonson shared this with his friends on Facebook and I am now sharing this with fans of RED SONJA. Mary Wilshire was the artist for RED SONJA's second series for MARVEL...here are the comments by WALTER SIMONSON copied and pasted.

"Red Sonja No. 2 cover. My inks over Mary Wilshire's pencils. 1983.

I'm posting these two pictures for fun, and because they may be instructive. Exactly what they're instructive about, I can't say.

Mary penciled some Red Sonja comics back in the early 80s. I was asked to ink the first couple of covers.

The picture here is the second cover as I inked it. Generally, when I ink somebody else, I try to ink the work as it exists, to bring out what the pencils already show. Mary's work then was very linear and had a rather beautiful outline, so I went with that.

In the case of this cover, Marvel editorial decided that my inks were not sufficient unto the drawing.

And to the victor...

That's the name of this beautiful piece of art by Joe Jusko.

NEW RED SONJA invitational art.

This one comes from graphic artist Mike Dubisch. I love all the little details he stuck in there on the sword and the armor....nice.

QUEEN SONJA - WOW !

I am loving this...with the series having been in DYNAMITE's hands since 2005 we get to see awesome SONJA art every month! I am hoping this new direction is as interesting as the covers look. I wonder though...are they changing the title of the book or starting another book to go along with the current one?

THRILLERS

Published by Fireside Books 1983 Foreward by Stan LeeOnly softcover edition offered
At last! The sensational, best-selling "Marvel Origins" series continues! Featuring the world's greatest superheroes in cataclysmic combat with more sinister, savage supervillains than you can shake a flying surfboard at. Brilliantly selected by Stan Lee, the smiling sage of the Marvel Age, as his own personal all-time favorite thrillers, you'll find virtually each and every one of our most popular artists featured within such as John Byrne, Jack Kirby, Jim Starlin and Steve Ditko.

FIRESIDE BOOKS

Published by Fireside Books 1977Foreward by Stan LeeCover by John RomitaHard and softcover editions were offered
1977 - saw the publication of "The Superhero Women Featuring the Fabulous Females of Marvel Comics" which featured Medusa (Lee & Romita), Red Sonja(Bruce Jones & Frank Thorne), Invisible Girl (Lee & Kirby), Ms. Marvel (Lee & Buscema), Hela (Lee & Buscema), the Cat (Linda Fit & Marie Severin), Wasp (Lee & Kirby), Lyra the Femizon (Lee & Romita), Shanna the She-Devil (Carole Seuling & Ross Andru) and Black Widow (Lee & Romita).