The Many Faces of Sonja

Red Sonja issue 50 has come and gone without a mention here, so I figured I might as well be the one to mention the Sonja-liciousness of Dynamite's landmark 50th issue. There were four covers for this issue, and I wanted them all. Unfortunately, I was only able to pick up the Joe Jusko and Joe Linsner covers (I had really hoped to get the Art Adams cover, too).




There were six stories in the thick issue (it was a lot like an issue of Dynamite's Savage Tales, except all the stories were Sonja-centeric). Three of the stories are brand new, one is really old (a Frank Thorne reprint) and two were from a previous Dynamite Sonja series.


The first story, The Cloud Tiger, was illustrated by Pablo Marcos (this wasn't the first time he's taken a stab at Sonja). Methinks Pablo needs to spend some time studying anatomy. Women's anatomy, specifically. To misquote Steven Tyler, "Lady looks like a dude." Thumbs down.


The second story, Here there Be Wolves, was illustrated by Joyce Chin, and Joyce took a much more classic approach to drawing Sonja. The horse, the flowing red hair - it all borrows heavily from Franke Thorne's Sonja (though she's a cup-size or two bigger). Thumbs up.


I was sure that the issue's third story, The Frost Giant's Curse, was going to be a rip-off of the Conan Frost Giant's Daughter story. Fortunately, other than the words "Frost Giant," there wasn't much retreaded material. The story was well-illustrated by Johnny Desjardins. Thumbs up.


This isn't the first time Dynamite has included an old Marvel Red Sonja story in one of their comics. It's fun to see how Sonja has evolved over the years (sorry, but I'll take most of the newer renditions of Sonja over Thorne's, any day). Still, the walk down memory lane deserves a thumbs up.


I had some serious Tolkien flashbacks when reading the fifth story, The Hands of Fate. Noah Salonga's ghost kings were right out of the Lord of the Rings (from the Paths of the Dead). And trolls. All we needed was some orcs and a couple of hobbits. Thumbs up.


The last story of the issue, Revenge is a Bitch, is short, but very well illustrated by Ron Adrian. Sonja is strong, fierce, and angry, but still unquestionably female (something other artists forget in their efforts to make Sonja the uber-butch warrior queen). Another thumbs up.


And if anyone cares, I also have a couple of thoughts on the third installments of Dynamite's Red Sonja Annual. Dan Brereton is da' man. And Adriano Batista ain't half bad, either.

RED SONJA - by Sanjulian

I'd seen his work on various magazine covers throughout the 1970's I always loved his figure work and his backgrounds are as mysterious and cloudy just like Frank Frazetta's.  But this RED SONJA has a very unique look and feel to it.  I've never seen an original depiction that I liked very much.  When I think of Red Sonja I'm thinking Frank Thorne , Buscema , Maroto.  You know a particular LOOK.  This is the first time I'm seeing this and I think it's classic and beautiful.

Sonja with a little less up top

I was out wandering around the interwebs today, looking for information on a Richard Corben comic series that I had somehow missed last year when I stumbled across some Edgar Tadeo sketches of Sonja that I don't think I've seen here before.





I prefer the pencil work to the fully inked version, but here are the inked versions of the last two.




The web site that I found the first image on made this comment:

The She-Devil with a Sword never looked better than in this drawing by Ed Tadeo. I like the fact that in designing Sonja's figure, Ed opted to depict her as lean and muscular instead of preternaturally busty. Nice work.

As much as I love the gigantic breasticles, I have to agree...

The Queen's not quite dead yet...

Queen Sonja #7 came out last week. And, as of this issue, no real attempt to explain how Sonja became queen has yet been made (that I've noticed, anyway). Or to explain exactly why she's fighting the Armies of Darkness.

Nevertheless, the cover by Lucio Parrillo was again amazing.


Another comic title that came out last week was Image comics's Dust Wars with an equally amazing cover by Paolo Parente (you should seek out any other comic he's worked on - he's amazing).


And that got me thinking...


What other artists would I like to see do a Sonja cover? I think Paolo would be right up at the top of my list.

A blast from the recent-past...

Here are a few (just a paltry few of the very many) of Dynamite's Sonja covers that deserve a mention...

Red Sonja, She-devil with a sword issue 13 Joe Linsner cover:


Red Sonja, She-devil with a sword issue 30 Alex Ross cover:


Savage Tales issue 6 Art Suydam cover:


Savage Tales issue 7 Art Suydam cover:


Sonja looks an awful lot like Angelina Jolie in that last cover...

Why am I mentioning these covers now, when it has been so long since they were published? Well, I was up looking for other comics that I appear to have missed random issues from in the past few months and I came across these issues as I went through box after box of disordered comics.

Savage Tales was a cool book (Sonja, Hercules, Atlantis - all kinds of weirdness). I'm bummed that it died after only 10 issues.

yet another BEAUTIFUL JUSKO drawing

I go crazy everytime Joe puts out another drawing..this image of the RED TRESSED warrior woman is over the top...he should paint this one.  I can't see enough of his stuff I could look at Joe's stuff all day...on his wesite on his Facebook...I never get tired.  Never.  Whatcha think fokes?

Queen Sonja vs The Army of Darkness

I never quite got around to mentioning issue #5 of Queen Sonja when it came out a few weeks ago, and then issue #6 came out and I still failed to mention Queen Sonja. I figured Mikey would beat me to it, but it looks like I get to comment on both issues! Sweet!

So let's start with Queen Sonja issue #5, or what I like to call Queen Sonja vs The Army of Darkness. This series is moving 1,000 mph and not slowing down to let anyone know why there's an army of undead dudes fresh off the set of Army of Darkness or even who these hotties Sonja has surrounded herself with are (I know who they are in general, but there's almost no character development - even with Sonja - in this series).


Queen Sonja issue #6 slows down a little bit. There's still a lot happening with very little backstory being revealed, but this issue does develop Sonja's character as a ruler straining under the burden of command and chafing at the male-dominated kingdom she has apparently assumed rule over (I still don't quite understand how she got there). Even Mels Rubi's art in this issue seems more impressive to me (the following are some of my favorite panels). You can actually see some emotion on Sonja's face (it's funny that Sonja's companion - to her right - in the first and second panels of the first image doesn't change at all from panel to panel, though).



Despite my mixed feelings for the story and the interior art (I'm really not a huge fan of Mel Rubi's work) , Lucillo Parrilo's covers continue to impress me. I can't remember a Red Sonja series with such consistently amazing cover art.

Frank Cho comission

Looks like Sonja is having a wardrobe malfunction...nice illo. 

Joe Jusko does a Sonja #50 cover!

I don't usually pay much attention to the free issues of Comic Shop News at my local comic shop, but it quickly grabbed my attention this week when I spotted Joe Linsner's rendition of Sonja on the cover. The issue features an article all about the upcoming landmark (for current indy titles, anyway) 50th issue of Red Sonja. I figure the series is way past 50 already if you count all the other Sonja titles out there like Savage Tales, the Spider-man/Red Sonja crossover, Queen Sonja, the Red Sonja/Claw crossover, Red Sonja Vs Thulsa Doom, etc. By my count, there are already about 90 Dynamite-published Sonja issues.






So, back to the article.

The Comic Shop news article talks about contributors to the upcoming issue (there are quite a few new faces) and some of the basic plot outlines for the stories. There are four covers for the issue and I will be picking up each of them. They're all beautiful.

Even our good friend Joe Jusko is doing one of them. And it's amazing.

One of the stories is such a Conan rip-off that it's comical. It's basically Sonja vs the Frost Giants. Wow. If I was a Howard purist, I'd be pissed. But as a Howard fan who doesn't mind seeing other characters visit Howard's universe, I'm psyched.

The Comic Book Resource web site also has an article talking about the upcoming issue. And its images from the issue are much better quality than the news print scans I did from the Comic Shop News.










I can't wait.


Here's an advertisement showing the Turner statue and the art book with the Silvestri cover that's mentioned in the Comic Shop News article.

That Joe Jusko again....

A convention drawing.  Some lucky art afficianado is gonna own this soon.  Too bad it will not be me.

I'm beginning to wonder if the film will ever be released

I was picking up my weekly fix of comics (no new Sonja or Conan books this week) at the local comic shop yesterday and heard some surprising Red Sonja news from one of my fellow comic-nerds: Rose McGowan is apparently out of Red Sonja.

I really don't think McGowan's recasting is a huge loss. Rose is attractive and probably would have played an okay Sonja (certainly better than the manly Brigitte), but is just a little too scrawny for Sonja. But - after my fellow nerd made us unsuccessfully guess who her replacement was for about five minutes - the actress reported to have been offered the role is just wrong. All wrong.

Megan Fox.



Seriously? Sure, she's got the Sonja curves, but even with the best wig or dye job, she's just doesn't visually look like a Red Sonja to me (although the visual comparison above makes a good case). And don't get me started on the one-dimensional, apathetic flatness of her "acting."

Haven't the fans of Red Sonja suffered enough?

RED SONJA by Joe Jusko

My apologies Shon but I saw Joes drawing and could not wait to share with my blogger buddies

And Then There Was That Time

That Red Sonja tickled M.O.D.O.K.

Drawn by Ernie Chan. Yes, Ernie Chan.

The Sonja-Thor tag team

So Queen Sonja #2 finally came out last week (or the week before, I forget) and I only just got around to reading it (and the last couple of issues of Conan). Great stuff.

The cover is another Luccio Parrillo masterpiece (though I'm not entirely sure what it has to do with the story).


The story is progressing...interestingly. I'm not sure how Norse gods ended up in Robert E Howard's universe, but who couldn't love a throwdown with Thor, Loki and Sonja? Although I've never seen Thor's hair in quite that color.


The Loki of this story seems a little too...manly, too. I've always seen him represented and imagined him as more of a scrawny malcontent, not a powerful scheming dissident. But it works for the story.

This version of Loki certainly has no problem with the ladies. Look at the top frame, especially the girl in the foreground on the right side - that's a page right out of the Peter M Hsu playbook (Elf Warrior, Quadrant, Gauntlet).

A smattering of RED !

When I was just an itty bitty boy my brother gave me a stack of comic books. The usual stuff was there Capes , cowls , webs and shields but one comic book stood out like a sore thumb. It was CONAN the barbarian # 24 introducing RED SONJA. I was captivated immediately...Sonja in the fountain CONAN cupping her chin about to move in and steal a kiss. The entire sequence left a lot to the imagination. From that moment on I knew that these types of comic books and others like them would be my reader's choice. Warriors and Warrior women. It took me to another time and place a different world. One like other 10 year old boys did not even know about. While they were all flipping baseball card I was having adventures. In my mind in my reading in my loose leaf comic books and yes even with a nice hefty branch to sub as a sword in the woods behind my house.
That one comic book opened up my mind and expanded my horizon's. I read I drew I went to art school to be a comic book artist ( I failed ) but at the end of the day I take comfort in knowing that all that reading about adverturer's and moral's and chivalry and value's just served to make me and other people just like me smarter and more understanding than most people.
I make no claims but I know we as fans....we just seem to care about things a little more than most. For me it was because of RED SONJA and CONAN.