Do you own a PS4? Do you like personalizing your digital home screen? Do you like Red Sonja and/or Vampirella too? If you fall into this particular subsection of a subsection of a subsection, you’ll love what Dynamite has for you today. The Powell Group, a video game consulting agency, announced that the PS Store will now carry themes for these particular properties.
Vampirella is a raven-haired heroine who remains, even after 45 years of publication, one of the comic industry’s leading ladies, due in no small part to Dynamite Entertainment’s stewardship of the character. Since Vampirella’s very healthy resurgence in 2010, Dynamite has published two volumes of a monthly series, several miniseries and one-shot specials, and crossovers with multimedia brands and comic book peers. The Vampirella franchise is a haven for writers and artists with a penchant for the macabre.Red Sonja, known also as “The She-Devil with a Sword,” is renowned as fantasy fiction’s most prominent female character, formerly a swashbuckling ally of the Robert E. Howard character, Conan. Her early adventures in the Marvel Feature comic book series led to a successful ongoing Red Sonja solo series, a celebrated run of comics from 1976 through 1979. Dynamite Entertainment acquired the Red Sonjalicense in 2005 as their second-ever published title, arriving on newsstands to critical acclaim and a very receptive audience. Dynamite has since published over one hundred Red Sonja comic books, including crossovers with popular characters including Conan, Dejah Thoris (of Warlord of Mars), Vampirella, Spider-Man, and more.
The Red Sonja and Vampirella themes for PS4 allow users to view amazing art each time they boot up their game systems, and are available for purchase here:
I’m oozing red with excitement. I should probably see a doctor.
What is Dynamite’s announcement for today? A Red Sonja one shot reuniting talents from her run since her 1973 debut, including Roy Thomas, Gail Simone, Luke Lieberman, and Eric Trautmann, along with writer Cullen Bunn and artists Dave Acosta and Rich Buckler. Because when it’s a character’s 42nd birthday, it’s time to celebrate with classic brokeback.
Here’s a startling fact: Although most often associated with the Conan the Barbarian oeuvre, Red Sonja, as “The She-Devil with a Sword” was actually created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith in an issue of Conan. The character was based on a short story by Conan creator Robert E. Howard called “The Shadow of the Vulture” that featured a character called red Sonya of Rogatine. It was Thomas who figured out how to add her to the Conan mythos.
“It’s been very gratifying to me to witness the popularity of Red Sonja over the past four decades,” Thomas recalled. “It was a lucky day when I read a fan-article about Robert E. Howard that mentioned a story in which one of his historical heroes fought alongside a “Russian hell-cat” or whatever precisely the phrase was (her name wasn’t mentioned in the article), so that I obtained a copy of the long out-of-print story from the estate’s literary agent, Glenn Lord, and read it: ‘The Shadow of the Vulture.’ Red Sonya of Rogatine clearly had possibilities as a sometime companion/opponent for Conan in Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian comic, so I changed her name to the (to me) slightly more exotic Red Sonja, thereby making her a somewhat new character and adapted ‘Shadow’ as an issue of Conan. From that time on, she had a life of her own. Barry Windsor-Smith was inspired to do great things with her in the two Conan issues we did together in which she co-starred. Esteban Maroto, over in Spain, couldn’t resist giving her a different look, which came to be called ‘the iron bikini’ after I decided that should be what she wore from then on. John Buscema and Howard Chaykin did a handful of nice stories with her. Frank Thorne came aboard to virtually make her his own. And that was just in the 1970s! I suspect Red Sonja will be around for a long, long time!”
The Red Sonja #1973 one shot goes on sale in July.
Dynamite has had a lot of news this week in the busy Toy Fair/ComicsPRo period, including an exciting crossover event the return of two iconic heroes, and a new merchandise line. Here’s a digest version:
• Mark Waid is writing Justice, Inc.: The Avenger with artist Ronilson Freire. The series debuts in June and expands on the Justice, Inc., universe and vigilante industrialist Richard Henry Benson. variant covers include Alex Ross (Kingdom Come), Walter Simonson (The Mighty Thor), Francesco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie), Marc Laming (All-New Invaders), and Barry Kitson (The Amazing Spider-Man).
In Justice, Inc.: The Avenger #1, Waid and Freire continue the adventures of Richard Henry Benson, a victim of a criminal attack that left his facial features forever deadened, gray in color and incapable of showing genuine emotion. And yet, the harsh stroke of fate gave him the ability to mold his face to match the appearance of anyone… a skill he could employ as the ultimate master of disguise. Driven to mete out retribution against those who would prey on the innocent, The Avenger finds himself on a collision course with a villain even more secretive, brutal, and unrelenting than himself: an Invisible Man.
Mark Waid’s participation in the Avenger launch fulfills a longtime writing goal; he says, “Moreso than The Shadow, moreso than Doc Savage, the Avenger has always, always been my favorite pulp hero, and I’ve been aching to write this story since I was eleven years old. What a blast! Having the opportunity to dive into the psyche of a crimefighter as unique as Benson has been a lifelong dream — I’ve been thinking about what his life and mind would be like ever since I read my first Avenger paperback back in the day. How does a man live his life when he has nothing to live for but justice? How does he navigate in a world of life and love and joy when his own features are frozen and stiff like putty, mirroring his cold, dead insides? There’s so much here to unpack.”
• Will Eisner’s The Spirit is coming back in a series written by Matt Wagner and covers by Alex Ross, Eric Powell, and Wagner. DEny Colt, a masked everyman crimefighter, was the center of an iconic series by Eisner and has been brought back most recently at DC.
“I discovered The Spirit via the black-and-white, magazine-sized reprints of the mid-70s. It was the first time that I truly perceived sequential narrative as a legitimate art form, of the immense creative power of a comic-artist in his prime,” says Wagner. “I can honestly say that seeing and experiencing The Spirit in my formative years ultimately led to my career as a comics author. It’s such an immense thrill and a professional honor to have the chance to contribute to Will Eisner’s legacy on the milestone 75th anniversary of his most influential and iconic character.”
• Joining the wave of female led titles that is changing the ace of the industry, in May Swords of Sorrow is a giant crossover event featuring Red Sonja, Vampirella, Dejah Thoris with an all-female writing team led by Gail Simone. The event kicks off with a Swords of Sorrow series by Simone, Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella / Jennifer Blood miniseries written by Nancy A. Collins (Vampirella, Swamp Thing); Swords of Sorrow: Chaos special by Mairghread Scott (Transformers: Windblade); and the Swords of Sorrow: Masquerade / Katospecial by G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) and Erica Schultz (M3). In later months, more projects by Leah Moore, Marguerite Bennett, Emma Beeby, and Mikki Kendal will debut. That’s a lot of female writers!
In keeping with the theme, variant cover artists include a main cover byJ. Scott Campbell (Danger Girl); variants by Jenny Frison, Emanuela Lupacchino; a subscription edition by Robert Hack available to fans placing preorders with their local retailers; and incentive editions by Joyce Chin, Tula Lotay, Nei Ruffino, Cedric Poulat. Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella / Jennifer Blood #1 and the Swords of Sorrow: Masquerade / Kato special both feature covers by Billy Tan, while the Swords of Sorrow: Chaos special spotlights Joyce Chin.
Gail Simone, who has been planning the project since her involvement was announced in July, says, “Here’s the thing: I love pulp adventure, always have. But as male-dominated as comics have often been, the pulp adventure world seems to be even more so. Most of the big name stars and creators are dudes, and that’s fine, it’s great. But it hit me… what if that wasn’t the case? What if adventure pulps had also been written with female readers in mind, and awesome female characters in the spotlight? That’s the scenario we are imagining, and it’s just been a blast. The key players are Red Sonja, Vampirella, and Dejah Thoris, but it’s such an epic-spanning, world-hopping event that we also have Kato, Jungle Girl, Lady Rawhide, Jennifer Blood, and so many more. It’s the crossover I dreamed of when I was a kid, and now we get to make it happen.”
Simone’s core Swords of Sorrow story serves as the starting point for a new universe of pulp adventure. Illustrated by Sergio Davila (Legenderry: A Steampunk Adventure), the series features the supernatural heroine Vampirella, Martian princess Dejah Thoris, crimson-tressed swordswoman Red Sonja, martial artist Kato (from filmmaker Kevin Smith’s reboot of The Green Hornet), primal warrior Jungle Girl, and many more. Drawn from a dozen worlds and eras to face off against a legendary evil that threatens their homelands, Dynamite’s fiercest females must overcome their differences to harness the power of mystical blades — the eponymous Swords of Sorrow — in final conflict.
Gail Simone also serves as the architect for all storylines tied into the event, providing direction to her personally selected team of writers. “We got the best writers around, gave them a fun combination of characters and just let them go wild,” says Simone. “It’s creators like G. Willow Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Nancy A. Collins and more, with book titles like Vampirella vs. Jennifer Blood, Kato vs. Masquerade, and Red Sonja vs. Jungle Girl. More about these tag teams will be coming soon, but it’s just a ridiculous amount of fun to set these characters against each other, and I’m very proud of the astounding team of writers, who I hand-picked from among the very best of new female adventure writers. There’s never been a crossover event in comics like this, ever.”
• Finally, Dynamite has entered into a partnership with The Brewing Factory, the merchandise development company founded by former DC vp Georg Brewer. The line debuts with Women of Dynamite, a line of female figures including Vampirella designed by Jason Smith and based on the artwork of J. Scott Campbell), set for June release.
“I’ve been really fortunate to work on some great projects these last few years, but my first love will always be comics,” says Georg Brewer. “Working with Nick and Joe at Dynamite, and their talented comics creators, has been a blast! It’s certainly been a fantastic way for me to get back to where it all started, and along with sculptor Jason Smith, we are creating an amazing line of statues.”
”We are extremely fortunate to work with someone of Georg’s knowledge, skill, experience, and sterling reputation,” says Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher ofDynamite Entertainment. “His passion and expertise in the development and manufacturing of cool fan collectibles is second to none, and our being able to work with Georg is going to help bring fans additional great product lines featuring Dynamite’s extensive library of characters. The debut product line resulting from our creative partnership will be Women of Dynamite statues inspired by J. Scott Campbell artwork, and from there, we will continue to delve into our expansive library of intellectual properties.”
Whew!
Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris and Vampirella are teaming up…but not in the same story unless we’re rely lucky. They’ll be the stars of The Women of Dynamite, an ongoing anthology series being written by Gail Simone. Because Gail likes writing the ladies, and the ladies like Gail writing them. It’s called an “event” series,. so I guess it’ll be limited. Pub date not announced.
While it might be a bit uncharitable to note that none of these characters are overburdened with a dry cleaning bill, they are definitely long running female pulp characters, and a lot of diverse readers are fond of them all.
Dynamite Entertainment is proud to announce an exciting new event series featuring the most iconic female characters published by Dynamite, as written by sensational comics scribe, Gail Simone. Renowned for her deft handling of DC Comics’ best-known and most powerful women (Batgirl, Wonder Woman,Birds of Prey), Simone will unite and celebrate the strong female characters of Dynamite’s publishing line, including Red Sonja, Vampirella, Dejah Thoris, and more, in a series currently under a working title of The Women of Dynamite.
The heart of The Women of Dynamite is formed by the three bestselling heroines – the female triumvirate – of Dynamite’s line as the central characters: Red Sonja, Vampirella, and Dejah Thoris. The “She-Devil with a Sword” known as Red Sonja, is fantasy fiction’s most prominent female character, formerly a swashbuckling ally of the Robert E. Howard character, Conan. Vampirella, originally a horror hostess in her self-titled magazine, evolved over her forty-five year history into a supernatural detective. Finally, Dejah Thoris is the eponymous heroine of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original story featuring John Carter, A Princess of Mars, and an adventurous mainstay at Dynamite with the publication of such series as Warlord of Mars and Dejah of Mars. Additional female characters from Dynamite’s ten years of publishing will be included in the event.
“When I first spoke with Nick about working at Dynamite, he graciously offered my choice of a huge list of great characters, and I immediately chose a favorite, Red Sonja.” Says Writer Extra-Ordinaire Gail Simone. “But that meant leaving behind amazing characters I loved! So doing this big, fun, noisy event book, full of action and fun and drama and sex and villainy, featuring some of the wildest female characters out there, that’s just awesome. Getting to work with some of the most talented female writers in the industry only makes it better!”
“After working so closely with Gail on Legends of Red Sonja, I am excited to see where we’ll be going next with this epic character crossover,” says Molly Mahan, Associate Editor of Dynamite. “The concept of a Women of Dynamiteseries has been something we’ve been circling around for a while now, but had to wait for the right concept and creators to come together to make the story as worthwhile as the concept. We are lucky to have Gail as the cornerstone on this project and I know we’ll craft something that the fans and comics community will enjoy across demographics.”
“Gail has been an absolute pleasure to work with,” says Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher of Dynamite Entertainment. “The thought of bringing together the strongest female characters that Dynamite publishes in to an event has been discussed for years, and we could not be happier that Gail is the creator who will tell this tale. Her work on Red Sonja has been a delight, and as fans who read her work know, she has many tricks up her sleeve. Gail is going to make this event HUGE! Just wait until you see what she has in store for the rest of Dynamite’s strong female characters.”
Gail Simone first debuted on a Dynamite series with the 2013 launch of Red Sonja, an ongoing series which was met with immediate critical acclaim and an impressive sell-out of its 35,000-unit first printing. She has committed to writing chores for Red Sonja through its eighteenth issue. She also assembled a team of fiction’s top female writers, well-respected professionals from the prose, fantasy gaming, and comic book worlds, for a collaborative project calledLegends of Red Sonja, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the titular character. She additionally will contribute a story to the upcoming Vampirella: Feary Tales miniseries.
Simone got her start in comics writing for Bongo Comics, home of The Simpsons. Soon after, she entered the traditional superhero comics genre with a run on Marvel Comics’ Deadpool (later called Agent X). In recent years, Simone is best known for known for fan-favorite story arcs on DC Comics’ Birds of Prey, Secret Six, Wonder Woman, and Batgirl.
The Women of Dynamite will be solicited in an upcoming Diamond Comic Distributors Previews catalog, the premiere source of merchandise for the comic book specialty market. Comic book fans are encouraged to reserve copies of The Women of Dynamite with their local comic book retailers. The Women of Dynamite will also be available for individual customer purchase through digital platforms courtesy of Comixology, iVerse, and Dark Horse Digital.
It’s Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend, and Dynamite look to have a number of announcements over the course of the next few days. The first of which is a new line of premiere art editions the publisher will soon be putting out – starting with the complete storyboards from Frank Thorne’s Red Sonja.
Dynamite have worked with Thorne to scan the collection directly from his own personal archive, making this a complete run of his 1976 series. One of the characters most associated with Dynamite, the work is scanned in colour and printed in original size. Thorne, in a press release run by Dynamite this week, speaks on his work with the character:
What is it that makes Red Sonja endure? So many fine craftsmen had drawn her!
When I took over Sonja in 1975, I was standing on the shoulders of giants. Still, many have said that I gave life to The Redhead, the living and iconic fantasy female (and sexiest title on the comics scene at the time). Fans should thank Roy Thomas, the great writer of comics and screenplays, for assigning me to shepherd Sonja into her own series. A sidekick no more, she was finally the star of the show!
The company will not be publishing more than 1973 copies of the book (1973 being the character’s debut), so this first edition will also be the only edition available. Due for release in December, Editor Nick Barrucci also notes that the book will be available at a discounted price for retailers, as the company seek to create a stronger business model between publisher and retailers.
Gail Simone and other Strong Female Creators notwithstanding, I just can’t take Red Sonja serious as long as she’s got that bikini. For me, it belongs to a decade in the distant past, when I was 15…
I honestly prefer Valda from Roy Thomas’ Arak comics.
Can you take Conan seriously wearing only a loincloth?
If I can suspend disbelief enough to read about Red Sonja battling wizards’ magic, dragons and demons, I can believe she can do it wearing only a metal bikini.
The chainmail bikini I can live with, what I won’t abide is a ‘Size-Zero’ She-Devil. At least Frank Thorne drew her with some flesh on her bones.