Red Sonja Unchained #2, an Homage
Red Sonja: Unchained #2 is in stores now! Unlike issue #1, which dropped while I was on tour, this time I can go to local comic shops and sign. I’ve been dreaming of seeing my own work on the comic shop racks since I was in fourth grade. 3 books in I still get chills at the sight.
I’m really proud of how this issue came out on multiple levels. Cover artist Walter Geovani delivered a stellar image (exactly what I asked him for) and interior artist Jack Jadson did an amazing job. Jack and I are both still finding our feet a bit, he as a relatively new penciler (after years as an a-list inker) and me as a comic writer after years as a novelist. Each issue is better than the last, which is a great feeling.
Also worth noting, the kind folks at Dynamite printed an issue #1 correction at the end, showing the correct version of a misprinted page in the first issue.
Issue #2 is a good entry point if you haven’t read the other books, as I have worked hard to make each of my Sonja comics to work as a stand-alone story as well as a part of the ongoing series. I read all three books together yesterday, and they work really well. I can’t wait till the tale is complete.
But there’s another, more personal level to this issue. Red Sonja: Unchained #2 is an homage to Frank Thorne.
As you may know, the Red Sonja: Blue/Red Sonja: Unchained books have been something of an homage to the 80’s Red Sonja series by female comic pioneers Mary Wilshire (artist) and Louise Simonson (writer).
There has been a lot of hubbub lately amongst comic fans about how beloved writer Gail Simone is taking over as author of Dynamite’s flagship Red Sonja series. Many seem to think Gail is the first female writer to take those reins, but in truth, she has big shoes to fill. I loved those 80’s comics.
To be fair, I think Gail is going to hit a home run. Have you seen the covers she commissioned? Awesome.
Anyway. Red Sonja has an even deeper history, going back to the 1970’s, when the character, a b-list Conan rival, was given her own series and breathed new life by writer/artist Frank Thorne, who popularized the chainmail bikini that would, for better or worse, go on to be Sonja’s signature look.
In the 80’s when I was reading the Wilshire/Simonson Sonja, I would also haunt comic shops and conventions, flipping systematically though countless comic longboxes in search of back issues from Frank’s run. It was like panning for gold. Every once in a while I would find one and get another 22 pages of awesome sword and sorcery. Thorne delivered a rich fantasy world, a hard-drinking, hard hitting Sonja, and as a 12 year old boy, I had zero problem with the chainmail bikini.
Frank Thorne was so obsessed with Red Sonja that he used to go to comic conventions dressed as a wizard along with another female comics pioneer, Wendy Pini (of Elfquest* fame) playing the part of Sonja for a little variety act:
*It’s worth noting you can legally view the whole Elfquest series free online here.
Thorne’s obsession eventually grew to a point where… well, let’s just say the Comics Code Authority was not okay with the direction he was taking things. Thorne eventually left the book to create his own more *ahem “adult” warrior woman, who also happened to wear a metal bikini, Ghita of Alizarr.
I was aware of the Thorne Ghita books when I was a teenager, but they were kept carefully out of reach in the “mature readers only” section of the store. Of course this only made me want them more. I tracked them down years later in college, and found them to be basically Thorne’s Sonja comic at its best, mixed with some pretty hardcore sex. There’s nothing in those books that would shock an HBO Game of Thrones fan, but in the more conservative 1980’s, they were a scandal that would get you staked out for the corelings in Town Square.
I always wondered what would happen if Red Sonja were to cross swords with Ghita.
With Red Sonja: Unchained #2, I got to find out.
Thanks, Frank.