News! Gail Simone takes on Red Sonja!

The ever-awesome Gail Simone will be taking over writing duties for their fan-favourite series, RED SONJA!

Published by Dynamite Entertainment, Simone’s run will kick off with a brand-new #1 issue, to be published in July 2013. Hopefully this means it’ll be good for new readers… Interior art for the series will be provided by Walter Geovani

Red Sonja is a character I’ve been aware of for many years, and I remember watching the Red Sonja movie, many moons ago. In fact, I believe I even had a bit of crush on Brigitte Nielsen, who portrayed the titular character in that 1985 movie. It was released when I was only two years old, but I think I must have seen it around the age of eight or nine… For nostalgia’s sake, here’s the trailer:

Anyway, back to Simone and the comic. I haven’t had a lot of past reading experience of Simone’s work, and have actually only read the first nine issues of her current, storied run on DC’s New 52 Batgirl series (which is rather excellent).

Upcoming: “The Daylight War” by Peter V. Brett (Voyager/Del Ray)

I shamelessly pinch this from A Dribble of Ink, who got it after Entertainment Weekly was given the exclusive (as well as an extract).

I loved The Great Bazaar, Brayan’s Gold and The Painted Man. As with many novels I have on my Kindle, I seem to keep forgetting about The Desert Spear, though. At the same time, that was a novel that came out and was not as eagerly embraced as the first by the fantasy blogosphere. So maybe I’ve been hesitant because of that?

Needless to say, with book three now on the horizon (it’s published February 2013 in both the UK and US), it seems like a good time to get my ass in gear. Here’s the very red cover:

The one thing I don’t know, is if this is the cover for both the UK and US editions – certainly the American cover. When I saw early mock-ups (two versions, actually), they had chosen a blue palette. It was a very nice blue, I thought… The woman’s pose is way better in this version, and is certainly more suitable for Inevera.

Guest Post: “Influences & Inspirations” by A. Lee Martinez

With the publication of A Lee Martinez’s next novel imminent (March 6th), I thought it would be a great time to dragoon him into writing about some of his influences and inspirations. Which he did. Which was very nice of him. Read on!

In A Princess of Mars, John Carter of Mars finds himself transported to the savage world of Barsoom (Mars, to you and me). He’s immediately taken prisoner by the race of giant four-armed green Martians. Soon after, he punches a Martian and kills him with one blow. It’s an accident, but it immediately earns him the respect of his captors. That’s how things work on Mars. It’s classic pulp bad-ass-itude, the kind of absurd levels of awesome that were once commonplace in the pages of Weird Tales and other serial magazines. John Carter is a power fantasy, a man who discovers another planet and through heroic resolve gets the princess, saves the planet, builds alliances, and destroys his enemies. Subtlety is not the goal of these stories. War is brutal (and often cartoonishly glorious). Love is as sappy and heartfelt as any romance novel, where people declare undying love merely upon setting eyes upon each other. And outlandish adventure is a way of life.

“Red Sonja Blue” by Peter V. Brett (Dynamite)

A comic one-shot by internationally bestselling author of The Painted Man & The Desert Spear

Artist: Walter Geovani

When an unfortunate encounter with a demon deprives her of her trademark chainmail bikini, Sonja is forced to don a familiar blue fur tunic for the remainder of this adventure.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing and loving the movie Red Sonja, with Brigitte Nielsen in the title role (boy did I have quite the crush on her…). When I heard that Peter Brett had written a one-shot issue of the Red Sonja comic, I started hunting for it. Only yesterday was I finally able to find a copy (at Midtown Comics in New York), and the wait was certainly worth it.