A Red Sonja Cover Gallery X:
A Face

This is the tenth installment in our Red Sonja themed cover galleries, continuing from the first gallery. Below, we present ten selected covers from various comic books, in which the artist focused on the face of Red Sonja.

1

  • title: Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (1983)
  • publisher: Marvel
  • cover artist: Walt Simonson
  • writer: Tom DeFalco
  • artists: Dave Simons and Vince Colletta
  • issue: #01 of 13
  • release date: August, 1983
  • story: "While Lovers Embrace--Demons Feed"
  • commentary: Red Sonja is regarded not only for her skill as a swordswoman without parallel but also for her striking beauty. In the majority of the covers of Red Sonja comics, the artists choose to portray her complete form. However, every so often there is a cover that focuses exclusively on her face. Issue #1 of the third Marvel series is the first such cover.

    All thirteen issues of Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (1983) have been featured in galleries on this site, including those with themes of
    • Tentacles: #1
    • Action: #1
    • Horsewoman: #2
    • Snow: #1
    • A Face: #1 & #2
    • Undead: #1
    • Demons: #8
    • Wilshire: #6, #7, #8 & #9
    • Overlooked Marvel Issues: #5

2

  • title: Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (1983)
  • publisher: Marvel
  • cover artist: Mary Wilshire
  • writer: Louise Simonson
  • artists: Mary Wilshire and Art Nichols
  • issue: #13 of 13
  • release date: May, 1986
  • story: "The Demon's Tooth"
  • commentary: It turns out that the last issue of the third Marvel series, drawn by Mary Wilshire, also features a close-up of Red Sonja's face. We see in the comparison of these two covers that while all artists agree on the color of Red Sonja's hair, there is no consensus on the color of her eyes.

    As an addendum, there are a couple other galleries of notable Red Sonja covers that feature a close-up of Red Sonja's face, including
    • Russell's Red Sonja (2019): #15
    • The Price of Blood: #19

3

  • title: Queen Sonja (2009)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Lucio Parrillo
  • writer: Arvid Nelson
  • artist: Jackson Herbert
  • issue: #06 of 35
  • release date: April, 2010
  • story: "The Red Queen 1"
  • cover: A cover
  • commentary: The Queen Sonja series featured a close-up by Lucio Parrillo of Red Sonja, contemplating her own mortality.

4

  • title: Queen Sonja (2009)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Fabiano Neves
  • writer: Arvid Nelson
  • artist: Edgar Salazar
  • issue: #18 of 35
  • release date: July, 2011
  • story: "Son of Set 3: A Fistful of Rubble"
  • cover: A cover
  • commentary: The Queen Sonja series also includes another cover, this one by Fabiano Neves, with a headshot of Red Sonja.

5

  • title: Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (2005)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Lucio Parrillo
  • writer: Brandon Jerwa
  • artist: Sergio Fernandez Davila
  • issue: #79 of 80
  • release date: July, 2013
  • story: "The Crimson Well"
  • cover: A cover
  • commentary: In this cover to the penultimate issue of the definitive Red Sonja series, Lucio Parrilio captures Red Sonja as both beauty and warrior.

6

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Jenny Frison
  • writers: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #12 of 18
  • release date: September, 2014
  • cover: A cover
  • commentary: In the covers by Jenny Frison, the hair of Red Sonja is drawn with particularly fine detail and is imbued with a vivid shade of red.

7

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Stephanie Buscema
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #14 of 18
  • release date: January, 2015
  • cover: C variant
  • commentary: In this close-up from the 2013 series of covers by Stephanie Buscema, Red Sonja has apparently entered a state of undeath. The skull pupil is an artist's touch fully consistent with the style of these drawings.

8

  • title: Red Sonja (2016)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Tula Lotay
  • writer: Marguerite Bennett
  • artist: Aneke
  • issue: #1 of 6
  • release date: January, 2016
  • cover: C variant
  • commentary: There are two Red Sonja series that began in 2016. The first was only six-issues. There are numerous cover variants for the first issue then none for the remaining five. In this variant by Tula Lotay, Red Sonja glances over her shoulder, presumably, based on the sword, at an oncoming foe.

9

  • title: Red Sonja (2016)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Amy Reeder
  • writer: Amy Chu
  • artist: Carlos E. Gomez
  • issue: #10 of 25
  • release date: November, 2017
  • cover: A
  • commentary: In this A cover to the second Red Sonja series from 2016, it appears that a green-eyed Red Sonja is contemplating giving at least as good as she got.

10

  • title: Red Sonja (2019)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Amanda Conner
  • writer: Mark Russell
  • artist: Bob Q.
  • issue: #07 of ongoing series
  • release date: August, 2019
  • story: "Missing Pieces"
  • cover: A
  • commentary: Amanda Conner has had the honor of drawing the A covers for all the issues released thus far in this 2019 series. This is her first to be limited to just Red Sonja's face. Red Sonja has often been portrayed as a mercenary, earning her keep by hiring out her swordarm. Here, she seems to be testing the authenticity of the precious metal in the coin. There is the unstated implication that her wariness is a result of having been tricked previously.

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