A Red Sonja Cover Gallery XX:
Hapax Legomena (Feminine)

This is the twentieth installment in our Red Sonja themed cover galleries, continuing from the first gallery. Below, we present twenty selected covers from various comic books, featuring female cover artists who have, at least at the date of this compilation, created only a single Red Sonja cover.

For those curious about the title of this gallery, a hapax legomenon is a word that is only used one in a given work. A few examples follow. Herman Melville's Moby Dick contains the word matrimonial just once (in Chapter 4. The Counterpane).

At length, by dint of much wriggling, and loud and incessant expostulations upon the unbecomingness of his hugging a fellow male in that matrimonial sort of style, I succeeded in extracting a grunt; and presently, he drew back his arm, shook himself all over like a Newfoundland dog just from the water, and sat up in bed, stiff as a pike-staff, looking at me, and rubbing his eyes as if he did not altogether remember how I came to be there, though a dim consciousness of knowing something about me seemed slowly dawning over him.
In Shakespeare's collected works, the word satyr is used only once (in Hamlet Act I Scene 2).
So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my mother that he might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her face too roughly.
In the Hebrew Bible, the word lilith, meaning a night monster, appears only once (in Isaiah 34:14). It can be translated as follows.
And desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and goat-demons will call out to each other. There also Liliths will settle, and find for themselves a resting place.

1

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Fiona Staples
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #01 of 18
  • cover: C variant
  • release date: July, 2013
  • commentary: It appears that not a single variant cover of any issue of the definitive 80-issue series of Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (2005) was drawn by a female artist. (Editor's note: This is strictly speaking not true; Joyce Chin created the C variant to issue #23--so there is at least one example out of the 270+ different cover artworks for that series.) Dynamite attempted to correct this deficiency by having women create all of the covers of the subsequent series, which featured Gail Simone's interpretation of Red Sonja (2013). All 18 of the issues from that series had covers by both Jenny Frison and Stephanie Buscema. Examples of their work are scattered through-out the other galleries, but are not represented here since, by virtue of the multiple representations, they are not regarded in this context as hapax legomena. In addition, each issue also featured a cover by another female artist. For many of these artists, including Fiona Staples, the artist responsible for this cover, this is their only contribution to the Red Sonja ouvre.

2

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Mariah Benes
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #01 of 18
  • cover: retailer exclusive: Mile High Comics
  • release date: July, 2013
  • commentary: This cover to the first issue of Red Sonja (2013) was a retailer exclusive to Mile High Comics. Mariah Benes has also drawn for DC and Image Comics.

3

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Jill Thompson
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #06 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: December, 2013
  • commentary: Jill Thompson has worked on comics for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Wonder Woman. Her highly stylized take on Red Sonja is unlike any other cover.

4

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Stéphanie Hans
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #09 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: May, 2014
  • commentary: In this cover from Stéphanie Hans, Red Sonja is placed in a winter landscape under a night sky, with a foreign palace or temple in the background. The spectral figure of a woman appears in the sky amidst geometric snowflake patterns. In this cover, the image of Red Sonja looks like it is of the same vintage as the iconic poster of Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C.

    Subsequent galleries on this site have featured covers by Stéphanie Hans, including galleries with themes of
    • Immortal: #11

5

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Allison Sohn
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #10 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: June, 2014
  • commentary: The only Red Sonja cover by Allison Sohn features a slender Red Sonja in a classic dungeon setting. She is drawing her sword as if a sound from an unseen adversary has emerged from the darkness of the corridor before her.

6

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Renae de Liz
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #13 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: November, 2014
  • commentary: Renae de Liz, who has made a variety of covers for Wonder Woman, has also created one cover for Red Sonja. Here, our heroine traverses a mountainous terrain, hunted by a pack of adversaries. Bloodied by a recent encounter, she remains alert to the likelihood of another encounter in the near future.

7

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Yasmin Liang
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #14 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: January, 2015
  • commentary: No one associates Red Sonja with a maternal role but in this cover by Yasmin Liang, Sonja pairs the bloody sword in her right hand with a child in her left. The symbolism of the green skull of the child and the worms that riddle its body and skull remain unclear to us.

8

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Emma Vieceli
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #15 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: March, 2015
  • commentary: Emma Vieceli is an artist who has drawn for such comics as Manga Shakespeare, Young Avengers, Back to the Future, Comic Book Tattoo and Doctor Who. Her sole cover to date for Red Sonja has Red Sonja's hair disappearing into a red background, the same shade as the joint shadow cast by Red Sonja and the would-be assassin who ambushes her.

9

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Rebekah Isaacs
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #17 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: July, 2015
  • commentary: Rebekah Isaacs has worked on comics, including Money Shot, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Reaver and Angel & Faith. What is especially appealing about her only contribution to Red Sonja covers is the way the light of the flame differentially illuminates the sword, her ribcage and her face.

10

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Adriana Melo
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #18 of 18
  • cover: B variant
  • release date: September, 2015
  • commentary: Adriana Melo has worked on Star Wars: Empire, Rose & Thorn, Birds of Prey, Witchblade and Ms. Marvel. In her Red Sonja, she provides a close-up of a green-eyed warrior, especially displeased about some ill-mannered man or beast that has waylaid her along an otherwise lonely road. Another curiosity is the ornate earrings seen here, an anomaly among Red Sonja covers.

continue to the second half of this gallery