A Red Sonja Cover Gallery XXXVIII:
Sketches

This is the thirty-eighth installment in our Red Sonja themed cover galleries, continuing from the first gallery. Below, we present ten selected covers from various comic books, featuring Red Sonja in sketches.

1

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Jenny Frison
  • writers: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #4 of 18
  • release date: October, 2013
  • cover: C variant
  • commentary: So-called sketch covers provide a means of generating additional variant covers to a single issue without adding additional artists. The appearance of sketch variants has become a common occurrence in contemporary Red Sonja series. The color version of this sketch by Jenny Frison also appears in the Blood gallery.

2

  • title: Red Sonja (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Agnes Garbowska
  • writer: Gail Simone
  • artist: Walter Geovani
  • issue: #2 of 18
  • cover: retailer exclusive variant: Larry's Comics
  • release date: August, 2013
  • commentary: Typically, sketch covers are less desirable than the full color version. Thus, they are printed in lower quantities. Even retailer exclusive variants are sometimes created in multiple versions with the color cover created in limited edition numbers much higher than the sketch version. The color version of this sketch by Agnes Garbowska also appears in the All Ages gallery.

3

  • title: Red Sonja (2016)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Mel Rubi
  • writer: Amy Chu
  • artist: Carlos Gomez
  • issue: #02 of 25
  • release date: February, 2017
  • cover: G cover
  • commentary: For connoisseurs of comic book art, it is said that the sketch versions allow the observer to more clearly perceive the elegance of the artist's lines. The color version of this sketch by Mel Rubi also appears in the Snow gallery.

4

  • title: Red Sonja (2016)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: J. Scott Campbell
  • writer: Amy Chu
  • artist: Carlos E. Gomez
  • issue: #04 of 25
  • cover: I variant
  • release date: April, 2017
  • commentary: To our knowledge, only issues #2 and #4 of Amy Chu's 2016 interpretation of Red Sonja included "artboard" covers, which presented drawings of Red Sonja that did not make it into full covers. There is no color version of this cover by J. Scott Campbell.

5

  • title: Red Sonja: Vacant Shell (2007)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Paul Renaud
  • writer: Rick Remender
  • artist: Paul Renaud
  • issue: one-shot
  • release date: May, 2007
  • cover: C variant
  • commentary: In 2007, Dynamite experimented with releasing the Vacant Shell one-shot in a second black-and-white special edition. In this version of the book not only was the cover black and white, but the entire interior of the book was also black and white. The color version of this cover by Paul Renaud also appears in the Renaud gallery.

6

  • title: Red Sonja Unchained (2013)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Mel Rubi
  • writer: Peter Brett
  • artist: Jack Jadson
  • issue: #3 of 4
  • cover: Dynamite retailer incentive variant
  • release date: June, 2013
  • commentary: Not content with black and white sketches, Dynamite also introduced colored sketches (some red and some blue) in far more limited quantities. In this example of the red sketch cover variant by Mel Rubi to issue #3 of Unchained, only twenty-five were printed. These books include a certificate of authenticity documenting the rarity of the release. Here the appeal is not so much the clarity of the lines, as it is the exclusivity of the product. The color version of this sketch also appears in the Introduction gallery.

7

  • title: Queen Sonja (2009)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Igor Vitorino
  • writer: Luke Lieberman
  • artist: Fritz Casas
  • issue: #21 of 35
  • release date: October, 2011
  • cover: Dynamic Forces retailer exclusive variant
  • commentary: This example of a Dynamic Forces exclusive red sketch cover was printed in an edition of 400. The color version of this sketch by Igor Vitorino also appears in the Snow gallery.

8

  • title: Vampirella & Red Sonja (2019)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Roberto Castro
  • writer: Jordie Bellaire
  • artist: Drew Moss
  • issue: #4 of 12
  • cover: FOC incentive variant
  • release date: December, 2019
  • commentary: Castro has drawn covers for several issues in the Vampirella & Red Sonja (2019) series. All of these variants appeared in full color and some contained a second sketch version. For reasons unknown, issue #4 only appeared as a sketch version, despite the fact that in the cover gallery at the end of issue #4 only a full color version is advertised. One speculates that there was some logistical mishap or communication error associated with the printing of the color version.

9

  • title: Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (2005)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Adriano Batista
  • writer: Brian Reed
  • artist: Mel Rubi
  • issue: #34 of 80
  • release date: June, 2008
  • cover: summer convention exclusive variant
  • commentary: There are a few Red Sonja books where the cover is composed of a gradient from the color version to the sketch version, as is the case for this convention exclusive drawn by Adriano Batista. The full color version of this cover appears in the Batista gallery.

10

  • title: Red Sonja: Age of Chaos (2020)
  • publisher: Dynamite
  • cover artist: Shannon Maer
  • writer: Erik Burnham
  • artist: Jonathan Lau
  • issue: #4 of 6
  • cover: Frankie's Comics retailer exclusive variant
  • release date: June & July, 2020
  • commentary: This exclusive cover variant by Shannon Maer to the fourth issue of Red Sonja: Age of Chaos (2020) is a sketch of an entirely different kind. It appears intended to stand on its own without color. There is no color version of this cover, although there are versions with trade dress and the virgin variant, as shown here.

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