Red Sonja: 1973
Written by Eric Trautmann, Roy Thomas, Luke Lieberman, Gail Simone, David Walker, and Cullen Bunn
Art by Jonathan Lau, Bilquis Evely, Kewbar Baal, Rod Rodolfo, Rich Buckler, and Ivan Rodriguez
Colors by Marcio Menyz, Arison Aguiar, Bilquis Evely, and Ivan Nunes
Letters by A Larger World Studios
Cover art by Ed Benes and Dinei Ribeiro
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 15, 2015
Cover Price: $7.99

Red Sonja: 1973 is a great anthology book featuring a stellar line-up of creators celebrating the 42nd birthday of the character! Sure, the book has some great writers and fantastic artists, but is it any good? Yeah, I think you all ready know the answer, but let me tell you what I thought of it…

Red Sonja #100
Written by Eric Trautmann, Roy Thomas, Michael Avon Oeming, Gail Simone and Luke Lieberman
Art by Dave Acosta, Pablo Marcos, Taki Soma, Noah Salonga and Sergio Fernandez Davila
Colors by Valentina Pinto and Salvatore Aiala Studios
Letters by Joshua Cozine
Cover art by Ed Benes & Alex Guimaraes, Robert Hack, Andrew Pepoy & Paul Mounts, Ken Haeser and Pablo Marcos & Austin Janosky
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 18, 2015
Cover Price: $7.99

Red Sonja #100 is truly the definition of “jam packed”! Dynamite Entertainment has truly gotten the gang back together, and in doing so, we get just about every single kind of Red Sonja story that there is right here in this single comic. In this giant issue, you get sword and sorcery, horror, action, and even a little heartwarming drama. What’s not to love?

Consisting of five different stories, by legendary Red Sonja writers like Eric Trautmann, Roy Thomas, Michael Avon Oeming, Gail Simone, and Luke Lieberman, you get everything you want and more in this comic book. Roy Thomas pens a truly great old fashioned sword and sorcery tale with a hint of mystery. Current Red Sonja scribe Gail Simone writes a very entertaining story about Red Sonja finally meeting her childhood “idol.” Then there’s Luke Lieberman’s (Queen Sonja) story about Sonja, a companion, and a sorcerer that is thrilling, yet very heartwarming. Out of all five stories, there’s not a bad one in the bunch.

Lady Rawhide #1
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Milton Estevam
Colors by Dinei Ribeiro
Letters by Marshall Dillon
Cover by Joseph Michael Linsner
Edited by Joseph Rybandt
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 7, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Lady Rawhide #1 really surprised me. I’m a big fan of Zorro and his universe, but in the past, Lady Rawhide was basically the Catwoman to his Batman. That has really changed in this new incarnation from Dynamite Entertainment.

I’ve been a fan of writer Eric Trautmann for a little while. Actually, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with him. I LOVED his work on the excellent Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist miniseries. He was doing such a great job on that book, I was really hoping that it would turn into an ongoing series. Then, I didn’t really care at all for his Red Sonja issues. So, when I heard he was writing another book with a female lead, I was more than a bit skeptical. Well, I was pleasantly surprised by this issue. It wasn’t just good, it was GREAT!!!

Red Sonja #75
Written by Eric Trautmann
Pencils by Marcio Abreu
Colors by Salvatore Aiala Studios
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Covers by Mel Rubi, Erik Jones and Walter Geovani
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 22, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Red Sonja #75 is the last issue of Dynamite Entertainment’s longest running title. Although the series ends on an OK note story wise, in my opinion, it deserved a much better send off than it got.

Writer Eric Trautmann gives us a pretty satisfying ending to the latest story line within the title, but for a title that’s been coming out for the last 8 years, I wanted something WAY more out of this issue than just a last chapter to a the latest 6 month story line. The issue is about 99% war between Sonja and her army against Omaju and his. With, a surprise enemy thrown in for good measure and “shock” value. Again, what it fails to deliver is an ending to the SERIES or this chapter in her life. It’s simply just a turning point in Sonja’s life. This could’ve been issue #34 or #58 or any other natural story break. Simply put, the issue was good. Just not good enough.

Red Sonja #74
Written by Eric Trautmann
Pencils by Marcio Abreu
Colors by Salvatore Aiala Studios
Letters by Simon Bowland
Cover by Walter Geovani
Edited by Joseph Rybrandt
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: April 17, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Red Sonja #74 is CLASSIC sword & sorcery stuff! It’s a really fantastic book that took me back to reading this title and Conan when I was a kid. Classic stuff, told with modern storytelling.

Eric Trautmann does a great job here with the script and the overall story, which has been building for some time now. This is the penultimate chapter of both the story AND the series, so it’s fitting that he would choose to tell a “gather everyone for the big fight” tale. A bunch of mysteries are explained, things get heavy with the villains chasing Sonja & company, and it’s a perfect cliffhanger ending to lead up to the next issue.