Red Sonja: Halloween Special

Red Sonja: One-shots

by Erik Burnham, Tom DeFalco, Tom Garcia (Artist)

During the Festival of the Dead, an old woman hires Sonja to find and save her son from a terrible evil. What Sonja is not told is that this terrible evil is the curse of lycanthropy... can Sonja defeat a werewolf during one of the longest and most magic-filled nights of the year, or will skill and luck finally fail her? Find out in RED SONJA: CURSE OF THE WOLF!

Genres: Comics

29 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2018

About the author

Erik Burnham is a Minnesotan writer and artist that first broke into comics with a series of humorous short stories in the Shooting Star Comics Anthology. These stories featured his original creation, Nick Landime, and culminated in a one-shot: Nick Landime vs. the World Crime League, published by Shooting Star in 2005.

Off and on, in this same time period, Erik also produced a short run of an online strip, The Down Side, until technical issues wore him down. He aims to return to the strip one day.

In 2007, Erik found produced work for two other anthologies – a short humor piece for History Graphics Press’ Civil War Adventures #1, and a horror story for Gene Simmons’ House of Horror #3, produced by IDW Publishing.

This lead to several other projects for IDW, up to and including his critically acclaimed run on the ongoing GHOSTBUSTERS comic book.

Erik has worked on other projects not related to comic books, and hopes one day to share those with the public at large. In the meantime, he still lives quietly in Minnesota; any rumors about this being because he’s completely afraid of the forty-nine other states (and Canada) remain unverified at this time.

Reviews

[Tim Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun one shot issue with two separate Halloween oriented stories, with one considerably longer than the other. The first story is “Curse of the Wolf,” written by Erik Burnham and art by Tom Garcia. The first of the two tales, the longer of the two, the one more directly related to Halloween, and my favorite of the two. The story finds Red Sonja in a village for the Festival of Valahiei, a multi-day festival when the spirits of the dead are most easily able to revisit the living. Red Sonja is content to chill in the village arm-wrestling and drinking with her new buddy, the male warrior named Konnar, but an elderly woman approaches Sonja for help saving her son from a monster. If his son is not saved before sunrise (this being the last night of Valahiei), he will be consumed. Going against Konnar’s advice, she rides off to save the old woman’s son, but all is not as it appears.

I really liked the art, some dynamic poses for Sonja, loved her facial expressions, there were a few panels with shades (ghosts) that were very nicely drawn, and the main monster(s) were also very nicely depicted. Good twist ending too that actually tied into a little bit to the larger Sonja mythos. It is a bit on the gory side and Sonja is very pinupesque in a few panels, but overall I liked it and thought it had a good Halloween feel.

The second story, “Hail Halcoose!” written by Tom Defalco, Anthony Marques, and Liam Marques and art by Anthony Marques and Avery Marques (is this is a family project?), for all the people working on it, is a much briefer tale. Art is much less realistic when compared to the first tale, more cartoonish. It has a twist too, though it is slight. Basically, Sonja has to save a little girl from cultists trying to sacrifice her to a Lovecraftian monster. It was ok. Were it not for the slight twist at the end I would think it more forgettable. Even then, it is not one of the greatest of tales but it isn’t bad. Less Halloween feel, or at least, the supernatural aspect felt pretty standard for many Red Sonja tales. Not as gory nor as pinupesque. I think it could have benefitted from a few more pages to flesh it out, but it wasn’t confusing.

[John Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the cover of this comic, Red Sonja never fights a Jack-o-Lantern kaiju, which is slightly disappointing, but this was still some horror fun regardless. The first story, entitled "Curse of the Wolf", tells the story of Red Sonja being hired by some old woman to save her son, or "his soul is forfeit". Her going into the forest, she encounters a ghost of what she fears most, Kulan Gath returning. But, after that distraction, she finally encounters the old lady's son, wo turns out to be a werewolf, who she wanted killed before the lycanthropy consumed his soul completely. The artwork, by Tom Garcia, is nicely moody in a few areas, has the proportions on Red Sonja all over the place. By the end of the story, her breasts are about twice the size of her head, which got kind of ridiculous. Still, it was a nice spooky story overall, regardless of the so-so artwork. The second story, which is shorter, entitled "Hail Halcoose!", is a story of Red Sonja stopping a cult from summoning some Lovecraftian monstrosity, all while drunk off her ass since it takes place in a tavern. While slightly amusing, the shortness of the story (coming in at 6 pages), left a little to be desired. I do like the artwork, by Anthony and Avery Marques, which seems to be inspired by Timmverse designs in the DCAU. It does a good job of capturing a classic feel, while also remaining very fluid with its action scenes. I really wish there was more stories in this special, but what we got was fun regardless.

★★★½

[Robert Hultman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main story was very cool and drawn and paced well. The cartoony little story at the end was cute, but a little bit lame too. Many of these holiday specials are dumb or corny in a bad way, but this was a good comic.

[Nick Baldwin]

This book contained two stories, which were wildly different in every way, apart from both featuring Sonja facing supernatural opposition and drinking in taverns.

The second story had a very cartoonish Bruce Timm-esque style and pitted the She-Devil against Lovecraftian monstrosities but it really left me cold. It was only a few pages long but neither the art nor writing grabbed me, and it just seemed like a bid to get Tom DeFalco involved.

I'm all for Dynamite trying new approaches to Sonja art. 'Lil' Sonja' got great reviews, and the manga style of 'Red Sonja Goes East' was fantastic. This just didn't work for me though.

I'd have rather seen extra space allocated to the first tale, which was much more of a traditional Sonja story. Sonja goes to a town on the Hyborian equivalent of Halloween and opts to spend the night in the local tavern, boozing and destroying all the local men at armwrestling. An old woman seeks her help rescuing her son from a monster and Sonja can't refuse, leading onto a confrontation in the forest with a werewolf witnessed by the spirit of Kulan Gath.

The story itself isn't any great shakes ... it's fine but one of the two big twists at the end is predictable, and the tale ends with a slight whimper. It's not bad at all, just pretty standard Sonja fare.

Two things elevate the story way above the norm though - Erik Burnham's characterisation of the She-Devil herself and Tom Garcia's art.

Burnham has been working with Amy Chu on the main title for some time now and he added a nice edge to Sonja ... his She-Devil is undeniably heroic but she's human as well. She's not perpetually in a bad mood, like Gail Simone's is, but she's fractuous, prideful and enjoys showing up others.

Red Sonja often gets criticised for her skimpy outfit and Garcia gives her a skimpier outfit than almost any artist I've seen - Sonja's practically spilling out of her top in many panels. However, Garcia counterbalances that by giving Sonja one of the most powerful physiques any artist has given her ... she's basically drawn as a female bodybuilder and that look suits her really well here. She really looks like somebody who is her world's mightiest warrior and who would be the first port of call for help in a tavern. Nonetheless, Sonja is still dwarfed by her male companion Konnar, even if she is able to easily beat him in an armwrestle. Garcia also does a good job with the Hyrkanian's facial expressions and draws a pretty Sonja. She may look like she could punch out a grizzly bear but she's still attractive.

Garcia's artwork elsewhere is really good too. His werewolf design is nice and he makes Gath look suitably demonic and creepy, and his village bustles with life. His fight scene between Sonja and the werewolf pulses with energy.

Burnham and Garcia work together beautifully on Sonja to get across her persona via both words and body language. She's absolutely hilarious at certain points, like when the old crone is seeking her help and Sonja looks bored beyond belief and incredibly irritated that her frolics are being interrupted. After she defeats Konnar, the smug smirk on her face as she points at him and informs him he'll be buying the next round is downright superb. Her response to Gath's needling is brilliant as well, once her initial fury passes ... virtually rolling her eyes and muttering under her breath.

It's a shame the whole book couldn't have been dedicated to that one story ... an extra fight scene could have been thrown in or some more time devoted to Sonja in the tavern, knocking back ales and humiliating the local beefcakes at their own game.

Hopefully we'll see more from Garcia's Sonja in the future.

[Yongyoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The holiday specials are markedly better than the regular series. Maybe it's the short-form format that lends itself to quality or maybe it's the lack of pressure.

[Scott Waldie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some decent self-contained tales, only the second is far too short.