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Red Sonja (1977) #1-15
The Adventures of Red Sonja Omnibus
This contains the Red Sonja tales from Marvel Feature #1-7, the tales from Red Sonja issues #1-15 and a collection of issues from the original Marvel Comics series "The Savage Sword of Conan in one large volume.
Presented with fully re-mastered color pages and featuring a cover by Frank Thorne.
Presented with fully re-mastered color pages and featuring a cover by Frank Thorne.
648 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 13, 2023
40 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Roy Thomas
4,479 books271 followersRoy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.
Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.
Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 16, 2024
(Zero spoiler review) 3.5/5
I must admit to feeling just a little underwhelmed with this one, despite a considerable number of the quibbles I have with this book not actually being the fault of the material collected. First off, whoever Dynamite let do the colour restoration should never be allowed to perform another restoration on silver age artwork again. I give modern Marvel a lot of shit, and deservedly so, but their restoration work is second to none.
I wasn't a fan of Frank Thorne's artwork for the most part, despite the man being a machine and doing everything himself, save write the story, yet the putridly hyper colours did it absolutely no favours. Had they printed the artwork as was, it would have made for a more enjoyable experience.
That said, Red Sonja just isn't that interesting a character. Sure, a red-headed, buxom brutaliser of men and monsters is never going to be a bad thing, yet for all her charm, she can't help but come across as dollar store Conan, never having the appeal or the gravitas of the Cimmerian. Roy Thomas did some good, if not great work here, though again, Dynamite's decision to print this in standard size (and with the reduction in trim size throughout making it the size of your average tonkabon, the reading experience suffered for it. A smaller publisher aside, for the price, it really should have been oversized.
Things really got cooking with the handful of John and Sal Buscema issues we got. Everything else was little better than average. At least when compared to the first half of the God tier Conan run anyway. Good, but not great. 3.5/5
OmniBen.
I must admit to feeling just a little underwhelmed with this one, despite a considerable number of the quibbles I have with this book not actually being the fault of the material collected. First off, whoever Dynamite let do the colour restoration should never be allowed to perform another restoration on silver age artwork again. I give modern Marvel a lot of shit, and deservedly so, but their restoration work is second to none.
I wasn't a fan of Frank Thorne's artwork for the most part, despite the man being a machine and doing everything himself, save write the story, yet the putridly hyper colours did it absolutely no favours. Had they printed the artwork as was, it would have made for a more enjoyable experience.
That said, Red Sonja just isn't that interesting a character. Sure, a red-headed, buxom brutaliser of men and monsters is never going to be a bad thing, yet for all her charm, she can't help but come across as dollar store Conan, never having the appeal or the gravitas of the Cimmerian. Roy Thomas did some good, if not great work here, though again, Dynamite's decision to print this in standard size (and with the reduction in trim size throughout making it the size of your average tonkabon, the reading experience suffered for it. A smaller publisher aside, for the price, it really should have been oversized.
Things really got cooking with the handful of John and Sal Buscema issues we got. Everything else was little better than average. At least when compared to the first half of the God tier Conan run anyway. Good, but not great. 3.5/5
OmniBen.
January 12, 2025
Legendary stories, awful recoloring !
Dynamite really tried to ruin Frank Thorne's great art.
Do yourself a favor and get the original Marvel issues!
Quick comparison in this video :
https://youtu.be/nRBv5d8ZhEE
January 3, 2025
The initial few tales are some really cool adventure stories written tightly by Bruce Jones which are followed by larger than life adventures from Roy Thomas, Clara Nato and others. We come across new mythical creatures, dangerous men, crazed guardians, Animal monsters, willy witches, strange and powerful Gods and many fascinating people to keep us turning the pages with expectations and joy at discovering this magical world of sword and sorcery.
The art is fabulous and builds a fantastic World doing justice to the imagination of the writers. Red Sonja is drawn distinctly by Frank Thorne and later on by the other equally talented illustrators.
Absolutely a fantastic ride for sword and sorcery fans.
The art is fabulous and builds a fantastic World doing justice to the imagination of the writers. Red Sonja is drawn distinctly by Frank Thorne and later on by the other equally talented illustrators.
Absolutely a fantastic ride for sword and sorcery fans.
October 8, 2025
This felt quite short of my expectations, but overall is a great collection for the price. I don’t think I’ll ever give it another read, but I am glad I did read it.
December 10, 2023
An amazing collection of the original Red Sonja tales. Frank Thorne’s art is gorgeous, and Roy Thomas truly understood the Hyborian Age. Also a pleasant surprise to see the art from the original black and white brought into color.
August 23, 2025
Most of this was pretty meh to okay, with so,e occasional gems. The last story “The Ring of Ikribu” was by far the best and the art was actually really good compared to the rest. The recolors definitely didn’t help in most of this though and the formatting or layout or whatever is pretty bad. Anyway, I’d still recommend this especially for the first and last story written in this.
April 9, 2024
The Adventures of Red Sonja Omnibus is an anthology collection of Marvel Comics and magazines in the graphic novel / trade paperback format, curating the character Red Sonja's stories in a hardcover variation. Long-time Marvel writer and editor, Roy Thomas, either wrote all these stories or edited the books containing these stories. Most of the stories are derivative of Robert E. Howard's stories since he was the creator of Red Sonja.
The stories curated here are from Marvel Feature #1 - 7, Red Sonja #1 - 15, and disparate issues of The Savage Sword of Conan black and white magazine. The numerous artists included are synonymous with the Marvel Conan brand like: John Buscema, Frank Thorne, and Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, Alfredo Alcala, Steve Buccellato, Steve Carr, Ernie Chan, Howard Chaykin, Dick Giordano, Joe Rubinstein, Al Milgrom, and a host of others.
The stories demonstrate Red Sonja as a mercenary, pirate, and thief with a personal code. The reader is given the origins of the code, and her personal history which involves a bit of mysticism. Her family was slaughtered before her eyes, because her mercenary father was discovered by the band of miscreants he ran with prior to his domestication. They invited him to return to the life he rejected, and when he refuses, they kill his children except his young daughter who is violated by the leader.
Of course, there is much more here with droves of action, sword and sorcery, swashbuckling, fantasy, and horror capitalizing on hybrid races such as lizard-men, tiger-men, werewolves, vampires, and all sorts of monster variations that are staples of the genre. IMHO, this is a really good collection that gives an encapsulating range of Red Sonja and that provocative armored outfit.
The stories curated here are from Marvel Feature #1 - 7, Red Sonja #1 - 15, and disparate issues of The Savage Sword of Conan black and white magazine. The numerous artists included are synonymous with the Marvel Conan brand like: John Buscema, Frank Thorne, and Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, Alfredo Alcala, Steve Buccellato, Steve Carr, Ernie Chan, Howard Chaykin, Dick Giordano, Joe Rubinstein, Al Milgrom, and a host of others.
The stories demonstrate Red Sonja as a mercenary, pirate, and thief with a personal code. The reader is given the origins of the code, and her personal history which involves a bit of mysticism. Her family was slaughtered before her eyes, because her mercenary father was discovered by the band of miscreants he ran with prior to his domestication. They invited him to return to the life he rejected, and when he refuses, they kill his children except his young daughter who is violated by the leader.
Of course, there is much more here with droves of action, sword and sorcery, swashbuckling, fantasy, and horror capitalizing on hybrid races such as lizard-men, tiger-men, werewolves, vampires, and all sorts of monster variations that are staples of the genre. IMHO, this is a really good collection that gives an encapsulating range of Red Sonja and that provocative armored outfit.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews