David C. Smith & Robert E. Howard, Part Two: Red Sonja
In addition to his Black Vulmea and Bran Mak Morn stories, David C. Smith collaborated with Richard L. Tierney (1936 –2022) on six novels in a series about Red Sonja. Though often described as Robert E. Howard pastiches, that label is not completely accurate. Red Sonja (spelled with a J), is not a Howard character, although she is based on a couple of female swordslingers Howard did create, particularly — it seems to me — on Valeria, from the Conan story “Red Nails.” (A very similar character named Valeria appeared in the first Conan movie — Conan the Barbarian.)
Howard did create a character named Red Sonya (spelled with a “y”), who appeared as a secondary character in one historical tale — “The Shadow of the Vulture,” from the collection Sowers of the Thunder. She had red hair instead of blonde like Valeria, but otherwise is less reminiscent of Red Sonja than is Valeria.
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Left: Marvel Feature, issue #1, featuring Red Sonja by Roy Thomas, Dick Giordano, and
John Romita. Right: Red Sonja #1, by Roy Thomas, Clara Noto, Ed Summer, and Frank
Thorne (Marvel Comics, November 1, 1975 and October 12, 1976). Covers: Frank Thorne
The character of Red Sonja (with the J) was actually created for Marvel Comics in 1973 by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. She was developed as a potential companion for Conan in the comics and inhabits the same Hyborian Age. This character was featured in the 1985 film starring Brigitte Nielsen.
Smith & Tierney wrote 6 books in the Red Sonja Sword & Sorcery series for Ace books. All had covers by Boris Vallejo.
1. The Ring of Ikribu, 1981
2. Demon Night, 1982
3. When Hell Laughs, 1982
4. Endithor’s Daughter, 1982
5. Against the Prince of Hell, 1983
6. Star of Doom, 1983
The series is particularly notable for its consistency. The books move. They are well plotted, full of action — with a surprising amount of philosophy — and they deliver a healthy dose of exciting S&S fun. I read the first two books quickly and then doled the others out because I knew each would deliver a good shot of S&S. I’ve not read the Red Sonja comic books but I recommend the paperbacks to anyone. In fact, the books generally got stronger across the series, which is very rare among series books in my experience. Books 5 & 6 were particular favorites.
A couple of general notes about the series. One, Red Sonja wears: “a brief vest and a skirt of silvery scale-mail that covered her breasts and hung from her waist.” Smith & Tierney recognized this as impractical attire but it had already been established for the comic book character. In When Hell Laughs they give an interesting explanation for why Sonja continues to wear this outfit. She was once taken prisoner and forced to wear the brief armor as an insult. She killed her captive but continued to wear the armor “just for the pleasure of disemboweling any man who chose to make an issue of it.”
Second, we learn that Sonja was a farmer’s daughter. (He’d once been a soldier and taught her brothers swordplay, which she observed and practiced on her own.) Mercenaries slaughtered her family and raped her. She fled into the forest afterward and was visited by a “goddess.” The goddess’s spectral sword imbued Sonja’s sword arm with strength and speed. I’ve never been a fan of god given powers or weapons but, again, this was part of the comic book backstory for the character, as we see in the 1985 movie.
Overall, Smith and Tierney did REH’s legacy proud with this series. Lots of action and exotic situations described in strong, aggressive prose. Enough consistency with the tropes of S&S to keep the genre fans connected but some surprises too. I wouldn’t have read the whole series if I hadn’t liked them.
Coming in Part Three: Oron and the Tales of Attluma.
Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was Part One of David C. Smith & Robert E. Howard. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.
Huh. That’s as good a reason as any, for Red Sonja to continue with an outfit that provides nearly no defense. Badge of Shame->Badge of Honor conversion also plays into one of the two best known reactions to being raped. Top marks for turning one of the more fantastical everyday elements of her situation into something slightly realistic.
Have there been any pastiches that focus on Valeria? It would be good to be able to read those in parallel with the Red Sonja book, if so.
Appreciated the inclusion of the Vallejo, comic book, and movie poster depictions of Red Sonja in imagery, in this article. Vallejo always favored mesomorphic legs and body, with ectomorphic arms. The comics typically go for endomorphic legs, mesomorphic body, and ectomorphic arms. Only the poster keeps her mesomorphic from top to toe, and that’s the one that makes most sense. She’s a sword-swinger: any woman who regularly uses swords, daggers, and/or spears is going to be pretty consistently developed. It’s not like that’s an epee that needs twitch reflexes in the arms, propulsive reflexes in the legs, and just a lot of core control. Swimming, tennis, and gymnastics build, not sprinting, golf, and field hockey build.
Interesting. I never really thought about the ecto meso endo aspects of the cover art for female warriors. I’ve noticed the thin arms before. Now I’ll be thinking in those terms. Another level of analysis of art.
Speaking of analysis of art… I just figured out that there was a “Red Sonja” movie released last year(?) when I wasn’t paying attention. Guess that’s what I’ll be watching, tonight, to see how well or poorly they did, depicting her. Not sure how an alternate, family-friendly, no-deity backstory fits an R-rated movie, so this is going to be interesting.
Since you didn’t mention it here, I’m assuming it was rejected from canon.
That was weird. Arguably the most Celt-adjacent any of the movies have gotten, and they chose to spurn Scathach and honor Asherah? Too much of the footage may have been left on the cutting room floor, from between the story beats. Still needed an encounter with a deity for Sonja to become Red Sonja, sort of. Probably will not watch again.
I saw the original Sonja movie and was pretty “meh” about it. I mostly pay little attention to movies anyway. I heard there was a new one but haven’t seen it and will probably only do so if one day I get on my streaming services and there it is. I think I saw the first one just because it was on one night.
The 2025 one is not one to seek out, so… good plan. Leaned ultra-heavily into the “women=harmony/men=disaster” thing for the first 45 minutes, and definitely tried to set Sonja up as a pure soul of some sort (prior to her becoming a barbarian). The visuals were fairly fun, though.
She never quite turns into the Red Sonja of the comics or the other movie, but they get her sort of close, a couple of times.
I really wish these would get reprinted. Even as a Kindle book would be better than nothing.
There’s a collected omnibus coming out in January.
That wasn’t being talked about yet when I first wrote this piece. I’ve heard of it since
I imagine the omnibus will be in e-form at some point.
For what it’s worth, the collection coming in January https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-collected-chronicles-of-red-sonja-david-c-smith/c22adaacc5255165?ean=9780316605229
thanks. I’m curious as to that cover
FWIW, to Greg’s point, there appears to be an omnibus edition of all six books coming in January, currently priced at $35, which is noteworthy because the used prices for the original Ace editions are running $20+ each.
Yes, I’ve heard about that omnibus. When I wrote this particular post there had been no mention of it as yet.
Correct, coming in January. I was given the chance to review the text of all six books and answer some editorial queries. This also gave me the chance to correct that “Get fucked!” near the end of the first book; it had been inserted by some irate copy editor just before he was fired, is my understanding. So now it is phrased as Dick and I discussed years ago, with the line he preferred: “Go to the hells!” Finally got that line corrected! Also some other minor things, eg, the use of the word “idiot” in the sixth book for the young solider wounded with a head injury who nevertheless comes “awake” preternaturally at an important moment. “Idiot” was questionable in the early 80s, let alone now. I left it in the dialogue of one character who would naturally use the word, a rough soldier. Otherwise, I enjoyed looking back at the books. Also was given the chance to write a foreword in which I go into how the Sonjas (as well as the other s&s books Dick and I wrote back then, although they are largely overlooked by young commentators on YouTube today, amazingly) come from a very different time in our popular culture, ie, not mainstream fantasy at all, such as we see today: pre-D&D; before a general sense of conformity or rules to designing s&s stories; the days of Harryhausen, The Twilight Zone, old pulp magazines still to be found at garage sales, ERB paperbacks at the drugstore–you get the idea. As different a climate as could be. Fantasy writers were at about the bottom back then! A very small tribe off on our own. Example: people are just now discovering Charles Saunders! But he and I were always aware that we were on the perimeter of attention and publication. It’s just how it was. Anyhow, I did not know that the original Ace Sonjas were going for such a high price. I hope no one is paying extraordinary amounts for the books, although I think they’re good work, and I always intended that readers would get their money’s worth from anything I wrote. And I do hope that the omnibus helps put into perspective the very early days (as they seem to be now) of the sword-and-sorcery or heroic fantasy fiction resurgence 50 or so years ago, long before these stories became part of the mainstream. Which I still find remarkable. I’m so used to thinking of this fiction being in the shadows and not widely read at all! 🙂 Come on…we were published by Zebra Books! It was like the last gasp of the pulps!
Thanks for the added info on the topic. When I was reading SF and Fantasy in the early 1970s, both genres were ghettoized where I was from in Arkansas. I was asked plenty of times why I would read “that stuff.” I don’t imagine our library would have even carried any of the Sonja’s because the covers would have been far too risqué.
I know the feeling! I was regarded as being a weirdo in high school for reading this stuff. No one else, not even one other person.
Comics artist Frank Thorne used to take a Red Sonja show on the road to conventions in the 70s and early 80s with three red-haired young ladies portraying Sonja, one of whom was Wendy Pini in the days before she and her husband Richard created the very successful independent comic Elfquest. Thorne’s show was of the nudge-nudge wink-wink variety and, from contemporary reports, very funny.
I heard about that show. Wish I’d seen it.
I’ve seen a picture of Wendy dresses as Sonja.
I read these back in the day – really appreciated the Boris covers! I recall that they were good, but not great. Still, would be nice to re-read them. Interested in purchasing the omnibus, as the paperbacks are now quite aged. The movie was pretty bad. The actor portraying Red Sonja’s sister looked more like Red Sonja than Nielsen, who’s acting wasn’t great. I didn’t get a chance to see the recent film.
I saw the original Red Sonja movie and found it pretty meh. I don’t even see it out on streaming these days.
Thanks for the article Charles. I appreciate that you included why Red Sonja insisted on wearing the chainmail bikini. It’s hard to get past with the Vallejo covers – especially those that seem to show her in snow. Has anyone ever looked into where the idea originated?
I’m guessing the chain mail bikini came from the visual aspects of the comic medium where she first appeared but I don’t know who actually proposed it. I also guess that it might have been easier for the artists to draw rather than more complicated and reasonable armor.
Esteban Maroto is generally credited as the creator of the chainmail bikini. I think he did as a gag but Roy Thomas was so taken with it that he made it Sonja’s default look from then on.
Thanks
I was never really into Red Sonja, though read through the first novel a bit. I saw her more as a “Token” character, rammed into the comics to try to expand appeal and it forced high fantasy into a very solid low fantasy setting. Her “Vow” and the stuff in the background was clearly comic book fodder for while the Bronze age had lower standards for the comics code they kept a tight eye on the fantasy/sword and sorcery comics. The CCA seemed also to skip the horror and romance comics also and it had some nice dream like art in it. (Sutton got his start here) But in essence if someone like Conan met someone like Red Sonja without the latter having a magical chastity belt “Oath” they’d F- and F- like RABBITS and why not?
So in a way it mirrored the times. Imagine lawyers and stockbrokers and insurance salesmen – and a woman walks in. She goes ” I am FULLY qualified and I hope you’ll accept me as a fellow professional…?” Unlike the agitprop you saw on TV, IRL it was … imagine a man with comic hearts for his eyes and his heart beating out of his chest…! Instead of a lady who just married him for what he could bring home mostly but then he’s got nothing in common with her… And changing times, not all these young professionals were married…! Sure some knuckle draggers but most were forward thinking and imagine a lawyer who had a lady lawyer as a friend so they could discuss legal stuff over dinner? So IRL they F- and F- and F- like rabbits, then the breakups, cheatings and other wonders of romance came in…. The LEGAL offices noticed it first. Thus all these firms got around to making strict NO DATING EACH OTHER rules to avoid breakups that cost them time and $ and led to legal actions as if the VP has any…whoops he WAS seeing that young lawyer…!? Etc. Funny ‘coz reading “Bronze Age” comics as old/older than me as a kid, 10/25 cents or less I saw these things and they reminded me of stuff the adults had been complaining about!
Therefore I saw the “Chick in the chainmail bikini” to be some kind of pandering insert that hurt the possible acceptance of Sword and Sorcery and was fodder for people who didn’t like it. That was back then. Today I want gratuitous wenches in very unlikely attire on the cover of anti-progressive stuff to say “We reject the Panderverse!” Also it’d be cool instead of another probable re-re-make of Red Sonja or any other REH property there’s legit a Ghita movie at last. I made a good pic with Grok AI. Also one for the scifi thing Zora. It’s pretty amazing what Ai filmmaking can do. That’d be a cool article here – Ai in the hands of people NOT in the “Trad Publishing” modern audience grip… Bambi the Barbarian, Sword-Bow, lots of films are being made with Ai – I’m doing a 70s superspy one. Some won’t like it but really – what ARE the Hollow-Woke Montony companies doing other than chewing up and regurgitating the past despite it flopping again and again with nothing new?
Living in the “modern” University offices for most of my life, I saw that most professionals did their jobs and didn’t monkey around, but there were always a few getting into places they shouldn’t. I never saw any of the original Red Sonja comics, or any S&S comics when I was growing up, and not much of the other kind. I’m sure the creation of Sonja was a sales tactic and as far as I know it worked. I completely ignored the character once I did discover her because she wasn’t Howard. That is until I read David C. Smith’s Back Vulmea story and liked it. Then I sought out the Sonja paperbacks. Later I read a few of the Sonja comics so I was led to the comics by the books, which is the same reason I first read a Conan comic.
You’re talking about the time that my folks were young adults in the workforce, Greenie. One was an electrical engineer, the other a corporate research librarian and nutrition scientist at the time, both fully professional positions in fields that were integrating the male and female workforces. They are perfectly frank about their lives when I ask them direct questions, and I just quizzed them about your perspective on the late-’60s through early-’80s. Their experience was patently not what you describe.
I don’t see how characters like Red Sonja are in any way “token.” (Pandering? Yeah, in the same way Diana and her nymphs were pandering to the Romans and Renaissance artists.) Some of the female mutants in X-Men are pretty token, maybe, just like a lot of the differently-abled characters that proliferated in all media in the ’80s-’90s ended up token. Not original Red Sonja. But if that’s the way you see her, go ahead. That’s your prerogative.
Gratuitous wenches, though? C’mon, Greenie. You know as well as I do, that doing something exactly because the people you don’t like tell you not to, is letting them control you just as surely as submitting to them.