#Hyrkania

[msbraddock]

 by Kirill Repin

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

FROM THE SAVAGE LANDS OF HYRKANIA, SHE RODE FORTH...

PIC INFO: Resolution at 1200x1821 -- Spotlight on Dan Panosian cover art to "Savage Red Sonja" Vol. 1 #1. November, 2023. Dynamite Entertainment.

Source: https://previewsworld.com/Catalog/SEP230198.

[doomaday]

Gonna do Some Barbarian Stuff on the weekend! 💪

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Red Sonja #7 by Torunn Grønbekk and Walter Geovani. Cover by Lucio Parrillo. Variant covers by (2) Björn Barends, (3) Joseph Michael Linsner and (4) Francesco Francavilla. Out in January 2024.

"In this issue: The source of "His Master's Voice" stands revealed, and now Sonja is face-to-face with the greatest threat Hyboria has ever known. Will the She-Devil kneel before [REDACTED]? Don't bet on it!"

[browsethestacks]

Hyrkania Playboy Club Red Sonja

Art by Kerry Callen

[comicsart3]

Red Sonja is an iconic sword and sorcery heroine, dating back to 1973 and her creation by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. She featured regularly in Conan and her own Marvel titles until the 1990s and was rebooted in the 2000s, with a slightly altered origin story, and has appeared in Dynamite Comics ever since. Sonja’s beginnings as a warrior woman were rooted in the violent death of her parents at the hands of bandits in the fictional land of Hyrkania, in the realm of Hyboria, when she was 17, prompting a lifelong search for vengeance against the murderers and any raiders, pirates or tyrants who reminded her of them. Aided by the goddess Skathach, Sonja equips herself with terrifying swordsmanship skills (frequently supplemented by an axe), together with formidable hand-to-hand fighting ability, and is usually attired in a distinctive scale mail armour “bikini” which, along with her distinctive red hair, increases her allure.

Although Sonja is possessed of a general sense of justice and she harbours particular protective affection for animals and children, she is unremittingly brutal in combat, remorselessly despatching enemies both mortal and supernatural, usually through decapitation. The artwork that has illustrated Sonja’s numerous adventures over the decades is graphic in the depiction of the heroine’s violence, and the stories cleave to an eye-for-an-eye barbaric code of justice and few who cross Sonja live to tell the tale. Her mission in life, such as it is, is to kill the murderers of her parents and to overthrow the evil sorcerer Kulan Gath, whom the bandits served.

Unfortunately, for me, Sonja’s violence and fixation on revenge and combat, makes the character less attractive or interesting than other, more subtle, comic book heroines. Despite in more recent years her stories being authored by female writers, including the peerless Gail Simone, Sonja often seems to be just a female Conan, but without the latter’s thoughtfulness and sensitivity. Perhaps this is also due to a Marvel worldview, which is more comfortable with retribution than justice, as well as the barbaric sword and sorcery genre from which Sonja emerged.

In the page featured, the extraordinarily lucky pirate Gob, has actually been taken prisoner by Sonja, despite having tried to kill her. Whether or not Gob retains his head for the whole of this adventure is anyone’s guess…

Sources: Red Sonja Wiki and ReadComicsOnline

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Conan the Barbarian #78 ‘Curse of the Undead-Man’ (1977) by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Pablo Marcos and George Roussos. Edited by Thomas and Archie Goodwin. Cover by Buscema and Roussos.

Cover of the Day: Conan the Barbarian #78 (September, 1977) Art by John Buscema

[msbraddock]

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE SAVAGERY THAT ONLY RED SONJA CAN DELIVER..."

PIC(S) INFO: Resolution at 1200x1821 (2x) -- Spotlight on Arthur Adams Variant cover art to "Savage Red Sonja" Vol. 1 #1. November, 2023. Dynamite Entertainment.

ISSUE OVERVIEW: "Prepare yourself for the savagery that can only Red Sonja can deliver in this brand-new series that harkens back to the classic era of Robert E. Howard's original pulp tales of swords and sorcery! Tasked with retrieving a long-hidden gem from a crumbled, ancient kingdom, the She-Devil With a Sword is traveling alone through a dangerous wasteland when fate intervenes, and her solo adventure is sidetracked by a wayward prince and his bride as they try desperately to escape from fearsome desert bandits -- only to be attacked by a monstrous beast from beneath the sands! Don't miss out on this fast-paced tale of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural - written by comics superstar DAN PANOSIAN and illustrated by ALESSIO PETILLO, with colors by FRANCESCO SEGALA!"

-- DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT®, c. 2023

Sources: https://previewsworld.com/Catalog/SEP230208 (Previews World 2x).

[vincentvega0721]

Marvel Comics' Red Sonja first appeared in Conan the Barbarian #23 in November 1972. Roy Thomas and Barry Smith created the character, who is a skilled swordswoman and martial arts expert with supernatural fighting experience. Red Sonja is also known by the aliases She-Devil of Hyrkania, Scarlet She-Devil, and others.

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Red Sonja #1 ‘While Lovers Embrace - Demons Feed’ (1983) by Tom DeFalco, Dave Simons, Vince Colletta and Christie Scheele. Edited by Larry Hama. Cover by Hama, Mary Wilshire and Walt Simonson.

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Red Sonja #5 by Torunn Grønbekk and Walter Geovani. Cover by Lucio Parrillo. Variant covers by (2) Joseph Michael Linsner and (3) Bryan Hitch. Out in November.

"This issue: The voice behind the curtain stands revealed as Sonja continues to battle against the massive forces against her! You won't want to miss this issue and the revelation that was foreshadowed back in issue #0!"

[racefortheironthrone]

So would Conan be more of a Bronze Age setting than Medieval? I know Howard & other pastiche writers like to mix & match cultures & eras, so it's not really period accurate, but the kings Conan runs into have palaces and armies and even he seems to have more of a government as king of Aquilonia. Does it matter that Aquilonia is clearly France, Vanaheim & Asgard are Scandinavia, and Zamora is Spain etc?

It’s complicated, not just because Robert E. Howard liked to mix and match, but also because he had some very odd ideas about the cyclicality of history. If we’re going to get technical about it, Conan the Barbarian is a pre-Bronze Age setting; as the quote goes:

“Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

This is Howard’s whole idea for the Hyborian Age: Atlantis was a real, advanced (albeit decadent) civilization, it was actually destroyed, and then mankind fell into barbarism. Gradually, new civilizations emerged and flourished and what Howard writes about as the Hyborian Age comes to pass, although it too is doomed to be destroyed in the literal biblical Flood, and then eventually what we call the Bronze Age would eventually emerge.

This is why Howard always traced his maps onto maps of the Mediterranean- in his mind, all of his stories were real history accessed through past life regression (at various times, Howard thought he was the reincarnation of Conan, and also of Celtic warriors, which he remembered in dreams) a sort of eternal palimpsest, with similar nations known by different names, various racial types existing by different names in various ages, and technologies like iron and steel rediscovered again and again.

I’m telling you, fantasy as a genre was really weird until they realized they could just make all of it up without having to tie it back to the real world.

[enragedandy]

I am Red Sonja, the Devil of Hyrkania, and I have never known defeat

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Marvel Feature #3 ‘Balek Lives!’ (1975) by Bruce Jones, Frank Thorne and Petra Scotese. Edited by Roy Thomas. Cover by Thorne.

Marvel Feature #3 Red Sonja (1976), cover by Frank Thorne

[dispatchdcu]

Red Sonja: Empire Of The Damned #1 Review

Red Sonja: Empire Of The Damned #1 Review #redsonjaempireofthedamned #empireofthedamned

Writer: Steve Niles Artist: Alessandro Amoruso Colorist: Salvatore Aiala Letterer: Dave Sharpe Cover Artists: Joshua Middleton, Joseph Michael Linsner, John Tyler Christopher, Philip Tan & Cosplay Publisher: Dynamite Price: $4.99 Release Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2024 Skeletons litter a valley in Hyrkania. A legend tells of a battle fought long ago. Might tales of sorcerers and treasure draw Red…