Red Sonja and the Unicorn

On the first page, before the story in Marvel Comics’ Red Sonja Volume 1 Issue #1 gets underway, we are given this introduction, courtesy of The Nemedia Chronicles.  

“Know also, O prince, that in those selfsame days that Conan the Cimmerian did stalk the Hyborian Kingdoms, one of the few swords worthy to cross with his was that of Red Sonja, warrior woman out of majestic Hyrkania.  Forced to flee her homeland because she spurned the advances of a king and slew him instead, she rode west across the Turanian Steppes and into the shadowed mists of legendry.” 

Immediately, we realize that she is alone, that she is displaced, and that she has suffered the loss of everyone she was ever close to.  She may be damaged, but she has struggled on.  Nevertheless, her suffering is hardly at an end.  For, as she rides through the thick forests of Argos, her horse trips and shatters his foreleg.  To end his suffering, she must kill him, and continue alone.

Yet her walk has barely begun when she spies men pursuing a white steed with great shouts and their weapons drawn.  In addition to the colt’s striking features, a long, spiral horn juts out from its forehead.  She rushes to the unicorn’s aid, and Andar of Bezfarda, the leader of the hunting party, orders his men to kill her.  Red Sonja gives a good account of herself, and the bodies of the slain begin to litter the forest.  Amid the fighting, the unicorn rears up, and loses its horn to an overhanging branch.   Then Sonja leaps onto its back, and the two escape. 

As woman and unicorn explore the forest, they find solace in each other’s company.  Yet this is a brief respite, for Andar of Bezfarda has ordered his villagers to hunt them down and kill them.  He may have grasped his prize—the horn of the unicorn, the last ingredient from which he can concoct his elixir of immortality—but he doesn’t want to share the gift of everlasting life with anyone else.  So, when the scouts sight his quarry, he immediately abandons his laboratory.  Meanwhile, as Red Sonja and the unicorn journey together as equals, as companions, Red Sonja notices “a strong new growth of horn…even more beautiful” than the unicorn’s previous one.

Issued in January 1977, this comic book is thirty-six years old.  Its pages are faded, and its advertisements offer products and services from many companies that no longer exist.  Yet the story—of two souls united by their pain, forced to flee their homes by oppressors—is as fresh and vital as ever.  It was written by renowned Conan author Roy Thomas and then-rising film editor/screenwriter Clara Noto, and based on a plot suggested by Ed Summer, who at this time was working on the “Conan The Barbarian” movie that would eventually reach cinemas in 1982.  Sometimes too many cooks spoil the soup, but in this case, these three talents combined to tell a compelling story. 

Comic book artwork is usually split up into specific roles, with different people doing the Penciling, the Inking, the Coloring, and the Lettering, and there are artists who spend their entire careers specializing in one of those areas.  But Frank Thorne performed all those roles for the first installment in the series, and his efforts are particularly striking.  The characters emerge fully realized, and the panels unfold like a movie.  I have to wonder if Frank Thorne created twice as many pages of artwork as the publisher could afford to print, for he often packs smaller panels within larger ones, and even the smaller panels are beautifully colored and detailed.  Sometimes comic art lets a story down, or elevates a less-than-strong one.  Marvel’s Red Sonja Volume 1 Issue #1 offers both strong writing and artwork: each enhances the other, combining to tell a touching and memorable tale.

If you like Robert E. Howard’s tales of Sword and Sorcery, and you enjoy reading good comic books, I suggest you seek it out.  Just don’t ask if you can buy my copy, because I’m definitely holding onto mine. 

Sorry, but some things aren’t for sale.

Dragon Dave