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Erik Burnham's Writer's Commentary on Red Sonja: Age of Chaos #1

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2020 12:30:55 -0600

Erik Burnham has a Writer's Commentary on Red Sonja: Age of Chaos #1, out now from Dynamite. He writes,

It's the year 2020 and you know what that means… the world has yet to collapse on itself! And also it heralds the arrival of the first issue of this miniseries — Red Sonja: Age of Chaos!

This project came together in an interesting way; I got an email from editor Matt Idelson asking if I wanted to write a comic (I always do), and then he hit me with the ideas and the mission statement. We worked the story back and forth until it was what they were looking for, and the result is the Chaos characters visiting the Hyborian Age!

The art is courtesy of the incredible Jonathan Lau (whose takes on these characters wowed me from go). He's born for fantasy stories, I tell ya.

The colors of Celeste Woods completes the art; some really nice palette choices in the series so far (including things you ain't seen yet!).

Letterer Carlos S. Mangual rounds out the team, keeping clear a whole lot of threads.

Let's talk cover credit real quick before we jump in… Cover A is by Lucio Parillo; Cover B by Alan Quah and Komikaki Studio; Cover C is by Cian Tormey and Rico Renzi; Ale Garza, Mostaffa Moussa & Nei Ruffino provided Cover D, and there's some cosplay action on Cover E!

Onward to the story.

PAGE 01

We start with a familiar scene… Red Sonja vs. Kulan Gath. It's a thing we've seen a lot of in the Sonja books, and in a story with several (un)dead characters, Gath was a natural part to include.

PAGE 02

That said, it probably wasn't expected that we'd behead him on page two.

Um… spoilers?

PAGE 03

Going back decades in comics, Kulan Gath's resurrection was tied to his amulet. Eventually Sonja would figure out a plan of making the amulet extremely hard to reach — and that's our story catalyst. There may be a quiz later.

PAGE 04

Our revelation of the narrator of the first few pages: it's Mistress Hel… and I want to point out how GREAT Jonathan's first panel with Hel is. I love the interpretation that he's running with. Eerie and appropriate.

This also has a silly joke (the name blurb for Roger) that I love made it in. This book is pulp fueled, and really needs a few tongue in cheek moments!

PAGES 05-07

We introduced Ernie on page 04, and continue with introductions for Jade and Purgatori.

One of the tricky things about this crossover was that it started with less characters before it was decided to use everybody. It's always a delicate balance to give everyone enough time. I think this first issue was pretty solid in that regard (although there are some characters who aren't introduced until chapter 2!)

PAGE 08
The weird origins of location choice — I needed a balcony overlooking art for the plot to work. Eventually Google was able to help me out, leading us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

PAGE 09
It occurs to me now that I should've had an intro blurb for Smiley.

HINDSIGHT, FOLKS.

PAGE 10
And here's where we introduce Chastity!

Funny story; I was asked to take over on the dialogue for the Chastity miniseries just before I wrote this page, and if I hadn't done that work, I think the Chas we see in Age of Chaos might have turned out very differently. Now, I have almost as much affection for her as I do for my old pal, Sonja.

PAGE 11
Not much to say here, but I do love the look Jonathan gave to Ernie. Cracked me up.

PAGE 12
More hindsight; I wrote Purgatori crashing through the wall. But the way it was drawn, I should've asked for her to come through the skylight.

Still, it's a cool angle, isn't it?

PAGES 13-14
I rarely tell the artist "go nuts." They're aware that they can change things around, but usually, I'm required by the nature of the work to write a complete panel-by-panel script for licensor approval.

Broke that rule here. It's only two pages. Asked Jonathan to choreograph the fight between Jade, Chastity and Purgatori how he wanted, and I jumped in to massage the dialogue later.

Without that, we wouldn't see Chastity's sword just missing Purgatori (and cutting her hair.) We also wouldn't have seen Jade's flurry of attacks.

I love these pages.

PAGE 15
Bad Kitty… doesn't get as much time as some of the others (er… spoiler?). But she's important for how our characters wind up in the past, as you'll soon see.

And yes, she's why I was Googling around for a good balcony in a museum.

PAGE 16
More hindsight — I should've asked for that fourth panel to have a washed-out border. The things you don't see until it's too late!

PAGE 17
Back to Red Sonja. A nice horror movie segue here…

PAGE 18
See? CHILD VAMPIRES!

I love how creepy it looks.

PAGE 19
Sonja makes an oath. That won't come back to bite her at all, will it?

Nah.

PAGE 20
And here's our first indication that Sonja's world has changed. Timey Wimey shenanigans, and a great cliffhanger.

We'll see you in issue #2 and find out what happens when two redheads meet!