by Eric S Brown
After Marvel lost the rights to Red Sonja, they were picked up by Dynamite Comics who continues to publish her with new series seemingly continually being announced. Travels is a series of trade paperbacks that collects the various special issues and one shots that fall outside of the normal titles. Vol. 1 collects the storylines – “One More Day,” “Monster Isle,” “Vacant Shell,” and “Red Sonja Goes East,” totaling around 144 pages of material with no extras or special back up features.
Travels Vol. 1 runs the gamut of quality within its pages. Its opening story, “One More Day,” is Sonja at her finest. Summoned by a king, she wages war to save his people. “One More Day” is gritty, intense, gory, and depicting Sonja as the hardened warrior she’s supposed to be.
“Vacant Shell” and “Red Sonja Goes East” are both decent tales as well. There’s nothing spectacular about them but they are fun to read and likely enjoyable for most fans of the character. The latter does however feature a cool battle between Sonja and pair of material artists, something not often seen in her books.
“Monster Isle,” on the other hand, is simply horrid and not just in its story. The art in “Monster Isle” is often well below par for Red Sonja titles. This isn’t helped by the fact that the story itself is a strange cross between The Wizard of Oz and The Island of Dr. Moreau. It’s painful to slug through.
Still, Red Sonja: Travels Vol. 1 is worth picking up for diehard fans and Sonja completionists.
