CGC Registry

Red Heads & Swords


Set Type: Red Sonja (2005) All Variants
Owner: Lee K
Last Modified: 3/9/2026
Views: 766

Current Standings

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Rank: 2
Score: 2921
Leading by: 555
Points to Higher Rank: 1432
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Set Description:

An extension of my Marvel Red Sonja sets – Dynamite Entertainment’s Red Sonja Vol 1, really is an amazing modern set. I know that many collectors aren’t all that excited about variant covers and all the options that are available – but what other modern set includes covers by in the first 25 issues by Dick Giordano, George Perez, Pablo Marcos, Alex Ross, Adam Hughes, Jim Lee, Frank Cho, and Mel Rubi, as well as bringing in classic Red Sonja artists like Art Adams, Frank Brunner, and John Romita Sr.? Artists who drew Red Sonja for Marvel.
Dynamite also made excellent use of existing art by Neal Adams and Estaban Moroto, which must have been included in the Red Sonja license, for incentive covers on issues 2 and 3 (that I am aware of)
On top of that, this run has more that twice as many issues as all the Marvel Red Sonja runs combined – including Marvel Feature Vol 2, and great storylines.
I’ll never be one to try to chase down 9.9s or all the RRP editions of the early issues, but I do love a good run – and this is definitely a good run.
As to my interest in Red Sonja – well, I love red headed swordswomen so much, I married one. Together with my love of cover art and my 25+ years of stage combat, jousting, & teaching swordsmanship for stage, left me with some strong opinions on how you stand, how you wear armor, and how you hold your damn sword. So, hold on to your sword, keep your shield up, and let's cut to the bone.

EDIT:

This is fun and interesting - so, originally, CGC said that they were not going to differentiate between the various 1:1 ratio covers that Dynamite put out. You can clearly see in the notes on the right side of issue 1 that 5 different covers exist by Ross, Turner, Rivera, Cassady (that's a typo - it's Cassaday), & Linsner. Technically, I think that Rivera cover is cover 1C. But if you look at the other books in this set, you'll see that I have the Cassaday cover of issue 1, which is labelled as "Cassaday Variant" and when the set listing gets updated I'll add the Ross cover of issue 1, which my copy is labelled as cover 1E (I know the set has to be updated, it won't let me put that book in the slot for issue 1). So sometime in the great scheme of things, CGC grading and labelling has decided that they *will* differentiate the different 1:1 covers, which is going to make an absolute mess out of this set listing as issues 1 through 3 have at least five 1:1 covers and all the issues up through 51 have at least three 1:1 covers and most have four. Additionally, they're not even labelling them the same - with Cassaday variant in one instance, but 1E in another, later instance. What do you do when some of the books are graded and labeled one way, and other books are graded and labeled a completely different way, which is incompatible with the set listing as it was originally set up? I wonder what happens if I send my books back in to be re-labelled.
In addition to this fun - CGC also mixed up the Giant Size Red Sonja issues and the Red Sonja Annual issues - as the book I have uploaded as Red Sonja Annual 1 is actually Giant Size Red Sonja 1.

SECOND EDIT:

It's now June of 2025 and I have 69 books with 69 images and 69 descriptions. Do I stop? Is it perfect just the way it is?

THIRD EDIT:

Got 16 books back from CGC today for this set, with 4 more to arrive in a couple days. Attempted to add 15 of those 16 books and 9 of them were summarily rejected. At least 3 of them because nobody understands this set or the variants that were offered, and as a result there are a number of slots available below for books that don't exist (LOOK! there's an issue #1 negative variant and a #1 RRP variant - they're the same book - there's no unique negative cover outside of the RRP cover. At least this makes sense, as there actually is a negative cover. When we get to issue #25, we have a Fantastic Realms variant, which does not exist. I finally found a copy for sale online and verified the number on it. What I found appears to be 1 of 4 copies of issue #26 that were mislabeled by CGC), as well as a number of slots not available for books that clearly exist (LOOK! there's clearly two different retailer incentive covers for issue #2 with grossly different distribution, but there's only one entry, the same is true for issue #9 negative covers, and issue #10 negative covers). I'm sure some of of the 8 books that I wasn't able to upload will eventually have slots or be accepted for the slot where I submitted them, but some of them will join the 2 books I have at the house where there just isn't a slot.
Really - this set has been out of print since 2013 - someone should have it right by now, and have incorporated the differences in how variants were labeled by CGC over the years. It isn't that hard.

FOURTH EDIT:

I'm back from Emerald City and someone has done some cleaning up of this set. All the changes made were good and make the set better. It's still irretrievably messed up - and that's due to mislabled books, changes in labeling standards, and inconsistent application of the current labeling guidelines. But - unless I can get labeling to differentiate between different incentive covers of the same type for the same issue, it isn't as good as it could be. Issue 2 Moroto 1:65 REI cover and Issue 2 Tan 1:25 REI cover should not occupy the same slot; Issue 9 Billy Tan Negative cover and Issue 9 Tomm Coker Negative cover should not occupy the same slot, and Issue 10 Billy Tan Negative cover and Issue 10 Joe Benitez Negative cover should not occupy the same slot.
And given that the majority of the books graded were done when there was no differentiation between the non-incentive covers, and all of those books, as well as any current books with Cover A, all slot into the base slot for the issue, it would require every single early submission to be re-submitted for a correct label.

Enough about that - on to ECCC. Wow, the CGC convention experience sure has changed. Now, I haven't been to ECCC since my friend passed, but it used to be a lot of fun to stop at the CGC booth. The booth was manned by comic people that were excited about comic books. Now everyone is polite - but it was so sterile. It certainly wasn't fun. It wasn't part of the convention experience. I may not like spending extra money to use facilitators at con, but at least when I have, they've been comic afficianados.

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