Gail Simone Talks Bringing the She-Devil with a Sword to Life in a New Medium with Red Sonja: Consumed

The character of Red Sonja has a long and storied comics history—a sword and sorcery heroine created for Marvel by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith. At least partially inspired by Robert E. Howard’s character Red Sonya of Rogatino, the sword-wielding female warrior in a chainmail bikini was introduced as a sort of counterpoint to Conan the Barbarian, and had many adventures over several decades. though the gender politics of her story and heavy sexualization of the character were often seen as problematic, particularly for female comic readers. 

That started to change when comics queen Gail Simone, known for her (excellent) work on titles like Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman, kicked off a new Red Sonja series in 2013. Her take on the character gave the infamous She-Devil with a Sword a more nuanced personality and delved into her origins, including adding a more complex backstory and removing the rape that had defined her for so long. The character became canonically bisexual and was depicted on the page as a powerful, complicated warrior rather than simply a sex symbol fighting monsters in skimpy attire. Her work helped revive interest in the character, who has continued to lead various runs and crossovers ever since.

Simone has now taken the character even further, authoring the first Red Sonja story in prose form. Red Sonja: Consumed builds out a rich, immersive fantasy world that feels like nothing so much as an extension of her comics origins. Sonja’s homeland of Hyrkania—as well as the kingdoms around it—comes alive, full of established historical traditions, existing legends, and political conflicts that all go beyond the story of the woman at its center. It’s a tale that will delight both fans of the original and newcomers to the story and Simone, who has clearly put a great deal of thought into what makes Sonja who she is, 

We had the chance to chat with Simone herself about bringing Red Sonja to life in a new format, the differences between comic and novel writing, and adding new layers to a familiar character.

Paste Magazine: Just to get it out of the way, this chat is very exciting for me, because I love your Wonder Woman! But I have to admit that Red Sonja is a character I personally don’t know much about—or didn’t before I read this book. I don’t know if it’s the historical kind of over-sexualization of the character or the misogyny or certain kinds of fans just being weird about her or whatever, but it turns out that surprise: I like her. Or at least this version of her.

Gail Simon: That’s awesome! 

Paste: Tell me a little bit about, what it is about Sonja that keeps you coming back to her in what is now a variety of formats.

Simone: Her character won me over, but it was a process! At first, when I was asked if I was interested in writing her for the comic book that Dynamite publishes, I said, no, I don’t think so. I just don’t feel like I have anything to add to that. And the truth was is I just had—kind of like you—-I had those feelings that she was just an airbrushed painting on the side of a van, and she had a certain look, and I just didn’t know very much about her.

But when I got the call about being asked if I was interested in writing her, I was at lunch with my mom and when I hung up, she said, “Well, who was that”? And I told her that it was a publisher and they wanted to know if I’d write Red Sonja and I don’t think I’m going to. And she flipped out. She was like, what? You have to write Red Sonja. She’s my favorite!

Paste: That’s amazing.

Simone: I’ve never heard this in my entire life. And my mom is also a redhead and it turns out that she just really loved having this really badass, redhead female warrior character to think about going on adventures with. And so I still wasn’t sure about it but finally she just really literally nagged me into doing it it. She did the mom guilt, the mom nag. So I said, okay, I’ll write six issues for my mom. And once I figured out how I thought we could keep her history, but also update the character and tell more modern stories about her world, I sat down and said, “Oh, I’m just going to write a few pages of this. Then I looked up, suddenly 13 pages later, and realized I was having a blast.

I had a lot of freedom with where to take her story-wise so that really allowed me to get in and tell the stories I wanted to tell with this character. And I’ve been a fan of strong female characters and pulp and fantasy and all of that forever, and this just kind of fit it all into one for me. Plus, she’s very fun to write.

Paste: So where did the book part of all this come from? 

Simone: Well, as you know, I’ve written quite a few of the stories in the comics and crossovers and different things, including a game and some animation, and even worked on the beginning of the film. So I’ve been working with this character for a long time and the opportunity to possibly write a novel came up, and so I was approached by the licenser and I just was like, ah, I haven’t written a novel. And it was kind of right before the pandemic when we started talking about it. So I said, well, let me think about this. And I sat down and I wrote a chapter to see after thinking about tone and how this might work. So I wrote a chapter and submitted it and everyone just really loved it. 

We were all stuck at home alone during that time, so I had some breathing room and time to really put into this, which helped. And the whole team got so excited about everything, which kept me going. When I hit the finish line…it still felt unreal a bit. 

Paste: I do think there are probably many people like me who will find Red Sonja: Consumed and meet the character in this format that probably would never have done it in comics. And I think that’s awesome.

Simone: Well, with the novel, we get to get so much deeper into her world and feelings and motivations and why she does the things she does, that we don’t have time to get to in the comics. We have to rely on a lot of visuals and stuff in comics, which is great. I love it. But we don’t have the time to delve that deeply. And so I think being able to really try to relate and understand her is something that was really rewarding, I think, to get a chance to do.

Paste: Turning a comic book heroine into a novel heroine must be an especially challenging task. Does Sonja, as a character, feel different to you in a novel format versus a comic format? Did you have to think about her character in a new way?

Simone: I did have to think about it differently because it’s a different way to tell stories even though it’s the same character. 

When I write a comic book, every panel is precious and I’m always really well aware of that. Also, I’m relying on the artist to do the visuals, to tell the visual story. With the novel, I have to choose the right words so the reader can visualize all these things and the reader can understand Sonja in a way that I just cannot do writing a comic. And so I really felt that to use the novel in the best way that I possibly could, I needed to expand her story. And I still wanted to leave things like I wanted her to feel legendary and from a different time and a different world and all those things, which in a comic visually you can tell that. In a novel we have to deal with it, especially because I’m well aware that there’s going to be people who know nothing about Sonja when they’re coming in.

Paste: I really loved all the historical quotes and poems that open each chapter and offer a look at the lore of Sonja’s world and how the different kingdoms and factions in it function. That’s the stuff that I love about fantasy fiction generally. Was it more fun or challenging to get the chance to kind of, I don’t know, write the history book of this world in some ways?

Simone: Well, I went back and forth. When I first started, I thought, oh, this is the best idea and the best way to do this ever. That would make her feel legendary and to really pull into her world without having to do that while you’re actively following her in her story.

Paste: Without having to have a random character exposition dump for pages.  

Simone: Exactly. I thought, oh, this can be, we can do songs, we can do poetry, we can do historical writings. It just would have a lot of writing. It’d be a lot of fun. But after writing a zillion of them, I started to doubt — is this a good idea or are the readers going to just hate this? And so I went to the team and I said, what do you guys think? Should we just take them all out? And everyone was like, are you kidding me? No, we like that. That kind of just confirmed to me that it was the right choice and people like you have told me that they do really enjoy those snippets. It helps them have that feeling that she really existed, at least in legend.

Paste: It genuinely me realize I would read something else in this universe that doesn’t have anything necessarily to do with Sonja because the history and relationships of the various kingdoms and peoples are so interesting.

Simone: That’s great. And I agree too. I’m doing book two, so we’re going to get into even more of it, which is going to be exciting I think. 

Paste: We also get so many different POV characters who have their own arcs and situations and struggles that intersect with Sonja’s, but aren’t necessarily about her, too. How did you thread the needle when it comes to fitting, say, Silas or Ysidra’s arcs into Sonja’s larger story? 

Simone: Sonja always is going to need villainous people. But when I conceptualized Silas, he was, to me, somebody who is really evil and who we can watch basically fall apart before our eyes. I felt that that was an interesting thing to bring into her world. And I hadn’t really seen anything done quite like that before. 

Everyone that’s in there does serve a purpose in Sonja’s story. Whether you learn it right away or whether we will hear more in the second novel, I don’t want to say, but she’s lived a nomadic life and has been very solitary up until we start this novel.

We learned that her village was destroyed and she had to live in the forest and survive by herself for years. That is how she developed. She doesn’t want to attach to anything. She really doesn’t, but it happens whether she wants to or not. And then she is left dealing with the consequences of that connection, and she’s used to being the type of person who lives in the moment and doesn’t think about yesterday or tomorrow. She just thinks about what’s going on right now. 

She’s not used to having to deal with consequences. But there are other people in the world that she meets as she’s traveling and learning about her village, and what’s going on there and everything. And she starts to care and she really doesn’t want to.

Paste: Did you have any favorite characters to write among the various supporting figures that show up here?

Simone: Well I love Ysidra. And I also love Dalen and Aria, the couple Sonja meets. I think that’s kind of the real crack in her, meeting them. When she leaves them, it leaves a fissure in her personality and a mark that she didn’t have before. And she’s going to have to deal with that.

Paste: So, where are we going in Book Two, after all this?

Simone: I don’t think they want me to talk about that too much. We’re just going to continue with Sonja’s adventures and exploring her world and see where she ends up. We do have it titled, and I’m well into it, but I just really can’t say yet.

I will say, though, that the second novel is a battle between the military and religion in her world.

Paste: Oh, that’s one of those things that I feel fantasy does really well in a way that—again, probably unfortunately timely manner—speaks to where we are in our current moment too.

Simone: That’s the whole thing with a character like Sonja. When I first started writing her, those are the things I considered—how can we tell a modern story and deal with our modern problems that set it in this kind of epic world and make fun to read and all of those things, and still have it be meaningful? And doing that, it’s what made me fall in love with her, and with writing her. 

Paste: Awwwww! Are you a big fantasy reader in your spare time yourself?

Simone: I read in multiple genres—I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan, a huge horror fan, and a fan of horror fantasy. But right now I’m reading the Bridgerton series because it has a tone that’s fun and it’s not something…it’s not the type of book that I probably will ever write myself. So I’m not trying to figure out how it works or how the pieces of the story fit, you know? I still do it a little bit, to be honest, but in more of a fun, oh winter is coming and I need something fun to do way.

Paste: You’d be surprised how many authors I talk to who are very adamant about not reading in their own genre anyway.

Simone: I also like cozy mysteries because, same thing, I don’t deconstruct it when I read it. But I like really deep horror and deep fantasy personally. Those are my big ones.

Paste: Do you think you would write more fiction—novels, I mean—after this? About Sonja or otherwise, heck, maybe you’ll write a Bridgerton-style book!

Simone: Definitely. Yeah. I’d like to come up with something of my own and, hopefully, that’s down the road.

Paste: I will end with a question I always ask everyone I talk to and that is, what are you reading right now? Besides Bridgerton, if anything. 

Simone: So, Bridgerton, I’m just on the very first book. I just finished listening to The Truth We Hold by Kamala Harris and The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama. I like listening to those and hearing them in their own words. And now I’m listening to Hollow Kingdom and reading Thursday Murder Club.  

Oh, and I don’t know if you know this, but Felicia Day is the narrator for the Red Sonja: Consumed audio version and it’s so good. She’s just the right everything for this book. 

Paste: She’s even got the hair. 

Simone: Yup, Team Redheads, right?

Paste: Well, you have to be true to the brand. Is there anything else you’d like to make sure our readers know about Red Sonja: Consumed? 

Simone: I think there’s something about this book…in it she learns that there’s a time for self-preservation and a time when we need to work together and be part of something bigger. And that’s kind of her lesson moving forward and maybe for us too. 

Paste: Please stop being so timely. 

Simone: I know, it’s very bizarre isn’t it? [laughs]

Red Sonja: Consumed is available now. 

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB