The Four Color Media Monitor

The female counterpart of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, both of whom were stars in comics from Marvel for many years, is now the subject of a court battle in Delaware over who gets the rights to ownership of the merchandise and revenue. The article also gives a little history over how the She-Devil with a Sword came to be:

The lawsuit was filed in April 2006 by Red Sonja LLC, shortly after Paradox Entertainment issued a news release announcing it had completed a deal with Howard's estate to acquire the rights to all of Howard's work, including Red Sonya with a "y."

That Red Sonya appeared in the single 1930s short story "Shadow of the Vulture," in which she is described as "a tall, Russian warrior woman who carries a saber, a dagger and two pistols," and who lived in Vienna in the 16th century and fought invading Turks.

[...]

According to court papers, the birth of Red Sonja with a "j" came around 1973, when one of the authors of Conan the Barbarian comic books was looking for "a roughly equivalent female hero" and stumbled on the 1930s story.

Roy Thomas changed the "y" to a "j," took away her pistols and transported the tall, red-headed warrior back in time to be a contemporary of Conan, according to the lawsuit. The rights to that character were sold by Howard's estate in 1982.

There's considered to be two different Reds here? That puzzles me a bit. Roy may have reworked her into a protagonist of the world in which Conan dwells, but surely she's still the same character as the original one who lived in the 16th century?

Labels: licensed products, marvel comics