Red Sonja New Year's Special 2025

We have yet another New Year's special with the redhaired warrior from the Hyborian age that compliments her Holiday special from last year. Written by Dan Panosian and illustrated by Valeria Burzo, in this new one-shot we see Sonja being hired by a pair of townspeople who seek the she-devil for her skills in combat to face against some giants who terrorize the town, once there she will meet the people of the town, who are celebrating the eve of a new moon, an event that requires the sacrifice of a fire woman.

The initial set-up of the storyline seems incredibly trite at first but the writer knows how to spin things around a bit and never allows it to become generic or forceful, from the start the somewhat skeletal story begins planting questions and intrigue that will eventually pay off later in the story. It is somewhat predictable if you are familiar with this type of plot but you actually enjoy it because of the small twists that keep things moving without fat or rest, while the mostly visual storytelling also carries a great deal of the baggage very effectively. The snow white surroundings contrast appropriately with Red Sonja's fiery red hair, something that aids the storyline and feels relevant to it, while the action portrayed moves and looks fluid enough from panel to panel.

Recommended for Red Sonja fans.

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Vampirella Helliday 2025 Special - Comic Review

Dynamite Entertainment gives us another Vampirella Christmas special directly following Vampirella Helliday Special 2024, this 2025 edition is also written by Frank Tieri and features art by Mariano Benitez Chapo.

After Vampirella left Christmas suspended a year ago, the Council of Holidays pays a little visit to the former resident of Drakulon. Turns out, the holiday representatives aren't trying to harm Vampirella but they are going to take her to the other holidays so Christmas can resume, since the lack of a heavy holiday puts too much weight on the rest. Vampirella agrees to save Christmas and goes on a search for a now stripper Santa to seize the North Pole and take back Christmas Town.

Again with the delirious and crude racy humor, this enjoyable little piece of holiday parody turns violent and hilarious with ease, making it a digestible and more than serviceable experience for those who already had a good time with the previous entry. Inventive with the same old concept of nasty holidays and Christmas, it never overstays its welcome and actually delivers quite fast on the raunchy and silly situations or gags you wanna see, a favorite is people referring to Vampirella as a "vampire hooker."

Recommended for Vampirella fans and those looking for a nice Christmas special, you don't even need to read the past issue.

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Vampirella: Halloween Horror (2025) Comic Review

Dynamite brings us Vampirella: Halloween Horror, the obligatory Halloween special with our beloved vampy. It’s written by Liam Johnson (Judge Dredd Megazine, Cadet Dredd) and illustrated by Jordan Michael Johnson (The Army of Darkness: Ash The Author).

Vampirella faces a mysterious enemy who targets homeless young boys and girls with troubled lives, ages them rapidly in a manner of seconds and makes them die of old age, supposedly "relieving" them from their pain. Drakulon's former inhabitant temporarily stops her usual vampire hunt to focus on this strange new entity.

A creepy, occasionally funny and sentimental short journey into Vampirella's emotional scars as well as her way of dealing with such a horrible past and overcoming it. Wonderfully tight and captivating storyline with enough horror imagery and emotional power to grab the reader.

Visually appealing and with likable characters that represent very precisely the poignant themes it deals with. Vampirella never runs out of possibilities for stories and the exact reverse of her this story features as the antagonist is a very intriguing idea that although could have gone even further perfectly showcases the philosophical conflict of the comic quite efficiently and in a very economic manner.

Recommended for a quick but enjoyable read this October.

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Vampirella Helliday Special (2024) Comic Review

This new Vampirella Christmas Special was written by Frank Tieri (several Deadpool comics, Red Sonja comics, Vampironica New Blood) and illustrated by Mariano Benitez Chapo (Savage Tales 2022) and Pasquale Qualano (Hell Sonja, Samurai Sonja, Gargoyles Quest, Harley Quinn Road Trip Special).

First we see Vampirella arrive at a house just in time to save some kids from an evil, bloodthirsty Santa Claus with fangs. We are introduced to the narrator: Snowman Steve, who tells the story of how this came to be. Elves and workers at Santa's workshop have been dying recently, a vampire is the prime suspect. However, Ms. Claus doesn't believe it. Vampirella is then called in to stop the newly vampiric Santa Claus once and for all.

It's a hilarious and irreverent Christmas satire, it hits all the expected bits (Santa's workshop being exploitive, Santa being sleazy with a bad marriage) but executes the jokes with such good writing that it makes them refreshing once more. Some quick and witty humor, sometimes with references but never to an annoying degree.It's short but charismatic, Vampirella is her usual cheeky self and causes a lot of carnage. 

It's a clever and well done alternative Christmas special that its audience can appreciate. If you like Vampirella, you can get this one and have a good time. 

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Red Sonja: Holiday Special (2018) Comic Review

Here we have a very peculiar comic book Holiday Special featuring one of the toughest redheads in fantasy: Red Sonja. A one-off special from 2018 featuring two stories. Illustrated by Ricardo Jaime (Crackdown, Godslap), written by Erik Burnham (Lady Hel, several works with the TMNT, Ghostbusters and Red Sonja) and Amy Chu (Ana and the Cosmic Race and several Red Sonja issues).

Sonja travels through a snowstorm and finds an unknown cloaked woman who reminds her of a place she visited previously. She tells her the story of her time in our modern civilization, traveling throughout New York City with Max and getting a taste of Christmas, the most human celebration.

Then they find a man in a Santa costume running from mobsters, Sonja predictably takes them out without much effort, but the trio flees when the goons take out their guns. The guy in the Santa costume is finally safe and the goons lose them among the crowd at a Christmas celebration.

It's a funny story that plays with the usual "fish out of water" gags and dynamic whenever Sonja is taken out of her realm and inserted in New York City or something. Not a horrible one-off but it's also far from a highly memorable one. The resolution was done a bit too quickly and too easily but you can forgive it because of the time and space constraints. I think it's perfectly fine for Sonja fans, as it is short and sweet.

The second story isn't christmas related but it's drawn in a very retro style and looks quite wonderful, so I don't recommend you skip it, we might look at it some other time.