Sonja Reborn, Kid Maroon, and Brass Sun
From Dynamite Comics, Vault Comics, and Rebellion
Some big news on three upcoming comics here.
New Red Sonja this summer!
A new graphic novel from Vault Comics.
And Brass Sun returns!
Sonja Reborn from Priest Deconstructs Character for New Age!
A new look at Sonja is coming from Dynamite Comics this August.
One of the most legendary creators in comics history meets one of its most celebrated characters, as Sonja Reborn slashes into stores and readers' pull lists this August!
Reborn is a tale of survival which takes a hard look at what life in the Hyborian Age might actually be like for a modern woman who finds herself suddenly thrust into it! How might a single woman survive a land of mystical threats and monsters without caving into her fears, dying of infection, or losing the at-best conditional loyalty of her ragged band of male cutthroats? What might this woman really be like and how could she possibly survive?
Christopher Priest (Superman Lost, Conan the Barbarian, Black Panther) has been a boundary-smashing figure in comics for nearly five decades, both on and off the page. With works of his serving as the foundation for billions-grossing blockbusters, Dynamite has been fortunate to work with him through the years and particularly on the Daughter of Drakulon, Vampirella. While he continues innovating in those tales, now in 2025 he also presents an inventive take on the other crown jewel among the Women of Dynamite, Red Sonja.
“We might have called this book ‘Becoming Red Sonja,’” Priest said. “The book delves into the culture shock of a presumed nightmare from which you cannot awaken. Both Black Panther and Quantum & Woody employed observational humor of the sidecar character, a voice from outside of the conceit of the fictional universe it observes, which can underscore both the drama and the humor of a world gone completely insane. Sonja Reborn is our “Kelvin Universe” alternate take on the classic, branching off from familiar paths in order to spiral chaotically into the unknown. I’m having a blast writing it, which is equal parts endorsement and warning!”
Priest acolytes and Hyborian Age scholars may know that Priest is no stranger to the mythos or even Sonja herself, who featured prominently in storylines from his runs on her barbarian compatriot. Yet now, back after more than three decades, with full focus and creative rein, fans will experience his unparalleled approach to the character and her world. This new series brings his trademark missing-puzzle-piece plot assembly and twisted sense of humor, for a historic reimagining of the classics by Roy Thomas, Frank Thorne, Barry Windsor-Smith, Esteban Maroto, John Buscema, and more.
Sonja Reborn presents a new Sonja for a new age. Ancient and codependent gods The Light and The Dark are engaged in a cosmic contest to decide the fate of the world. Young British diplomatic clerk Maggie Sutherland, stolen from the year 2025, suddenly finds herself their pawn in play. Ripped from a modern 21st century world and transported into the wilds of Hyboria, Maggie awakens transformed into the fiery-haired Hyrkanian reaver Red Sonja.
Caught perilously out of her environment amidst a world of gods and monsters, constant threats, new friends and foes alike, Maggie / Sonja must try to figure out what fate has beset her and struggle to find her way home. Together, Priest and Sonja veteran artist Alessandro Miracolo set out with their readers on a quest to reexamine the crimson-maned warrior from the inside out, creating a riveting reinterpretation of Maggie's hero's journey to reveal what it might actually take for a woman to survive and thrive in a brutal world of swords, sorcery, and barbarism!
This baptism of fire in comics form is the perfect gateway to adventure for sword and sorcery fans old and new! Those who have never once picked up a comic starring the She-Devil or set in the Hyborian Age will discover a page-one primer on the genre, as they learn alongside Maggie the rules of an extremely treacherous road. No prior continuity knowledge is required to be swept away by the action and thrilling lore, while long time devotees will find novel ideas and recontextualizations of the star and genre tropes.
SONJA REBORN #1 is solicited in Diamond Comic Distributors’ June 2025 Previews catalog, the premier source of merchandise for the comic book specialty market, and slated for release in August 2025. Comic book fans are encouraged to preorder copies of the book with their local comic book retailers. It will also be available for individual customer purchase through digital platforms courtesy of Comixology, Kindle, iBooks, Google Play, Dynamite Digital, ComicsPlus, and more!
Vault Announces Kid Maroon Original Graphic Novel by Christopher Cantwell & Victor Santos
An old character makes a return with a new original graphic novel featuring Kid Maroon from Vault Comics.
With some background from last year here:
Vault is thrilled to announce the long-awaited Kid Maroon original graphic novel written by Christopher Cantwell (Halt and Catch Fire, Iron Man, Doctor Doom), drawn by Victor Santos (Polar, Violent Love), colored by Mattia Iacono (Kid Venom, The Dead Lucky), lettered by Andworld Design (The Many Deaths of Laila Starr), and designed by Adam Cahoon (The Nasty). The Kid Maroon graphic novel will be printed in a gorgeously designed, oversized deluxe format with french flaps, foil treatment, and high-end paperstock.
Originally created by Shepard in 1944, the daily Kid Maroon comic strip focused on a hard-boiled boy detective who investigates horrendous crimes in his hometown of “Crimeville”. The series quickly attracted significant controversy, as the stories drew on Shepard’s nihilistic outlook, penchant for violence, and obsession with bathtub laudanum. The backlash against the series, coupled with the rising tides of the Comics Code, led to the strip’s cancellation after just 216 episodes. This caused Shepard to become completely disaffected with the comic book medium, and he would go on to bury all his original art in what is believed to be a field in South Dakota, location unknown. Despite all of this, Kid Maroon became a tremendous cult hit that has inspired underground and independent comics ever since.
Vault’s Kid Maroon original graphic novel will mark the first time in 75 years that comics only hard-boiled boy-detective will see print.
“I’ve been wanting to write a Kid Maroon story for years upon years now,” said Cantwell. “Because Kid Maroon feels like me. It’s funny because I remember being a kid and how I couldn’t wait to grow up. Every day I feel like I grew up too fast. I often wish I could go back. Kid faces that same struggle in our book. Sure, his world is laden with pulp gangsters and killers, but he’s very much a child. This was always the undercurrent of the original Kid Maroon strips that Pep Shepard did. Sure, sometimes Pep occasionally had Kid rail against characters like Captain Pinko and write diatribes against Sales Tax, but at his best, those stories were always about a boy caught between worlds, his innocence always fragile, at risk of being shattered. That is the core of our book through and through."
"I must confess I did not know the existence of the character Kid Maroon, but as soon as I started investigating it was love at first sight,” added Santos. “That wild boy was a compact version of The Spirit, Dick Tracy, and I don't know how many other pre-code pulp heroes. But at the same time he was everything I would have wanted to be when I was a brat, sneaking into my uncle's room to read those crime comics which were supposed to be too violent for a kid to read. I couldn’t wait to take this awesome character and draw him into new adventures."
The Kid Maroon will debut with a stunning double-length first issue that will hit store shelves in September 2025. The full synopsis for Kid Maroon can be read below:
Back in print for the first time in over 75 years in a stunning original graphic novel with deluxe presentation... the world's only hard-boiled boy detective - KID MAROON. From Christopher Cantwell (Iron Man, Doctor Doom, The Blue Flame, Halt and Catch Fire) and Victor Santos (Polar, Violent Love)!
Two years ago, Walden Maroon outgrew his small town, his loving parents, and the low stakes mysteries involving missing butterflies and stolen cookies. Since then, he's dwelled within the cesspit of Crimeville, where murders, vice, and corruption are the city's bread and butter. But at 12 years old, Kid is weary. When a string of horrific killings and arsons spring up in the streets, can he crack the case with his quick wits and slingshot? Or does Kid Maroon secretly yearn for what he's never gotten to be... a kid?
Brass Sun Returns to 2000 AD this September
I am pretty excited to see the return of this series in the pages of 2000 AD this autumn. Check out the details from Rebellion.
Praise be to The Cog! The much-loved series Brass Sun is returning to 2000 AD in 2025 for an all-new story by creators Ian Edginton and INJ Culbard!
Set in a giant mechanical solar system, Brass Sun is the story of Wren, a young woman who realises that the bass sun that gives life to the dozens of worlds has started to slow, freezing the outer worlds and killing off the inhabitants.
Setting off from her homeworld of Hind Leg, Wren is given part of the secret of the lost key that has the power to restart the sun again. Charged with travelling across the various worlds to pick up other parts of the key which was broken up after The Great War, she alone possesses the power to save the galaxy from extinction! But the journey is long - longer, in fact, than even the creative team realised!
"The first run of Brass Sun was a great success, people really took to it, so much so that I started to doubt that I could repeat it with the next run," says Edginton. "It was genuinely a case of performance anxiety! I was worried that it wouldn't measure up so I kept putting it off and putting it off."
"Eventually Ian (the other one) and I went on to do other things and Brass Sun lay fallow for years. But about eighteen months ago my teenage daughter read the whole thing and was annoyed that there wasn't anymore, that I'd just left poor Wren hanging in limbo. I reread it myself and realised she was right and what's more I wanted to finish telling Wren's story, I owed it to her. I also realised that I needed to get over myself and just get on with it and so here we are!"
The new run on Brass Sun will return to Wren's story now she's a little older, and in her mid-twenties. After all her experiences she's withdrawn herself from the world - but just as she tries to shut the rest of the world out, an old friend returns with a message: destiny isn't done with her yet!
What can readers expect from the return of the critically-acclaimed steampunk series? Edginton teases that this is a world where literally anything can happen. "It's great to be working with Ian again. I'd forgotten how much of a laugh it was. We'd start off talking over the story and script and then end up debating whether you could build a submarine out of Tofu and could a spider ride a Moped? We're a pair of unsupervised middle aged men with far too much time on our hands!"
Look out for Brass Sun as it returns to 2000 AD this September!
