overread: Thus far I've almost completed Red Sonja; even though I missed one or two early bundles. Witchblade and Conan are on my target after that.
Geddes17: Actually "Red Sonja" is one of those series I don't dare to start because I don't really know where to start (and then contiue). I bought most of the Dynamite Bundles so I have many "Red Sonja" comics but there are so many different ones ("Queen Sonja", "Legends", "Unchained") it's really confusing for a newbie ...
Sonja is confusing and its easier to break her into two parts. The Marvel era and the Dynamite era. The Marvel era is more complex because many of her early stories are intertwined with early Conan which is majority held by Dark Horse. Dynamite has published some remastered and collected editions of those stories (as they've got Sonja's licence); however they are a messy selection with repeats and can be a little jarring when you get big time jumps because the story is suppose to have a load of Conan doing stuff between them. I would look to the Conan series for this part; however they are mostly adventures rather than a huge overarching story.
Thus you can read Dynamite era without trouble; although the classics are good and worth reading into!
Dynamite era is the one I'll cover as its simpler. Note for the most part she's a very easy character because she actually has very few long running story lines. For the most part she's an adventure character and her stories are designed to be stand-alone adventures that appear during her life. There isn't the greatest continuity and you can't easily line them up in a chronology (although I'm sure someone has tried). However part of her nature as explored in Dynamite's first big season does explain how she can have a chronological mess quite neatly.
What follows is a suggested reading order by me with links to comixology for help. Note like I said much of this stands alone so if I've missed things out they are likely still stand alones.
Simple version:
She-Devil with a Sword (Vol1 you can call it if you wish)
Volume 2
Volume 3
Queen Sonja another stand alone long running series not connected
Detailed:
Red Sonja She-Devil with a Sword (you can also consider this Red Sonja Volume 1 in so far as Dynamite publications go)
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-She-Devil-With-a-Sword/comics-series/523?ref=Y29taWMvdmlldy9kZXNrdG9wL2JyZWFkY3J1bWJz&Issues_pg=5 To simplify this page you've got 3 (currently) omnibus editions that collect a block of issues together. After that you've got a series of volumes that do exactly the same, but with less in each volume; then you've got the issues themselves. Right at the bottom there's also a bundle that has all the individual issues in them.
There are also a collection of one-shots listed here, but I will go into those in a moment.
Issues 1-75 of this series run start to finish in a series of connected key story arcs.
Then we have "Prophecy" which is a cross-over of multiple characters. Normally this would be a stand-alone affair, however interestingly it ties into the last 5 issues of the main series
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Prophecy/comics-series/8050?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Issues 76-80 of She-Devil with a Sword
This ends her primary story arc. Within that you've got a slew of short stories that are ideal reading at any point. They are adventures that she undertakes that, whilst shaping her, don't actually impact her character as a whole (once you've read her main story arc you'll understand how that comes to be).
Break the Sun
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Break-The-Skin/comics-series/49774?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Monster Isle
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Monster-Isle/comics-series/54956?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI One More Day
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-One-More-Day/comics-series/55461?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Goes East
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Sonja-Goes-East/comics-series/54345?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Vacent Shell
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Vacant-Shell/comics-series/54350?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Travels Volume 2 - travels 1 appears not to be online and this issue is only sold on Dynamite's digital store. It collects together the following (solid individually on comixology - the travels volume is cheaper)
BREAK THE SKIN, DELUGE, RAVEN, SANCTUARY, RED SONJA AND CUB, BERSERKER, and every RED SONJA ANNUAL and GIANT-SIZE. Note Travels 1 I assume collected the other shorts in one volume and likely is sold as a hard-copy in places, but digitally isn't present, but as its only a collection of other works already distributed its not a problem if you don't have it.
http://www.dynamite.com/digital/viewProduct.html?PRO=C1606905848 Vultures Circle
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Vultures-Circle/comics-series/32982?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Legends of Red Sonja
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Legends-of-Red-Sonja/comics-series/12049?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Savage Tales - this is a 10 issue series of collected stories from a range of characters with a long story for each running through the issues - each issue giving you the next few pages of the overall story.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Savage-Tales-Vol-1/comics-series/524?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Queen of the Frozen Wastes
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Queen-of-the-Frozen-Wastes/comics-series/70177?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI There is also:
Blue - a stand alone
Unchained - a series that begins at the end of Blue and continues that story for a bit longer.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Unchained/comics-series/9651?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI The Black Tower - left this to last if only because some of the final parts do make an allusion to characters that appear in other shorts; its a nice "ending" to the shorts, but they are not required reading.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-The-Black-Tower/comics-series/25395?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Red Sonja 100 - more adventures from her and a kind of end of 10 years publishing issue, although like the other shorts its not tied into the main story.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-100-Digital-Exclusive-Edition/digital-comic/192381?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9pdGVtU2xpZGVy Red Sonja Volume 2 -
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja/comics-series/10842?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Red Sonja Volume 3 - her current ongoing storyline from Dynamite
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Vol-3/comics-series/63023?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI OTHER Series:
Queen Sonja - this was published at the same time as Volume 1 of Dynamite (She-Devil with a Sword) and ran alongside even though its set in a different period. It's a complete series unto itself and far as I know (must admit I'm not through it yet) it stands alone with nothing specifically before nor after it.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Queen-Sonja/comics-series/3460?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI 35th Anniversary showcase - purely a picture book of covers
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-35th-Anniversary-Cover-Showcase/comics-series/54951?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Red Sonja Wrath of the Gods - wrath and revenge link together with revenge following wrath.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Wrath-of-the-Gods-Vol-1/comics-series/3929?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Red Sonja Revenge of the Gods
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Revenge-of-the-Gods/comics-series/5543?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Red Sonja Vs Thulsa Doom - I'm honestly not sure if the next two link up or not as I've not read through them; however they are tied to Atlantis and Doom and thus I suspect there is a tie between them.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Vs-Thulsa-Doom/comics-series/8314?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Red Sonja Atlantis Rises
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Red-Sonja-Atlantis-Rises/comics-series/8403?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Tie Ins: There are more and she's even appeared with Spiderman; however many of these tend to be legal nightmares between companies and thus often don't appear online; paper copies will be around, but below are those in digital that I'm aware of.
Red Sonja Legendary - Legendary is a steam-punk era world that takes a selection of Dynamites characters and transposes them into new roles. The main series Legendary links them together, whilst several have their own mini-series
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Legenderry-Red-Sonja/comics-series/35148?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI Swords of Sorrow - akin to Legendary this is another collaboration of characters that has no effect on the main story nor character history
Witchblade/Red Sonja
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Witchblade-Red-Sonja/comics-series/7426?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI
