“Sadly, She Slayed The Less Nasty One” – Gail Simone Talks Red Sonja #14

dynamitecomics:

Here we have a writer to writer interview with two of the premiere female writers in comics. Nancy Collins, writer on Vampirella #100, talks with writer Gail Simone about Red Sonja #14, both on sale now.. The reverse of this interview will run later this weekend.

NANCY COLLINS: Is there a unifying title for this particular story arc? (I only ask because my review copy didn’t list one.)

GAIL SIMONE: It’s called “The Forgiveness of Monsters,” and the theme of the arc is how difficult and painful and essential the ability to forgive is. Red Sonja is cursed, the ability to forgive even simple transgressions is taken from her, and it very quickly becomes apparent how crushing that is. She thinks it means nothing.

She’s wrong.

Read More

Here, I am interviewed by Nancy Collins.

Nancy was a HUGE inspiration to me when I was first doing fan writing about comics. She was a Bram Stoker award winner, a really, REALLY talented writer, and she took the time to respond to my fan letters with really useful, practical information. It was invaluable to me.

But the big thing was, she was a killer comic book writer. She wrote the most underrated run on Swamp Thing ever, her origin of the character Lady Jane was just powerful beyond belief. 

Nancy did other comics work, Predator and some other stuff, but she drifted away from comics and back into prose.

This bothered me a lot. So when we did Legends of Red Sonja, and I got to pick the writers, I chose all female writers, people whose work meant a lot to me. And the plan was, I was hoping Nancy would get bitten by the comic bug again.

I can’t take credit, but it worked. Now she’s writing the monthly Vampirella series and KILLING on it, and several other things, as well. She’s a unique and important voice, and I am delighted in having had a hand in bringing her back to comics, hopefully for good!

Thanks for the interview, Nancy!