Gail Simone and Brian Wood to Collaborate on Red Sonja/Conan Crossover

We’ve got our first big NYCC announcement, and it’s that Gail Simone and Brian Wood will both be taking their well received takes on the prototypical pulp barbarians Red Sonja and Conan the Barbarian and, despite how both characters currently belong to different companies, will be joining forces for a story.

While Simone’s Sonja is currently has a lot of history behind her, and Wood’s Conan series focuses on a time when the Barbarian was still young, the writers say they’ll be swapping things up for the crossover:

Simone:

We both agreed right away that we want the story to matter, to count. This doesn’t happen on Bizarro Earth or in the Negative Zone. This is the same Sonja I am writing for Dynamite, and the same Conan Brian is writing for Dark Horse.

So, this Sonja is a bit bawdier, a bit drunker, a bit younger and a lot more hot-blooded. She has more of a contrast between her and Conan. And this story will be in continuity for both characters, so you can expect there to be consequences.

A few years back, Dark Horse really pursued me to write “Conan” and I would have loved to have done it, but circumstances at the time made it impossible. So I am eager to get my hands on that Cimmerian.

That sounded weirder than I intended just now.

While I haven’t read Wood’s run on Conan, I know it’s been well received and had a solid female lead character (not to mention Becky Cloonan‘s art). Simone’s Sonja has been, well. There are few words. It’s been a bloody, marvelous joy to read.

(via Comic Book Resources.)