Paradox bought the entire Robert E. Howard library of properties in 2006.

“As for Red Sonya, she only appears in one story and Paradox retains the rights to it. So I’m thinking that the character is still their’s.”

No, Red Sonja LLC now owns Red Sonya, but Paradox retains the print-publication rights to “The Shadow of the Vulture.” I presume that’s so Paradox can publish, or license, “the complete works” of Howard for print collections.

“So is LLC something owned by Dynamite, by Roy Thomas, or just someone who bought the rights with no hand in creation of the character?”

The last one. The Howard estate sold the rights to Red Sonja in 1982.

I get that they are named “Paradox Entertainment” and “Red Sonja LLC”

And since Paradox owns the rights to the “Age of Hyboria - which was created by Robert E Howard and the setting for all of Howard’s Conan stories, with their related characters - Is Paradox Entertainment just another name for what most fans call “The Howard Estate”?

As for Red Sonya, she only appears in one story and Paradox retains the rights to it. So I’m thinking that the character is still their’s.
But they gave up rights to the name “Red Sonya” to Red Sonja LLC - which can then go after anyone else who attempts to use the name which would create confusion with their character whose name sounds identical to us. I don’t think they have the right or the intent to infringe on the Red Sonya character, thus ruling out cross-overs, but they have the right to defend Red Sonja from imitators using alternative spellings.

Besides - in the Marvel comics Conan would call her “Sonya” which would really get her mad about his mispronounciation of her name - which indicates that there was some intent that Sonja and Sonya be pronounced differently - but at the same time muddies the waters about which name is which, since she was called by both in those stories, just depending on which character was saying it.

So is LLC something owned by Dynamite, by Roy Thomas, or just someone who bought the rights with no hand in creation of the character?

http://conan.com/f_redsonya_settlement.shtml

- “RS has acquired all of Paradox’s rights in Robert E. Howard’s short story The Shadow of the Vulture and Paradox has acquired an exclusive license to reprint Robert E. Howard’s prose story The Shadow of the Vulture.”

They lost the rights and all they can do is reprint the short story - no movie, no comic, no characters.

Been hittin your head on the short bus there Predabot?

It says Paradox is retaining their rights to the “Shadow of a Vulture”..

Nice to hear that it sounds like they could sort it all out with what was basically a gentleman’s hand-shake.

You forgot the really awful movie

If anyone “won” in this case, I’d say it was Paradox - they get the “Age of Hyboria”, and they keep the original pulp story in which Red Sonya was created, which is what was really important to them.

Also I’m sick of that chain mail bikini look (I know it’s classic, but silly). She needs more realistic wardrobe, man… Give her a decent armor. She looks like a fashion model, not a warrior. I know that sexy female lead characters attract some readers but she’ll be much better with a darker and meaner look.

I also hated Janissa character. That’s the only lame thing they made in Dark Horse Conan series. It’s too obvious that she’s a fill-in for Red Sonja. I hope she gets her head cut off.

After all you’ve got to remember, though Red Sonja was a popular supporting character in the Conan books coming out of Marvel at the time, she was unable to sustain her own title, with each attempt to launch her own book doing very poorly sales wise, leading to two short lived solo series, and a couple of, also quite poor selling, one shots and limited series.

It’s really only been under dynamite that Red Sonja has found any sort of solo comic success…

I liked the headline. The $1 aspect was an interesting legal wrinkle. And the headline didn’t really lead me anywhere untrue, I didn’t have a guess what “$1 swap” meant until I read the article.

And thats presumably what they care about, with the Conan MMORPG coming up. I hear you can make more money off those than you can selling crack. Or Grit magazine.

It seems a waste of tax money for something they so easily worked out.

The Howard estate sold the rights to Red Sonja in 1982.

Whatever…I need a drink now.

Anyhoo, sounds like another property for Dynamite Entertainment to make a series out of… unless Red Sonja LLC. has no intentions of letting them do so.