Gail Simone to Pen Red Sonja/Tarzan Crossover For Dynamite

The acclaimed creative team behind Dynamite's Red Sonja -- Gail Simone and Walter Geovani -- will reunite for the first-ever crossover between the Hyrkanian warrior and Edgar Rice Burroughs' legendary Lord of the Jungle, Tarzan.

Debuting its first issue in May, the Red Sonja/Tarzan series will fulfill a lifelong dream for Simone, who just wrapped work on a Wonder Woman/Conan the Barbarian miniseries for DC and Dark Horse.

"It's an odd thing about my career, especially being a female writer mostly known for superheroes, but I do get asked a lot to write these incredibly manly characters quite often, and the truth is that I just love them," said Simone in a statement. "I like stories that are bloody and sweaty. I love the dark night pulpy stuff. I can't get enough and it's a sure way to get me to work on a property. Tarzan is the king of them all to me. When I was a kid, I read every Edgar Rice Burroughs book I could find. They had these Neal Adams covers, or Frazetta, or someone equally wonderful. And I just fell into that world in the same way you might fall into Middle Earth. I loved the jungle aspects, the family stories, and I loved how Tarzan had to fend for himself at the start. It was just exhilarating to me."

Red Sonja/Tarzan #1 unites the iconic heroine of swords-and-sorcery with the quintessential jungle adventurer in deadly conflict with Eson Duul - an evil man whose very name makes the powerful quake with fear.

"I wanted a classic-style villain, something that would fit in with an ERB story or a Robert E. Howard story," Simone said. "And what we have is something that is kind of like a Tarzan gone wrong, someone who isn't content just to dominate; he has to make his targets extinct from the Earth. He's basically awful, and yet, he's not completely unlike some real like people with too much power."

Red Sonja/Tarzan #1 will ship with a variety of cover options, including those illustrated by Adam Hughes, Jae Lee, Aaron Lopresti, series artist Walter Geovani, and Sergio Davila.

Lopresti was Simone's artist on the Wonder Woman/Conan crossover.

"Walter's like me - we both love crossovers, and we feel downright possessive of Red Sonja," Simone said of Geovani. "When he heard this was coming up, we agreed to put aside another project that we were working on for six months so he could draw this; he just wanted in so badly. Me, I'm ecstatic, because it's honestly a bit difficult for me to write Sonja scripts for anyone but Walter. He just gets my scripts so perfectly. I adore him! And wait 'til you see his Tarzan!"

"We are honored and humbled to welcome Gail and Walter back to the fold for this truly epic event," said Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher of Dynamite Entertainment. "Gail's exceptional talent at bringing out the multiple dimensions of a character -- ferociousness and passion, cleverness and resolve - fits so perfectly with this project, I'm surprised that we haven't published it sooner. We're also thankful to our partners at Red Sonja, LLC and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. for making this dream team-up a reality!"

Red Sonja/Tarzan #1 will be solicited in Diamond Comic Distributors' March Previews catalog, and will appear on store shelves in May.