Dynamite continues their roundtable of pulp heroes in Savage Tales: Winter 2025 Special #1, and this issue features Gullivar of Mars, Vampirella, John Carter, Dejah Thoris and the crimson-haired powerhouse Red Sonja!
The Gullivar of Mars tale, written by David Avallone with art by Hamish Cook and colors by Jorge Sutil, is actually chapter 3 of the story, but you don’t need to have read the previous issues to know what’s happening.
For those unfamiliar with Gullivar of Mars, he’s an adventurer who travels to Mars but where John Carter is more savage (no pun intended). Gullivar is more of an early 20th century James Bond-type, tossing off clever quips and always carrying a revolver and scabbard that he wields with cold precision. The first Gullivar tale was written by Edwin Lester Arnold in 1905, seven years before Edgar Rice Burroughs debuted John Carter and put him on Mars. By 1920, Mars became a pretty crowded place!
This Gullivar tale’s a good one, spanning seven pages that briskly move the story along and has Gullivar battling a particularly nasty mammoth Hydra-like beast and ends with a cliffhanger that has me looking forward to the next chapter.
Next up is a story featuring John Carter and Dejah Thoris, written by David Avallone with art by Eman Casallos and colors by Jorge Sutil. It’s the most action-packed of all the stories in the book, with martian soldiers attacking John Carter when a bounty’s put on him.
Though I’ve always preferred Dejah Thoris in solo adventures, it’s fun seeing the two characters team up to take out an army of bloodthirsty Martian warriors, with radium pistols blasting and swords clanging. Like the previous story, the action is brutal and bloody, very much like the old pulp fiction novels from which they originated.
Dynamite Entertainment
The book switches to a more gothic atmosphere in a Vampirella tale written by David Avallone with art by Mariano Benitez Chapo and colors by Jorge Sutil. Despite the gothic setting, the story is more comedy than horror, as a spoiled and vapid social influencer stages what will be a “big vampire reveal” only to encounter real vampires. And these aren’t the Bela Lugosi style, European charm vampires, but vampires of the beastly Nosferatu variety.
Vampirella jumps in to save the YouTube host and the entire story feels like one of the better episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. All that was missing was a grungy theme song. Definitely not a bad thing. It’s nice to see a more devil-may-care, fun-loving Vampirella. She’s my favorite character at Dynamite and I’d love to see more stories like this, where she’s just gleefully taking out hordes of monsters and teaching humans a few lessons in humility along the way.
The final story in the issue is a classic Red Sonja story (reprinted from 2021’s Red Sonja: Black, White and Red #1) written by Kurt Busiek with art by Benjamin Dewey. Benjamin Dewey’s art is striking throughout and I love the black, white and red concept, where the only color in the story is Sonja’s crimson hair and the deep red blood of the massive ape-like beast she battles. The whole black, white and red concept even factors into the story itself in a very cool story twist. It’s the most perfectly crafted tale in the book, with a great setup, a thrilling battle in the middle and a satisfying conclusion.
What I love about the book is that the four stories here don’t feel redundant, even though they all have a pulpy feel to them. The characters and the variety of the artists give the book an eclectic feel and if you want a real bang for your buck, pick this book up! You’ll get a lot of action-filled stories that you won’t have to be a comic book historian to enjoy.
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