Red Wendy

Living in Oregon and being a little too young at the time, I missed all the great 1970s comic book conventions. One of the things that really gets me down is that I’ll never be being able to see Wendy Pini dressed up as Red Sonja in the flesh… so to speak. It’s common comic book knowledge that she performed as Red Sonja along with artist Frank Thorne in the RED SONJA SHOW. Too bad some sort of footage hasn’t shown up on youtube. Incidentally, Wendy performed as Red Sonja before she created and rose to fame with Elfquest. To honor the Halloween season and the return of Red Sonja to comic book prominence I thought I’d post a few pictures of Wendy Pini that have been floating around the net.


This great picture is from Mark Evanier’s site. Here in 1977, Wendy shows up as a surprise guest along with comic fan/retaliator Phil Seuling on the Mike Douglas Show. Mark has a nice story behind this pic check out the link.

Red Sonja and Hyborian Players have resurrected the show but they certainly haven’t forgotten their origins. The troop has a nice page here with lots of images of Wendy, Frank and other Sonjas from way back when. Here are a few of them:




The first picture includes Linda Berhle with Frank and Wendy, she’s a great Sonja in her own right! The last photo includes Red Sonja’s creator Roy Thomas in the middle. Wendy is in the upper left.

Comic Book Resources 53rd installment of Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed has short blurb on Wendy’s Red Sonja Convention appearances (here). The article has one of the most seen images:


Here are some other random pics from the web. Many of these Wendy shots are on so many different sites, I not sure who should get the credit for ‘em, I'll link if it's pointed out. These shots, I believe, are circa 1977.








If only I could have been there. Eat your heart out Xena fans, Red Sonja was first.

-Swinebread