Today is the first day of Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. It also happens to be the first day of Women's History Month, and Dynamite Entertainment is kicking off both with a big announcement, as the publisher revealed today that Gail Simone has signed on to write a new ongoing Red Sonja series, with the first issue arriving in stores this summer. Further, each cover will be created by a rotating cast of women artists, including Fiona Staples, whose cover for issue #1 you can see in full after the cut.

Joining Staples on rotating cover duty are veteran artists Nicola Scott, Colleen Doran, Jenny Frisson, and Stephanie Buscema. Dynamite Entertainment CEO Nick Barrucci has promised more female cover artists will be announced in the coming months. Walter Geovanni will provide interior art for the series, which Simone promises will feature plenty of "sex and swords."

"It's like this...even most of the best female heroines when I was a kid were pretty polite. What I love about Sonja is that she isn't polite, she says what she means and if you give her any lip about it, hello, sword in the gut. She's smart, she has a heart, she has some compassion. But when it's go time, she's a hellraiser, a mad general, she's a sword edge virtuosa, she's death on wheels. She is the woman you never want to mess with. I can relate, Sonja. No offense to all her guy writers, but THIS Red Sonja is about sex and swords! It's everything you love about Red Sonja, except with more monsters getting stabbed in the eye."

Created by Robert E. Howard in 1934, Red Sonja is a high fantasy sword and sorcery heroine known for her fiery red hair, bikini-like armor, indomitable will and legendary fighting prowess. She was originally adapted for comics by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, first appearing in Conan the Barbarian #23 from Marvel Comics in 1973.

Red Sonja #1 is due in stores this July.

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