Xena: Warrior Princess (comics)

Xena: Warrior Princess was a series of comic books based on the television series of the same name. Topps Comics and Dark Horse Comics created a series of comics tying into the property. In 2007, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the rights to the series.

Xena
Cover of Xena: Warrior Princess 0 (Oct 1997)
, art by Aaron Lopresti
Character information
First appearanceHercules: The Legendary Journeys #3 (August 1996)
In-story information
Full nameXena
Publication information
PublisherTopps Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dynamite Entertainment
ScheduleMonthly
FormatsOriginal material for the series has been published as a set of ongoing series and limited series.
Genre
Publication dateOctober 1997 – 2009
Number of issues55
Main character(s)Xena: Warrior Princess
Reprints
Collected editions
The Warrior Way of DeathISBN 1-56971-452-5
Xena: Contest of PantheonsISBN 1-933305-35-5

Publication history

Topps Comics published the first Xena series of comics, titled Xena: Warrior Princess. Xena's character was originally introduced in the 1996 Topps Comics series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, issues #3, #4, and #5. These were followed by the Xena: Warrior Princess comics released in a limited series format, with the vast majority being three-issue series, in 1997 and 1998.

Dark Horse acquired the license in 1999.

Dynamite Entertainment began new stories in 2007.

There have been a number of crossovers with other properties within the companies, including three mini-series with Army of Darkness: "Why Not?", "What, Again?", and "Forever and a Day"[1]

All publishers used cover rations involving photo covers, with stills from the television series, and drawn/inked/colored art covers.

Publishers

Topps Comics

Many of the comics were released with multiple covers: one photo cover and one cover with a comic book artist's rendering. These Topps comics introduced Xena's character:

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys #3

Title: The Warrior Princess: Part One of Three
Cover Date: August 1996
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Jeff Butler
Inks: Steve Montana
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Digital Chameleon
Editor: Renée Witterstaetter
Painted Cover: Zina Saunders
Photo Cover: Geoffrey Short

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys #4

Title: The Warrior Princess: Part Two of Three – The Shaper
Cover Date: September 1996
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Jeff Butler
Inks: Rick Magyar and Steve Montano
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Lisa Slykerman and Digital Chameleon
Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
Cover: Brian Stelfreeze (This issue only had an art cover)

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys #5

Title: The Warrior Princess: Part Three of Three – Smile For the Chimaera
Cover Date: October 1996
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Jeff Butler
Inks: Steve Montano
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Lisa Slykerman and Digital Chameleon
Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
Cover: Earl Norem (This issue only had an art cover)

Topps Xena: Warrior Princess comics included several limited series:

Xena: Warrior Princess: Year One #1

Title: Plowshares Into Swords
Cover Date: August 1997
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Yanick Paquette
Inks: Armando Gil
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Digital Chameleon
Editor: Charles S Novinskie
Painted Cover: Yanick Paquette
Photo Cover: Unknown

Xena: Warrior Princess Vol. 1, #1

Cover Date: August 1997
Story 1 Title: Revenge of the Gorgons
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Joyce Chin
Inks: Andy Lanning
1 Letters: Ken Lopez
1 Colors: Evelyn Stein and Digital Chameleon

Story 2 Title: Theft of the Young Lovelies, Part One
Writer: Robert Trebor
Pencils: Amanda Conner
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Digital Chameleon
Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
Painted Cover: Scott Campbell
Photo Cover 1: Unknown
Photo Cover 2: Unknown (This issue had three covers)

Xena: Warrior Princess Vol. 1, #2

Cover Date: September 1997
Story 1 Title: The Plant of Never-Death
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Joyce Chin
Inks: Andy Lanning
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Evelyn Stein and Digital Chameleon

Story 2 Title: Theft of the Young Lovelies, Part 2
Writer: Robert Trebor
Pencils: Amanda Conner
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Digital Chameleon

Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
Painted Cover: Dave Stevens
Photo Cover 1: Unknown

Xena: Warrior Princess Vol. 1, #0

Cover Date: October 1997
Story 1 Title: The Temple of the Dragon God
Writer: Aaron Lopresti
Pencils: Aaron Lopresti
Inks: Hilary Barta, Jordi Ensign, Gary Martin, Tom Simmons, Aaron Lopresti
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Digital Chameleon

Story 2 Title: Theft of the Young Lovelies Part 3
Writer: Robert Trebor
Pencils: Amanda Conner
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Digital Chameleon

Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
Painted Cover: Aaron Lopresti
Photo Cover 1: Unknown

Xena: Warrior Princess/ Joxer: Warrior Prince Vol. 1, #1

Cover Date: November 1997
Writer: Tom and Mary Bierbaum
Pencils: Ron Lim
Inks: Armando Gil
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Digital Chameleon
Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
Painted Cover: Terese Nielsen
Frontispiece: Douglas Smith
Photo Cover: Unknown

Xena: Warrior Princess/ Joxer: Warrior Prince Vol. 1, #2

Cover Date: December 1997
Writer: Tom and Mary Bierbaum
Pencils: Ron Lim
Inks: Armando Gil and Keith Williams
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Digital Chameleon
Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
Painted Cover: Terese Nielsen
Frontispiece: Douglas Smith
Photo Cover: Unknown

Xena: Warrior Princess/ Joxer: Warrior Prince Vol. 1, #3

Cover Date: January 1998
Writer: Tom and Mary Bierbaum
Pencils: Ron Lim
Inks: Armando Gil
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Matthew Paine and Digital Chameleon
Editor: Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Painted Cover: Terese Nielsen
Frontispiece: Douglas Smith
Photo Cover: Unknown

Xena: Warrior Princess and The Dragon's Teeth Vol. 1, #1 December 1997

Xena: Warrior Princess and The Dragon's Teeth Vol. 1, #2 January 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess and The Dragon's Teeth Vol. 1, #3 February 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess vs. Callisto Vol. 1, #1 February 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess vs. Callisto Vol. 1, #2 March 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess vs. Callisto Vol. 1, #3 April 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess: The Orpheus Trilogy Vol. 1, #1 March 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess: The Orpheus Trilogy Vol. 1, #2 April 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess: The Orpheus Trilogy Vol. 1, #3 May 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess – Bloodlines Vol. 1, #1 May 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess – Bloodlines Vol. 1, #2 June 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess and the Original Olympics Vol. 1, #1 June 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess and the Original Olympics Vol. 1, #2 July 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess and the Original Olympics Vol. 1, #3 August 1998

The Marriage of Hercules and Xena Vol. 1, #1

No alternate title.
Cover Date: July 1998
Writer: Tom and Mary Bierbaum
Pencils: June Brigman, Aaron Lopresti
Inks: Claude St Aubin
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Digital Chameleon
Editor: Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Painted Cover: Alex Ross
Photo Cover: Unknown

Xena: Warrior Princess and The Wrath of Hera Vol. 1, #1 September 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess and The Wrath of Hera Vol. 1, #2 October 1998

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse's Xena series ran for 14 issues from 1999 to 2000,[2] with notable writers involved including John Wagner and Ian Edginton. Comics featuring Xena were also run in Dark Horse Presents Annual 1999, Dark Horse Jr.,[3] and 2000, Girls Rule!.[4] The series was incompletely collected into a series of three trade paperbacks.

Dynamite Entertainment

Dynamite started publishing Xena comics in 2006 with a four issue mini-series and an annual titled Xena.[5] It was written by John Layman with art by Fabiano Neves. In May 2007 Dynamite and Layman launched another four issue mini-series subtitled Dark Xena, set some time after Xena, with art by Noah Salonga.

In April 2016 a third series of six issues began, written by Catwoman writer Genevieve Valentine, with art by Ariel Mendel.[6] Dynamite started a new monthly Xena Warrior Princess series in February 2018 which ran for ten issues with writing by Meredith Finch and then Erica Schultz, followed by another six issue series written by Vita Ayala in 2019.

Dynamite also published the two four issue crossovers with Army of Darkness, Why Not? (2008) and What, Again? (2009), as well as the six issue crossover Forever And a Day (2016).

Collected editions

Topps Comics
  • Xena: Warrior Princess, collects Xena: Warrior Princess #1–2 and #0 with extra material from The Official Xena: Warrior Princess Magazine

Dark Horse Comics

The first 10 issues have been collected into trade paperbacks:

  • Xena: Warrior Princess:
    • The Warrior Way of Death (by John Wagner, with pencils by Joyce Chin, Clint Hilinski, Mike Deodato and Ivan Reis and inks by Walden Wong, Mike Deodato, Grant Nelson, tpb, collects Xena #1–3, 2000, ISBN 1-56971-452-5)
    • Slave (by John Wagner, with pencils by Joyce Chin and Mike Deodato, Jr.and inks by Clint Hilinski, Fabiano Neves and Walden Wong, tpb, collects Xena #4–6, 2000, ISBN 1-56971-471-1)
    • Blood and Shadows (by John Wagner, with pencils by Davide Fabbri and Mike Deodato and inks by Mark Heike, Neil Nelson, tpb, collects Xena #7–10, 2001, ISBN 1-56971-521-1)

Dynamite Comics
  • Xena: Contest of Pantheons (by John Layman (writer) and Fabiano Neves (artist), TPB collects Xena v1 #1–4, 2007, ISBN 1-933305-35-5)
  • Xena: Dark Xena (by John Layman (writer) and Noah Salonga (artist), TPB collects Dark Xena #1–4, 2007, ISBN 1-933305-61-4)
  • Xena, Warrior Princess: Classic Years Omnibus (collects the Dark Horse Xena: Warrior Princess #1–4, Dark Horse Presents: Dark Horse Jr. Annual 1999, and Dark Horse Presents: Girls Rule! Annual 2000, 2017, ISBN 978-1-5241-0330-9)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess – All Roads (collects Xena: Warrior Princess v2 #1–6, 2017, ISBN 978-1-5241-0160-2)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess Omnibus Volume One (collects Xena v1 #1–4, Dark Xena #1–4, and "Strange Visitor" from Xena Annual #1, 2017, ISBN 978-1-5241-0251-7)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess – Volume 1: Penance (collects Xena: Warrior Princess v4 #1–5, 2018, ISBN 978-1-5241-0734-5)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess – Volume 2: Mindgames (collects Xena: Warrior Princess v4 #5–10, 2019, ISBN 978-1-5241-1155-7)
  • Xena: Warrior Princess – Road Warrior (collects Xena: Warrior Princess v3 #1–6, 2019, ISBN 978-1-5241-1290-5)

John Layman's first Army of Darkness crossover was also collected.

  • Xena: Warrior Princess/Army of Darkness vol. 1: Why Not?, TPB collects Battered and Bruced #1–4, 2009, ISBN 1-60690-008-0

See also

References
  1. Xena & Army of Darkness: A Ridiculous Round 2, Comic Book Resources, October 22, 2008
  2. http://www.darkhorse.com/Search/Browse/%22xena%22/PpwNwkt8
  3. http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/98-390/Dark-Horse-Presents-Annual-1999-DHP-Jr
  4. http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/99-503/Dark-Horse-Presents-Annual-2000-Girls-Rule
  5. http://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C104977
  6. http://www.cbr.com/new-xena-warrior-princess-comic-debuting-in-april-from-dynamite/
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