Slaine: Treasures of Britain

[Ancient Otter]

At the risk of being completely lambasted I have to say that Mike McMahon's art just doesn't do it for me.

The general consensus I thought was (is?) that it is a Marmite piece of work - you'll either love it or hate it so I don't foresee a eruption of angry posts (hopefully!) Agree with you on Angie Kincaid and Simon Bisley

Looking forward to getting my hands of the new volume this week as I've never read this before - and it remind John Boorman's film Excalibur again soon.

[Ancient Otter]

Reminds me to watch Excalibur again soon - sorry, editing failure!

[I, Cosh]

It bloody is! And it always has been. And every word that begins with a 'n' sound should have a silent g, as it's much better when everything looks as through spoken by gnasher. Gnorks, gnickers, gnackers, gnockers, etc.

I always thought the joke was that the "G" in Gnasher (and anything he says) wasn't silent.

[SmallBlueThing]

I had friend at junior school who read the beano each week and called him 'ger-nasher'. He was once castigated in front of the class for this by miss ashby, and i always thought that unfair. It's much funnier if he is 'ger-nasher'. I was also a bit pissed off that the 'dennis and gnasher' tv cartoon that runs daily on cbbc plainly calls him 'nasher'. I agree, it's like half the joke has gone.

SBT

Edit: im not commenting on the long post about slaine as yet, not through rudeness, but because ive just got home after a long day and will have to read tomorrow.

[Professor Bear]

Anyway, it's out and my friday night is sorted.

It's fortunate - and arguably amazing - that you are married already, SBT.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Waiting for it to appear at the online store.

[TordelBack]

Three new Dredd photos AND the Return of the Mayor!  Oh frabtious day!

Welcome back, ThryllSeekyr, you have been missed.

[glassstanley]

Until I had another read of the book this afternoon, I had fond memories of the story. Fairly straight-forward quest plot, interesting supporting character in Hengwulf, and Ukko even had a part of the story.

But why did there have to be *thirteen*  treasures? I found that really bugging me this time round. SUddenly, there isn't a clear start and end to the quest. It just runs on until they have reached the appropriate episode count, and then all the other treasures were in Arthur's tomb anyway. It seems such an odd thing to do, given that the story clearly wasn't going to last long enough for them to find all thirteen. Has Pat Mills ever explained this? It's something that even Victor (for boys!) got right with 'Seven Tasks for Morgyn the Mighty'.

[TordelBack]

Pat will say either (a).  Celtic myths don't operate within your narrow post-classical view of what constitutes an heroic story with all its loose ends tied up in predictable numerical balance or (b). it was very popular with the majority of fans but a vocal minority of self-appointed critics used the voting slip to pressurise editorial to cut it short.  Possibly both. 

Dying to get my hands on this, mind.

[Cthulouis]

But why did there have to be *thirteen*  treasures?

I haven't read the story, but my guess it is something to do with these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasures_of_Britain

[ThryllSeekyr]

[vark]

Received mine today, yessssss!
It contains both Treasures of Britain books + Ukko's Tale: The Cloak of Fear that has never been reprinted in trade before (so finally there is new material for me!).
In UK if I'm not mistaken all further material up to the Book of Invasions has never been reprinted in paperback so I'm really looking forward to the next Rebellion books (although in France, the first series of 11 albums published in the nineties had finished with "King of Hearts").

Forgot also to say that the spine is numbered (#7).

[vark]

By the way, I hace checked the prog covers of Barney's database but I can find where the illustration used for this GN comes from. A new one?

[Dark Jimbo]

By the way, I hace checked the prog covers of Barney's database but I can't find where the illustration used for this GN comes from.

It's a blown-up panel from the story itself.

[TordelBack]

Hurrah, finally got hold of a copy!

This was a serious treat.  I think I'd only ever read the first episode before, so it was basically an all-new Slaine story as far as I was concerned - two, if you count the rather charming Steve Tappin musical number that serves as a interlude.  Now there's a reason for this - I hated Slaine's time-travelling adventures at the time, and however much I could buy into him bashing Romans, I drew the line at Robin Hood and King Arthur never mind William-bloody-Wallace.  However, this time out I was wrong.  Pat has an awful lot to say about the Arthurian tales and how they play into his unique take on Celtic mytholoogy - and to my surprise it really works.

In answer to Glassstanley's niggle about the 13 Treasures, Pat tells us about the first six right at the start - they are the four sacred items of the Horned God (Sword, Spear, Cauldron, Stone = 4), which Slaine already spent a couple of volumes assembling back before the Flood, plus Arthur's Siege Perilous (5) wot he is sat upon.  Of the remaining seven: Merlin's Cloak of Invisibility (6) is found at Stonehenge in the first episode; Morgaine also gives Slaine the Helmet of the Green Knight (7); the Chessboard  (8) he gets from Lancelot; the Mirror (9) he gets from Guinivere; the Pavilion (10) from Peredur; the Tusk (11) Ukko gets from the King of the Orcs; the Blood of the Sorceress (12) he gets from Arthur (and, I suppose, Merlin too); and finally the Ring (13) from Morgaine.  With the exception of the last (which just sort of appears), it seems very well planned out: each of the major characters is attached to the quest for a particular treasure, and their story/nature explored during the chase.  However, I'd agree that the story stops about one or two episodes too soon, as discussed further below.

Dermot draws some fantastic pages, his faces and half-page portraits in particular are superb, and his designs for Arthur from young boy to a very original-looking warrior king to brooding catatonic are probably the single standout success of the story.  As always with the painted years everything feels very static and there are virtually no backgrounds, and those there are can be rather odd.  There are other  problems - Hengwulf's appearance is very inconsistent, even when he's not changing into  a dragon, and there are far, far too many pages spent on Slaine pointlessly rucking with Dermot's idiosyncratic Guledig (I'm a Pugh man all the way when it comes to Cythrons), to the detriment of space available for the rest of the fighting in the story.  The design for the King of the Orcs is bizarre, and not really in a good way, but there's no denying he's drawn well.
     
I think is the strongest of Slaine's time-warrior stories to be collected so far, in that it's coherent and not particularly preachy.  That said, I have a few niggles of my own. The constant references to women as 'frigid' (not to mention 'cold' and 'controlling') feels as awkwardly offensive and dated as some of the dialogue in Darkie's Mob, even if it is because they're possessed by Cythrons. 

And finally, there's no attempt to square this Merlin with the 'swineherd' Myrddin of Time Killer - or indeed to explain or explore this Merlin at all. I can't help thinking that this is why the end feels a bit abrupt - I suspect that the quest of the Ring would have been the opportunity to cover this ground, but the

A very good addition to the Slaine collection - shame about the rather generic cover, which while an enlarged panel actually has nothing to do with the story at all.