Forthcoming Thrills!

[Max Headroom]

I don't really see the point of a 'Barbarian Files' really, as we have (or will have) all of the stories printed in chronological order. The Poster Prog story has already been reprinted in a previous collection, but I do hope 'Arrow of God' and the two remaining Dice Man stories are not overlooked in the either one or two trades to come. Also, there is a short story called 'Beyond' which appears in Year Prog 2000 which I think leads into 'The Secret Commonwealth' which will probably need to be included as well. My own personal preference is for one (albeit hefty!) volume comprising all this material to be released in 2014 (which we may have to pay a little bit more for), as to split into two would leave both volumes just a bit too thin. 

[credo]

... De Montfort as yet another archetypal Mills Torque-baddie would have been horrendously predictable, but as it was the twist Mills delivered in that story was pretty darn clever. 

Agree that it would probably have been hackneyed. In my mind I just transplant the opening scene of De Montefort burning the Cathars into a scene from The Two Torquemadas. To my mind, the depiction of De Montefort as doing the work of the Goddess in the name of Christianity is one of the few examples of Mills seeming to betray his own politics/morality in his work.

The story is probably my personal highlight of mid-period Slaine. 

Didn't like any of them much at the time, but Lord of Misrule was much better on reread.

The less said about King of Hearts the better.

Too true.

[TordelBack]

The Poster Prog story has already been reprinted in a previous collection...

Soth!  You're right, quick visit to the bookshelf reveals it's the Power short at the back of Demon Killer - damn, I thought I had more Slaine to look forward to!

The Mammoth in the room re: a putative skinny Volume 10 is that 90% of it would have to be Secret Commonwealth, a strong contender for the worst-ever Slaine story.  At least a bumper all-in Volume 9 would have lots of strong content to offset that.  I actively wince at the idea of handing over 20 euros for the Secret Commonwealth.  Again.  Do the right thing Tharg!

[Colin YNWA]

* I loathe King of Hearts and its Braveheart bandwagoneering guff, and can't read the Grail Wars stories without thinking about how an earlier Mills would have been more likely to have Simon De Montefort as an incarnation of Torquemada. He really was scraping the Slaine-across-time barrel by this point.

In its defence (not that it really deserves one I'm not a fan of this period of Slaine at all) the ever better informed than me Grant Goggins explains some of its problems here.

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,26085.15.html

[TordelBack]

Oh it's not the pacing that's the problem with King of Hearts - its actually quite brisk, despite supposedly taking place over 7 years.  It's that I'd already seen the movie and it was better, I can't tell Slaine and William Wallace apart most of the time and they are the only two human characters, and the whole thing apparently takes place at the bottom of a stagnant pond (which is a bit much, even for Scotland).  But it is quite short, and Percival draws ladies' unclad bottoms in a more-than-acceptable fashion.

I think it's important to distinguish The Grail War from Secret of the Grail.  The former is clever and quite original in the overcrowded field of Cathar historical fantasies, confounds expectations and has some great images from Tappin.  While the latter is still fun, it's far more conventional, there's some terrible rave-humour and the wheels begin to come off the art towards the end as it slides towards generic fantasy.  Still makes Vol. 8 one of the more interesting and diverse collections in the saga.   

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah that's why I was careful to say 'some' of the problems. It has many.

[TordelBack]

Yeah that's why I was careful to say 'some' of the problems.

Hey, I thought that was just you setting me up for a rant.  Some wingman you are.

[Colin Zeal]

I've never really read much Slaine. Which trades have the early stories in and are they still in print?

[TordelBack]

I've never really read much Slaine. Which trades have the early stories in and are they still in print?

Slaine is very well-served by the current trade line.  There are 8 trades collecting almost everything in original print-order up to the end of Slaine's time-travelling experiences, with one or two more to go, and then a series of hardbacks collecting the Langley-era stuff.  The 'early' stuff (aka the 'good' stuff) is in the first 4 softback volumes, Warrior's Dawn (Kincaid, Bellardnelli and McMahon), Time Killer (Bellardinelli, Pugh and Fabry), Slaine The King (Collins and Fabry) and The Horned God (Bisley).  All are still in print, I believe.  90% of the contents of those four is pure gold, the other 10% is pretty good too.  If you get nothing else buy and love Volume 1: Warrior's Dawn, one of the best collections of anything out there under a cover that is the Greatest Single Image in 2000AD history (IMO).

[Dark Jimbo]

I've never really read much Slaine. Which trades have the early stories in and are they still in print?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Complete-Slaine/lm/R185PMD29W62GG/ref=cm_lmt_dtpa_f_1_rdssss0

[sheldipez]

I've never really read much Slaine. Which trades have the early stories in and are they still in print?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Complete-Slaine/lm/R185PMD29W62GG/ref=cm_lmt_dtpa_f_1_rdssss0

Cheers! that helps a lot

[hippynumber1]

Wasn't there some problems with one of these hardbacks? I seem to remember something about missing pages or text or pages printed in the wrong order or upside down or some such? I've held off buying these because of this...

[Skullmo]

Wasn't there some problems with one of these hardbacks? I seem to remember something about missing pages or text or pages printed in the wrong order or upside down or some such? I've held off buying these because of this...

They forgot to include the story!


(I'm joking I have not read any of the later Slaine)

[Silent_Bomber]

The 'early' stuff (aka the 'good' stuff) is in the first 4 softback volumes, Warrior's Dawn (Kincaid, Bellardnelli and McMahon), Time Killer (Bellardinelli, Pugh and Fabry), Slaine The King (Collins and Fabry) and The Horned God (Bisley).  All are still in print, I believe.  90% of the contents of those four is pure gold, the other 10% is pretty good too.

The only one I'd go as far as to say that for is Warriors Dawn personally.

The Horned God is mostly good too. The other two I thought were really inconsistent.

That's all I've read so far, I may jump straight to Invasions next based on what I've heard about the 90s stuff.

[credo]

I may jump straight to Invasions next based on what I've heard about the 90s stuff.

I don't think you'd miss anything continuity-wise, but Demon Killer and Lord of Misrule are pretty good fun (even though Demon Killer is basically a retread of the start of Time Killer).