Slaine: Treasures of Britain

[Bat King]

Pointless airbrushing when everyone knows they aren't hers... she's a pretty lady who needs to eat more. Putting pretend boobs on her is daft.

But I think we are all way off topic... As far off as that poster from reality...

[vark]

As far as slaine goes- which i confess to not having read since i bouht it (i think the brown spines, all lined up, are putting me off. Brooowwwwwnnnn.) do we have a definite reason why those particular stories have been ignored- because it's becoming annoying now.

SBT

The colouring of at least one of the two missing story (don't remember which one at the moment) was a bit peculiar with blue skin human characters (not refering to hell demons here). Too much work do redo it perhaps ?

[The Bissler]

Was wondering what Slaine fans thought of the later books?  I've just bought the first five books (up to and including Demon Killer) but I've just read a few things online saying that Slaine should have ended after the Horned God (which I'm reading tomorrow for the first time)!  Does anyone agree/disagree with that opinion? 

Also, I'm not clear about the seqence of the books to buy - I noticed that the Books of Invasion and Slaine the Wanderer are in Hardback.  I'm a bit of a freak about these things and would prefer to just buy the paperbacks so they all match nicely on my shelf!  Does that mean I only have Lord of Misrule, Treasures of Britain and the first paperback edition of Books of Invasion to complete the paperbacks released to date?

[SmallBlueThing]

There are indeed some readers who belive Slaine should have ended with The Horned God. However, they are wrong.

There's a hell of a lot of great stuff following, and THG was never a highlight anyway.

Actually, that's early-morning grumpiness. Of course it's brilliant- but there are fantastic things to come. Yes, the strip has some low-points (though perversely, im really looking forward to the collected 'secret commowealth'), but no more than you'd expect from a 2000AD strip in the nineties. It's always had the genius of Pat Mills writing it, so is naturally better than 95% of comics without even trying.

As for the trades- i buy the langley volumes in hardback, and have 'the horned god' in hardback too, but the others in paperback. Happy with that and no intentions to upgrade. Well, except to finally get a copy of BoI 2 that's printed in the correct order.

SBT

[glassstanley]

I think the Grail quest saga is the weakest of the unpublished stories. It seems to ramble and I'm not sure what happens. Treasure of Britain is, to my mind, the strongest of the time-travelling stories.

I love the 'Lost Years' stories, especially the Swan Children. There's still some strong material to be reprinted.

[SmallBlueThing]

Indeed, the swan children is beautiful, and it's a shame siku wasn't used further. While his dreed never did anything for me, he was hugely suited to fantasy strips like slaine and telguuth.

SBT

[Dark Jimbo]

I certainly wouldn't say Horned God was the best Slaine story. I only read it for the first time recently, and I was expecting more, given all the hype - contrast that to Sky Chariots, which is just as good as everyone says, or Slaine the King, which nobody really mentions but which I happen to think is one of the best of all Slaine tales. The third act of Horned God I found particularly dissapointing - all the character stuff goes out the window in favour of loads of battle scenes, and the end feels cursory and rushed. Medb in particular gets a raw deal, just sort of dissapearing from the narrative without explanation save for a 'nobody knows what happened to Medb that day' caption. Well, great. She's been an established villian since the Belardinelli days and this is how her storyline ends. Meh.

[glassstanley]

[spoiler]That's not the end of Medb's storyline, though[/spoiler]

[Dark Jimbo]

Ah... see, I didn't realise that. I've read up to Horned God and then the Books of Invasions stuff, nothing inbetween.

[vark]

Like I've said before, in France Slaine saga has ended with King of Heart (and the b&w material has never been published), and because I was not a prog subscriber till last year I've only had the uk trade to catch up with.

To my opinion the saga I enjoyed the must is The Books of Invasions (+ Carnival). Pure reading pleasure and the best final so far (water.. I need water..). Clint Langley' art needs to be read in the most large format possible so I prefer the Hardback books. By the way SmallBlueThing which pages are printed in the wronf order in BoI2 ?

[SmallBlueThing]

In the version i have, nearly all of them! I have an early (first?) printing- the problem was fixed in later editions. But since i paid nothing for all three hardbacks, and have the progs, ive been loathe to replace up til now.

SBT

[Colin YNWA]

In keepin' with the forums new most popular thread, hang all this talk of Slaine, I never knew norks was spelt gnorks with a silent 'g'. Not a word you see written often. Learn something new everyday hey!

[Dark Jimbo]

I never knew norks was spelt gnorks with a silent 'g'.

That's because it isn't.

[SmallBlueThing]

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.

SBT

[The Bissler]

Ignoring the gnorks / norks controversy for a moment...
Thanks to everyone who responded to my earlier post!
I've just finished reading the first four volumes of Slaine and thought I'd share my general thoughts to anyone who is interested...

Warriors Dawn: I thought this book was pretty good but wasn't blown away by it, mostly because it comprises of a lot of short stories rather than one long tale.  It was interesting to learn the character's full background and see how he developed.  At the risk of being completely lambasted I have to say that Mike McMahon's art just doesn't do it for me.  The level of detail in his art is very impressive - particularly in Sky Chariots - but I've just never taken to his style (think this goes back to Dredd for me when his work often alternated with Brian Bolland's... I loved the crispness of Bolland's work and found myself often frustrated by the more chaotic style that Mike employs).  I preferred Massimo Belardinelli's episodes and have to say that it was a real shame that Angie Kincaid never drew more than the first episode, her art was very impressive indeed.

Time Killer: The first story Dragonheist is a decent read though nothing amazing.  The story isn't that gripping but is notable in that it introduces Nest and explains how Slaine acquired the Knucker.  Belardinelli's art for this story is excellent and packed full of detail.  I particularly enjoyed his illustrations of the dragons!  Then its into the Time Killer tale, which (along with Tomb of Terror in the next book) represents for me the very best Slaine tales to date. Time Killer sees Slaine in a much bigger universe than previously thought and the story constantly bombards the reader with new creatures and ideas while at the same time packing each episode with non-stop frenetic action - and very funny dialogue between Slaine and Ukko.  Glenn Fabry's work here is outstanding and beautiful to look at. Fellow artist David Pugh's episodes aren't quite as well illustrated (sometimes I think there's something not quite right about the characters' faces) but in fairness his output seems to be double that of Fabry's and it is still of a very high standard.

Slaine the King: This continues directly on from Time Killer with Tomb of Terror and I was delighted to find that with the same team that worked on Time Killer, the quality is just as high in this tale as the previous one.  My only gripe is that I felt the conclusion of Tomb of Terror was a little rushed and could have benefited by being a few pages longer.  Following that classic tale is the somewhat disappointing Spoils of Annwn where Slaine goes through several trials of the zodiac.  I felt that Mills delighted in showing off his research into mythology at the expense of a compelling narrative and while there is nothing really bad about art by Collins and Farmer, there is nothing really great about it either.  I was relieved when I came to the end of that story, as I felt getting through this turgid tale was a greater trial than any that Slaine encountered.  The quality improves again as we finally then move into the Slaine the King stories which I enjoyed as I finally got to see Slaine's home.  It wasn't anywhere near as good as Time Killer and Tomb of Terror - mostly because it really serves to set the scene for the Horned God - but Fabry's welcome return showcases what is his best work on the series to date.  Simply sublime, it's just beautiful to look at.

The Horned God: Like Dark Jimbo I was a little disappointed by this story after hearing so much about it.  It's annoying at the start as it recaps on the whole story to date and from there on the story in Books 1 & 2 is a bit slow and the threats to the heroes seem a little too easily overcome.  Book 3 on the other hand is full out war but given the catastrophic events that unfold, it's strange that there doesn't seem to be much sense of loss or feeling.  I think my biggest problem with The Horned God is that the character of Slaine seems to have completely changed.  While this transformation provides us with a more three dimensional character, it just isn't as much fun.  I felt that a cretinous character in Book 3 left a bad taste in the mouth as it was an obvious case of Mills wilfully insulting some readers; "Yurr! I don't like the comp...comp...complicated bits.  I only like it when he's killing people".  For me, Slaine is at it's best when both the ideas and action come thick and fast, which is why I loved Time Killer so much.
As for Simon Bisley's art, I am a fan, but...  Some of the artwork is absolutely wonderful but frustratingly the quality is inconsistent (which I also found to be the case with his work on the ABC Warriors Black Hole story).  Why Bisley illustrates some of the characters pulling bizarre faces is beyond me because it just looks daft.  I also wish he'd draw some backgrounds!   That said though, I'd like to reiterate that some of the stuff is just gorgeous.  I particularly like the 1st panel that lets us see Ukko as an old dwarf and Slaine with the dog is just fantastic. 

Anyway, to anyone who's still with me, thanks for reading all of my rambling thoughts on the books!  I look forward to reading any responses to my reviews!