Sideshow Vote - To warp or not that is the question

[broodblik]

O quam cito transit gloria mundi = How quickly the glory of the world passes away


See Jim why we should not have stopped comics after Sky Chariot some of us decided on the adventurous route

[JayzusB.Christ]

I'm not entirely sure about this, but I seem to remember that The Horned God tied up every important plot thread that Pat had woven through the series from the start, with the exception of one:  [spoiler]Balor[/spoiler].

(Obviously there was the bit about 'perhaps his greatest challenge' coming soon, but the cynic in me can't help thinking that taking the series further was something that only really occurred to Pat when he was finishing up the Horned God.)

When that last plot thread was finally dealt with, I felt a bit short-changed -[spoiler] did it really have to be exactly the same as Quagslime's fate in the earlier Sláine the King, and did it have to have exactly the same dialogue[/spoiler]?

(My answer is no.  No it didn't.)

[AlexF]

I'm glad Sláine continued, have enjoyed an awful lot of it (mostly in collected editions rather than in the weekly, it must be said) but I can't help but agree that the strip up to end of Horned God works really rather well as a saga of decent length. So yes, it should've stopped, and Mills should've given us more of his alternate history lessons using other/new characters instead.

[Rogue Judge]

I'm glad Sláine continued, have enjoyed an awful lot of it (mostly in collected editions rather than in the weekly, it must be said) but I can't help but agree that the strip up to end of Horned God works really rather well as a saga of decent length. So yes, it should've stopped, and Mills should've given us more of his alternate history lessons using other/new characters instead.

I like this summary/recommendation. I haven't read enough Slaine to vote but will say, I've enjoyed reading through early Slaine but cannot get into more modern stuff at all.

[The Corinthian]

There's a lot of good stuff post-The Horned God, but it does feel like the story Mills started telling in 1983 ended in 1990 and he's just been doodling ever since. Plus THG would give the series a far more appropriate conclusion than the "let's just randomly stop it here" one we got last year.

[Southstreeter]

Books of Invasions had a proper ending, as his tribe passed into legend. And then Slaine pissed about for another decade or so.

[Woolly]

Books of Invasions had a proper ending, as his tribe passed into legend. And then Slaine pissed about for another decade or so.

This.

The end of Books of Invasions was the closest we've had to a proper end point for Slaine, so for me I'm happy it extended beyond Horned God.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

in terms of art, i think pugh, fabry, mcmahon and belardinelli were more inspirational than bisley.
the words were always weak, but fun.

imho.

[broodblik]

This was one was very close it with one extended battle that ended in a stalemate, so I called on Danu and from her cauldron the result came clear:

Voting closed the winner:

It should have continued

[broodblik]

So everything ends up equally and I went for the yes Slaine should have continued otherwise we would have missed out on all those wonderful art. The only story that I was really disappointed about was Dragontamer (that art was sublime) and not about the fact that this was the last Slaine but it was just a mediocre ending, nothing ending. The ending was more a case for me if I cannot play with the toys nobody can. Does not matter what a certain writer said, I never believed that this was always the attended ending.

[AlexF]

I have to imagine that Mills wrote the script for Dragontamer before he'd declared that he was done writing comics for Rebellion - and I like to hold out hope that he will, one day, write more.

Not really sure at this point HOW he could 'end' the story of Slaine. As many have said, it ended pretty neatly after both Horned God and Books of Invasions, and the idea of seeing him die doesn't seem like a) it would add any value and b) that it would stop him being reborn...

[broodblik]

That will always be the biggest problem with long running strips, how do you end it. If you have not had an attended ending in mind when you started it just killing of  a character sounds very lazy. Maybe ride of into the sunset (or in Slaine's case joining up with Danu in hir cauldron) or sitting on the front porch smoking his pipe waiting for old age to finally catch-up with him.

[Goosegash]

If it had stopped at The Horned God, we would never have had The Books of Invasion, which are probably my most-beloved Slaine highlight. But even a bad Slaine story (of which there are a few) is better than most other strips, so the fact that it reached a peak early is no reason not to give this particular hoary old idea the contempt it deserves.

I'm of the mind that Judge Dredd's best ever story is The Apocalypse War, and it should never have continued past that. See how silly that is? (Though I do partially agree with it and Dredd mostly bores me stupid these days).

SBT

You jest but I've seriously heard people on other forums express the opinion that Apocalypse War is the point Dredd jumped the shark and nothing after that is worth the time.

[Richard]

They must be morons; the period after The Apocalypse War was a golden age.

[The Legendary Shark]

The Apocalypse War was Dredd's coming of age, the border between children's comic caricature and maturing character. Nothing after could ever be the same.