Pimping the Trades: Slaine Volume 1: Warrior's Dawn...

[The Amstor Computer]

Celtic Pride!

Tir-nan-og ? the ?Land of the Young? ? is a violent world, home to warring tribes who worship gods both benign and malevolent. One such tribe is the Sessair, brave warriors of enormous skill, and the best of them is a young barbarian named Sl?ine Mac Roth. Sl?ine is, among other things, a master of the ?warp-spasm? ? channelling the mystical power of the Earth through his body to become a mighty, monstrous berserker!

In this first collection of Sl?ine?s adventures, we meet the hero himself and his repellent dwarf companion, Ukko, and are introduced to the customs and wonders of his world ? and the horrors, like the Sloughs: sinister magicians who worship death and destruction, and can raise armies of the dead to their dark bidding...

Contents

The Time Monster
The Beast in the Broch
Warrior's Dawn
The Beltain Giant
The Bride of Crom
The Creeping Death
The Bull Dance
Heroes' Blood
The Shoggey Beast
Sky Chariots

Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904265332/qid=1113656035/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-9914778-6842863" target="_blank">He didn't think it too much...

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[paulvonscott]

I got mine today, it's lovely to have all of these collected at last.

[The Amstor Computer]

This is the third book in the Rebellion/DC line credited as being edited by Dominic Preston, and going by this and Nikolai Dante Volume 2, he's doing a fine job.

Warrior's Dawn collects 10 complete adventures from the beginning of Slaine's long saga, among them some of the finest stories Pat Mills ever wrote with this character.

Beautifully illustrated by Mike McMahon & Massimo Belardinelli (whose work has often been unfairly overlooked in previous Slaine collections) this really is a very satisfying read, and very different from anything in 2000AD at the time.

Reproduction is generally very good, though McMahon's art sometimes suffers from the reduction in size. There are occasions when quality control slips, though; Belardinelli's The Bull Dance is particularly poor, but odd pages in Sky Chariots have lost a deal of detail & lack the subtlety of the originals, and of previous reprints. These odd slips don't really affect the enjoyment of the reader, but they are a niggle.

More irritating is the poor choice of cover images. The front cover has been a particular bugbear of mine since the first preview images appeared, and it's sad to see it wasn't swapped for a piece more in keeping with the contents. More infuriating is the faux-carved image on the reverse that bastardises a panel from Sky Chariots to little effect. Finally, the poor choice of colours for the spine - dark brown text on light brown background - is something that will be familiar to readers of the 2000AD Input pages and it's no less annoying here.

Look past this, though, and you'll be rewarded with a complete slice of one of 2000AD's finest early creations that finally gives readers a full picture of the early adventures of this character and gives both Angie Kincaid & Massimo Belardinelli their due place.  

[Art]

Weirdest advice column I've ever read...

(From The Stranger, Seattles free weekly newspaper - and the only free paper I know of to have put Cthulhu on the cover.)

Link: http://www.thestranger.com/current/savage.html" target="_blank">Savage Love

http://www.thestranger.com/current/home_cover.jpg">

[+rufus+]

Hopefully if and when 'Shoggey Beast' is reprinted, They can borrow the originals from me.
It'd have been nice to have had the slaine covers to the appropriate Progs in as well.
and a decent cover.
Cam K did a crackin good Sky Chariots cover in the original run, he'd have done a great cover for the collection.
 or even better got Mick to do it. that slaine book one cover is my favourite piece of art of all time.
Take that mona Lisa!
rufus

[The Amstor Computer]

I'd have loved to see Cam turn out a cover for this book. He may not have worked on any of the strips in the book, but his style is far closer to McMahon's than Jim Murray's glossy Slaine.

A McMahon cover would have been fantastic, but I understood he wasn't working in comics anymore. Would he have returned for a one-off commission like that, provided time allowed & the price was right?

[Carlsborg Expert]

Shheeit. Thats another tenner on the back burner.

Ive been waiting for the early stories since, ooh, I aquired the "Horned God" hardback.

[+rufus+]

It's a good collection. I picked up the Bad Co. TPB today too, and the art looks stretched (like 'Quality' did in the eighties).
It's a shame, because it's a nice collection. Weird seeing it so small though.
R

[IndigoPrime]

:: the art looks stretched

Probably because it was. Not a good decision IMO.

[The Amstor Computer]

They only did it on the first story, though, so it was even more noticeable. Thankfully, all of the other books since seem to have had the art shrunk proportionately.

[+rufus+]

Phew! ithough it was my eyes finally going! what an earth possessed them to print it like that?
another triumph for 2000AD quality control.
R

[IndigoPrime]

The reasoning was most likely because 2000 AD's dimensions were different for the first story, so you'd have had larger margins for that as compared to the rest of the book. Maybe someone thought this looked odd and decided that stretching the art by about 10 per cent would look less odd.

[Cliffy]

Anyone else see a printing problem in the middle of the book?  On mine it looks like the ink ran out on four pages near the end of the Bride of Crom story, with pages being printed only with a very light grey and some sections of even that smeared beyond recognizition.

Hopefully my LCS has an intact copy I can swap for.

--Cliffy

[Art]

Yeah, I found the stretching more than a little annoying in Bad Company.

[Artificial Idiot]

Only picked this up very recently, and despite the fact I wasn't going to get it at all... I was really impressed. This was possibly my favorite paperback in terms of how it was put togeather, with only Swimming in Blood matching it in quality. The notes on his world at the start were excellent, although I felt a few more phrases could have been explained. And while I know the Origins bit at the back are also prog reprint material, it was wise of them to include it.

As for the contents, loved it! I can't believe this is the same Slaine that appeared in 'Tara' that was putting me off getting this book! Mcmahon's art took awhile to grow on me, as I thought the art of the first tale he drew was pretty sketchy and it was hard to see exactly what was going on. But by the time Sky Chariots rolled around, I was in awe. Amazing work. Truely amazing. Despite some pages of Sky Chariots being very faint.

Will we be seeing another any time soon? Or is it one of those books that Rebellion have pushed beyond the back of oblivion?