Getting into Slaine and Strontium Dog

[LeicesterNige]

Hello wise ones

I'm putting together a Crimbo list and would like some advice please.

Slaine- Can you recommend a suitable jumping on TPB as a good introduction to the character? I don't really have time to read everything so a good self-contained one shot to give me a flavour of the character would be great. And preferably something fairly recent.

Strontium Dog- Same really. I've currently got 'The Kreeler Conspiracy' on my list- the first book of the 'revival' stuff. Good place to start?

Sorry if this is covered elsewhere, is there a search function on this forum?

Cheers anyway

[IndigoPrime]

It's in serious need of an update (which I'm aiming to sort next week), but the 2000 AD books site has pages for Sláine and Strontium Dog.

With Sláine, you've really got two choices: the classic run or the Books of Invasions. (The recent—not yet on that site—Book of Scars will make no sense whatsoever if you've not read the classic run, so avoid that.) Personally, I rate Warrior's Dawn; even though it's the oldest, it has some great stories and art. The Horned God also works nicely as a standalone. I'm not sure I'd go for the newer run unless you can get the lot.

Strontium Dog sort of has a similar split of old/new, but if you've already got Kreeler Conspiracy, you may as well continue with the new run. That said, the older Strontium Dog stories (reprinted in the Search/Destroy Agency Files) are some of the best classic strips 2000 AD has ever published. Some of the very early stories in 01 haven't perhaps aged terribly well, but pretty much the rest of the run (and especially 02 and 03) is top-tier 2000 AD.

Clear as mud?

[Magnetica]

Pretty much agree with IndigoPrime's choices.

I myself have just re-read Warrior's Dawn and it is just fab.

Personally I also like Slaine the King, but that is mainly for Glenn Fabry's art, which in my opinion is up there with the best ever in the Prog.

As for Stront, I started reading Starlord before 2000AD and have a soft spot for the Strontium Dog tales that appeared in there, which are in SD Agency Files 01 (minus the colour on the original centre spreads - which does detract a bit ). That also contains some top early 2000AD stories such as Death's Head, The Schicklegruber Grab, The Doc Quince Case and The Bad Boys Bust. These are classic Strontium fun for me and that is where I would start - indeed I would go for the classic run not the revival as a starting point. It's  not that the revival is bad - far from it - just that these early Stront stories are pretty much as good as anything in 2000AD ever.

On the downside SD Agency Files 01 also has Journey into Hell which I do n't rate too much and is quite long and it also features possible the poorest, most out of character Strontium Dog story ever from the 1981 Starlord annual - having recently read this for the first time I am trying to forget it.

[Call-Me-Kenneth]

Slaine: The Horned God.

It's a no-brainer, you basiclly don't even really need to read another one, a fantastic addition to the saga, but also a great as a standalone experience.


As for SD: read the likes of 'max bubba', 'bitch' and 'the stone killers' to get a feel for the characters, before moving on to the brilliant 'no-go job' and the shattering 'final solution'..l

[Proteus4]

Call me Kenneth is sadly mistook, IMHO. You can't just jump into max bubba and the virtually skip to no go job. The punch in those two stories comes from loving and knowing the characters and their worlds. For my money, the very early stront that appeared in starlord you can leave - but you should start with portrait of a mutant and move forward from there. And read em all. They're awesome.

As for Slaine, your options are Time Killer/tomb of terror - silly action fun with multidimensional baddies and layser guns; Slaine the king - much more serious in tone with the fantastic art of Glen Fabry; or The Horned God - bizleys full painted artwork is of its time but is a true classic and the story's ok. My preference would be Slaine The King - try to get the Titan reprint off EBay.

Love
Dave

[Dandontdare]

On the downside SD Agency Files 01 also has Journey into Hell which I do n't rate too much and is quite long and it also features possible the poorest, most out of character Strontium Dog story ever from the 1981 Starlord annual - having recently read this for the first time I am trying to forget it.

Say what?  Journey into hell is a magnificent story!

I agree that the 1981 annual strip is pants.

[Dodsy]

On the downside SD Agency Files 01 also has Journey into Hell which I do n't rate too much and is quite long and it also features possible the poorest, most out of character Strontium Dog story ever from the 1981 Starlord annual - having recently read this for the first time I am trying to forget it.

The bit that always bugged me with Journey into Hell was when he [spoiler]crossed the desert and all his mates are already at the over end!

It's made out to be a big hardship and when Johnny eventually gets to the other end not only had eveyone else he was with but they bloody beat him there![/spoiler] 

[LeicesterNige]

Thanks all

I am going to go for Slaine 'The Horned God' and stick with Strontium Dog 'Kreeler Conspiracy'

I already have Agency Files 2 which is great but fancy the newer stuff.

I presume both books are in colour? (Hope so).

[IndigoPrime]

Horned God is colour, yes.

[TordelBack]

Don't see the point of reading The Horned God first myself.  It'd be like watching Return of the Jedi first because it had a bigger space battle at the end.  It's the culmination of a saga, and while spectacular draws much of its appeal from Slaine's journey north and the long build-up.  Start with Warrior's Dawn.  You can skip ahead to Horned God after that and at least know where the major players are coming from.

That said, it is a very lovely thing in and of itself.

[IronGraham]

I read horned God first and really enjoyed it as a hole tale

[TordelBack]

I read horned God first and really enjoyed it as a hole tale

Good to hear, and I'm sure you're not alone.

The thing about the beginning of Slaine for me is that it's one of those rare strips where the whole saga is all there fully-realised in the first episode: Slaine's at his lowest ebb, fighting monsters and tricking people for money under Ukko's guidance, and from here he begins his journey to godhood; he's in the far south, at the furthest from his home that he gets, and he starts his journey back north;  there's Angie Kincaid's terrific pan-European celtic dressing that sets the whole tone for what is to come; "Kiss my Axe"; skull-swords; drunes warping time and space with menhirs; time-travel itself.  It's just such a perfect opener, it seems a pity to relegate it to a prologue in the reading order.  That, and so much other goodness in the rest of the collection, all under the Greatest Cover of All Time.

TL;DR: I think Warrior's Dawn is good.

[IronGraham]

Don't worry I now have volume one and love it as much McMahon did some of his finest work in this volume and I'm looking forward to when i can afford the other volumes.

[Silent_Bomber]

Both these series' hit their peaks early and have never got back to their previous heights.

Best Slaine stories are in Warrior's Dawn IMO.

Best Strontium Dog Stories - Bitch, Moses Incident, Schicklgruber Grab, Portrait of a Mutant, Max Bubba, Outlaw etc

I'm hoping Strontium Dog will again reach its lofty heights one day, as the stories are at least good at the moment, Slaine I hold out pretty much zero hope for though to be honest.

[IndigoPrime]

Best Slaine stories are in Warrior's Dawn IMO.

That's pretty much how I feel about it. There's something about that early Sláine, with its energy and imagination, before it got bogged down in cinema-like eye candy and tedious rants about religion and subservience (even though the actual subjects are covered). I did like Horned God, and at the time the visuals wowed me, but on going back and reading older Sláine now, that first collection remains my favourite.

Strontium Dog I think was less fully formed, but really hit its stride with Portrait of a Mutant. The run was then practically flawless through to Rage and still on a decent high until Stone Killers. These days, it feels a bit off, for some reason, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps as Wagner's more mature pen has really paid dividends on Dredd, the same isn't so true for Alpha.