Sláine The King (Titan)

REPRINT MATERIAL

Sláine

Warrior's Dawn 1 episode (Prog 335) 6 pages
Script: Pat Mills, Artist: Mike McMahon, Letters: Tom Frame
Reprinted
The Best of 2000AD Special Edition 1993
DC/Rebellion: Sláine Warrior's Dawn
Titan: Sláine The Collected Slaine
Titan: Sláine Book 1
Titan: Sláine The King
Quality: Spellbinders 02, Colour: Unknown
Rebellion: Sláine Warrior's Dawn

Sky Chariots 9 episodes (Progs 352 to 360) 52 pages
Script: Pat Mills, Artist: Mike McMahon
Reprinted
The Best of 2000AD 21
DC/Rebellion: Sláine Warrior's Dawn
Quality: Sláine the Berserker/King 02 (1-3), Colour: Unknown
Quality: Sláine the Berserker/King 03 (4-9), Colour: Unknown
Titan: Sláine The Collected Slaine
Titan: Sláine Book 1
Titan: Sláine The King
Rebellion: Sláine Warrior's Dawn

Slaine the King 12 episodes (Progs 500 to 519) 62 pages
Script: Pat Mills, Artist: Glenn Fabry (1-12), Nik Williams (inks 3), Letters: Steve Potter
Featuring: Niamh
Not in Progs 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516
Reprinted
The Best of 2000AD 81
Quality: Sláine the Berserker/King 21 (1-2), Colour: Unknown
Quality: Sláine the Berserker/King 22 (3-5), Colour: Unknown
Quality: Sláine the Berserker/King 23 (6-8), Colour: Unknown
Titan: Sláine The Collected Slaine
Titan: Sláine The King
Titan: Sláine The King
Rebellion: Sláine The King
Titan: Sláine The King Special Edition

The Killing Field 1 episode (Prog 582) 3 pages
Script: Angie Kincaid, Artist: Glenn Fabry
Slaine the King - A Prologue
Reprinted
Titan: Sláine The Collected Slaine
Titan: Sláine The King
Rebellion: Sláine The King
Titan: Sláine The King Special Edition

Slaine the Mini-Series 3 episodes (Progs 589 to 591) 14 pages
Script: Pat Mills, Artist: Glenn Fabry
Reprinted
2000AD Yearbook 1993
Titan: Sláine The Collected Slaine
Titan: Sláine The King
Rebellion: Sláine The King
Titan: Sláine The King Special Edition

REVIEW BY W. R. LOGAN

What is the best artwork ever to appear within the pages of 2000AD? A point that many people will argue about until the thrill suckers come home, but in my opinion it was achieved between Progs 352 and 360. The artist was Mike McMahon, the story 'Sky Chariots' and written by Pat Mills when his tales of Sláine Mac Roth were as charged with earth magic as Sláine himself.

Titan's Deluxe Edition, Sláine: The King, contains this very story with the edition bound in a hardback cover & slipcase, printed on glossy paper that makes the black and white artwork far more vivid than it ever appeared within the pages of 2000AD. The hardback editions have a look and feel that put them in a class of their own and makes them stand out against the normal Titan Graphic Novels. No matter how good the package, it's the contents that will encourage people to spend their money and Sláine: The King has some seminal moments in Sláine's history. They will make the old reader remember how great Sláine once was and you have to envy any new reader who will get to read these stories for the first time.

The first two stories, 'Warriors Dawn' and 'Sky Chariots' are by Mike McMahon, who had radically changed his style from what readers were used to on Judge Dredd to the scratchy tribal realism he used on Sláine. Then in complete contrast we have 'Sláine The King' and 'He Didn't Think It Too Many' with artwork by Glenn Fabry. To me Mike's work is the definitive Sláine but I'd guess that too many a reader it's the realistic and detailed work Glenn produced that encapsulates all the qualities that made Sláine one of the greatest 2000AD creations.

This Classic Edition also contains a foreword by Pat Mills wrote in November 2001, which adds some insight into the creation of the Warped Warrior and pays credit to Angie Mills for her part in the characters creation.

The hardback editions look good, feel good and present the black and white artwork in a way that many readers will never have seen before, but the contents contain some beautifully rendered artwork. This edition is worth its price purely for the 'Sky Chariots' episodes but if you hanker for the days when the warped warriors stories were charged with earth power, with fantastic art and stories where Pat Mills wove a truly magical adventure, then this should take pride of place on your book shelf. It deserves to be read, read and read again as you will never soak up all the magic that these stories contain, no matter how many times you pick this edition up you'll never think it too many.