Sláine, ranked part 14: World building

So this next batch are not the stories that invent Sláine's world, but they all do an AMAZING job of making you really feel like you're there, y'know? Not least because the art, in each case, is perfectly suited to the story, and brilliantly executed, too. 

Rank 14/60: The Bull Dance & Hero's Blood
by Pat Mills and Massimo Belardinelli and Mick McMahon

I guess this is as good a place as any to drop in the controversial image
that ended up appearing in print somewhere before the first episode of Sláine.
It's by Mick McMahon, and it's rather extraordinary.

Where to read it: Warrior’s Dawn
Original Run: Progs 344-347 (in the Year 1983; story 5 in sequence. Traditionally this is two separate tales, and I guess I could do it that way, but really Sláine's own situation just runs neatly from one into the other, so I'm choosing to elide the two. It wouldn't affect the scores anyway!)

The plot: As Medb and Slough Feg hatch a plot to bring down Sláine’s tribe up north, Sláine learns about a blacksmith who seems able to make iron weapons that are as tough as stone axes. His secret? He is using Sláine’s own blood to temper the metal...

Essential pre-reads: you can enjoy this story on its own, but it’s a direct follow-on from Bride of Crom (for the Medb stuff) and the Creeping Death (for the Sláine recovering from being sick stuff). (In case you're wondering, I've lumped those two stories together, too!)

Analysis: Basically another side-quest of a tale for Sláine, but there’s something deeply right about the feeling it gives of showing how our heroes stagger and stumble from one adventure to the next. Here we see Sláine slowly recovering from his brush with a zombie plague, while also getting the seeds of future travails to come from both Medb and Slough Feg. 

Medb and Slough Feg discuss Sláine's tribe, while Massimo B. GOES TO TOWN showing future generations how to illustrate a warp spasm. Nobody does it better.

But mostly we get some mucking about in deliciously detailed mud-and-stone huts and forges.

McMahon really nails the atmosphere, and indeed the architecture.

Specifically, Sláine being tied up and then escaping and getting into a big fight over an even bigger sword. Along with the existence of dragons and fantasy-style dwarves we also get a bit more insight into the magic that exists in this world. The idea that a human’s blood, not least that of a warped warrior, is a special tonic for iron weapons, is as beautiful as it is hilarious. I suppose one could argue that the overall plot of this 5-parter is fairly rote, but the ideas and the dialogue elevate it, as does McMahon’s way with posing his characters.

That's some lovely composition right there.
Art by Mick McMahon

Repercussions: It’s just about relevant that we learn Sláine really likes axes more than swords. More significantly, we bid farewell to Medb for the time being, who goes on to set up a plot that will be re-encountered in The King. At the very end, there’s a tiny bit of seeding for Sky Chariots, too.

Writing: 9/10
Art: 9/10 – not mentioned above, but Belardinelli’s prologue features some magnificent balletics from Medb as she vaults herself over a charging bull. BUT this same art is also an example of the sort of thign that turns some readers off the Italian master :(

Is it even possible to find photo-reference for this kind of thing, I wonder?
Art by Massimo Belardinelli

McMahon, for his part, stages some delightful layouts in his extended fight scenes, and draw the heck out of straw and stone – but he still hasn’t got a handle on how to draw Sláine himself so he looks the same from panel to panel, if you ask me...

Anyway, the point is made, that this is a story where everything is just about as good as a person can ask, and yet I have to leave room for scores to go higher...

Brainball count:
The Bull Dance: none! Sláine was off sick.
Hero’s Blood: a relatively chaste 2.

Rank 13/60: Treasures of Britain
by Pat Mills and Dermot Power

Ooh look! It's the Men in Black era. And a rare Ukko-centric cover, too.
Art by Paul Staples

Where to read it: Treasures of Britain

Original run: Progs 1001-1010 and 1024-1031 (in the Years 1996 and 1997; and for once I'm considering this whole thing as one chunk, because that's how it reads in the collection. No change in art, plot, theme or style. It's story 26 in sequence)

The plot: Sláine appears in the time of King Arthur, on a quest to retrieve the ‘13 Treasures of Britain’ for… reasons. Mostly to make sure they don’t fall into the hands of the Saxons or, worse, Guledig and the Cythrons. As Sláine completes the quest, we’re treated to various insights into the life and times of King Arthur.

Essential pre-reads: None. As with a lot of the ‘adventures in time’ stories, it might add to your enjoyment if you know something of the legend of King Arthur – or, conversely, as Mills is ever keen to subvert your expectations, that might get in your way!

Analysis: Although it ran in two separate chunks, with a fun comics aside in the middle, this more than any other split-saga feels like one continuous story, so I’m treating it as such. Same story, same characters, same artist, same tone. And frankly, all those things are firing on all cylinders. This is Dermot Power’s best work on Sláine, no contest. Certainly in a Bisleyesque mode, but here he’s learned more about how to pose his characters for a mix of storytelling, coolness and mythical majesty.

Seriously cool composition. Also, that helmet! 
Art by Dermot Power

Mills, too, seems at last to have a solid handle on what he wants to do with these Sláine tales that explore old Celtic/British legends – retell them his own way, but always through a lens of ‘what does the Earth Goddess make of it?’. Added to that, Mills is almost writing an essay based on what he makes of the King Arthur story as told by various people over the last millennium. This story starts and ends with the final showdown between Arthur and his ‘evil’ son Mordred, then in between darts around to pick out and analyse various famous, and not so famous, parts of the Arthur story. I’m not nearly as well-read as Mills on that stuff, which probably helps me to enjoy his weird views on it, rather than be annoyed that he’s ‘not doing it properly’ or whatever.

But probably the single biggest reason this saga is - I imagine, anyway – thought to be the best of the time-travelling ones is that it has more of an obvious ‘point’ in terms of Sláine’s overall saga. He’s not just hopelessly fighting off Saxons, he’s fighting his old foe Guledig, too. I definitely remember feeling a ping of joy when he showed up again as I was reading this in the original Progs.

Villains who cosy up to children are a go-to for Mills. So sinister!
Art by Dermot Power

All this adds up to quite a lot of exploration of Earth-goddess worship vs paganism vs Christianity vs Cythron-style evil, as ways of controlling humans. Earth Goddess = always right; pagans = OK but led by their own vices; Christians = basically evil, but only because they are being pushed into certain practices by Cythrons. And somehow Mills finds ways to judge almost all the main characters here – Arthur, Merlin, Mordred, Guinevere, Morgan Le Fay etc – so that at times all are both noble and wicked, led by their own desires but twisted by outside influences. Everything that occurs seems both fated and yet the result of human failings. It’s theologically FASCINATING I tell you.

Interesting parcelling of blame here  -but still a rather, shall we say, old-fashioned view of 'women'...
Art by Dermot Power

As for the actual plot details, well, it’s a quest built around recovering 13 treasures. Some are just there, others require a bit of effort to get hold of. Honestly I admire Mills’s facility with chopping and changing that pattern, and the idea that sometimes it’s what the treasure is that’s interesting; other times it’s about how our ‘heroes’ will acquire them. Two standouts for me are the clever sequence with a tent, and a fun sequence where Ukko has to do the hard bit while Sláine stands idly by.

Ukko's happy place
Art by Dermot Power

So yeah, you have a classically fun adventure, a whole bunch of learning, plenty of background mythology / theological pontification, and some insights into the Legend of King Arthur that you’d never find in a movie or indeed a serio-comic adventure strip. And I haven’t even mentioned how cool Sláine’s helmet looks (I think it’s one that Angie Kincaid originally designed for episode one, that Mills/she decided to ditch?)

Yes, you also gets yet more Mills attempting to show how feminist he is while actually being really quite chauvinist, but at least he shows you his working…

Repercussions: Well, in theory we get to see Sláine defeat the Guledig, but you sort of expect that he can’t really be killed. But maybe he is killed for good this time? (Spoiler alert - he will reappear later) Otherwise, Sláine continues not to grow as a character, but to confirm that he is right to always follow the Goddess, and that his ability to interpret what that means is unerringly correct…

Writing: 9 / 10
Art: 9 out of 10 Power is on fire - but even Power on fire is not the all-time best ever Sláine art ever...

Brainball count: 8 humans, plus: 1 animated statue, 1 were-dragon, and 1 arch-enemy
(also worth mentioning one impressively protracted bloody fight to a standstill in which no-one dies)

Rank 12/60: The Bogatyr
by Pat Mills and Chris Weston

Where to read it: DragonTamer (I can't swear it's in the digital edition, but it IS in the print one)
Original run: Prog 2111 (aka the end-of-year Prog from 2018; this is story 47 in sequence)

The plot: In a pub in New Troy (aka London), Sláine and Ukko meet an old magical enemy from Ukko’s home country. Comedy brawling and a bit of personal history ensue.

Essential pre-reads: None.

Analysis: Oh, man, it feels like we haven’t been to the pub with Sláine since episode 1!* Or maybe, more than the pub, it’s the city setting, where we definitely haven’t visited much. And it’s such a great setting, especially with Chris Weston grappling with what he had to assume was going to be his only chance at Sláine. The story itself is classic stuff – we get to enjoy Sláine and Ukko’s characters rubbing off on each other, we get a bit of a mythology lesson – in this case about the titular Bogatyr – and then we get a tasty fight between our man and a monster and it is BEAUTIFUL to look at.

Ukko as played by Bill Nighy - genius casting!
Art by Chris Weston

I admit I’m marking the writing down because the story is not trying to push any philosophical boundaries, but maybe I shouldn’t do that, but rather encourage Mills to have more fun writing silly stories.

Repercussions: None, sadly. Wouldn’t have minded a bit more of the secret history of Ukko the dwarf!

Writing: 8.5/10
Art: 10/10 - a crying shame that Weston didn't get any more Sláines to tackle, because he is just SUPERB. The best there's ever been? Well, we'll have to wait and see on that...

Brainball count: 1

*In fact, the Books of Invasions opens with a pub scene, too.

Rank 11/60 Dragontamer
by Pat Mills and Leonardo Manco

Sláine has had plenty of 'end of the saga' covers, but this might be the first
that gives Ukko the prominence he deserves!
Art by Leonard O'Manco

Where to read it: Dragon Tamer
Original run: Progs 2212-2219, 2221 and 2228 (In the Years 2020-2021. This is story 49 in sequence, and is the final story. If you're wondering how 49 stories get ranked out of 60, it's because I've split up most of the multi-book epics into their constituent parts. It make not make total sense, but I'm just following the Earth goddess on this, what can I tell you?) 

The plot: Having escaped Tory Island (at the end of the Brutania Chronicles), Sláine is heading New Troy – aka London – to confront Emperor Brutus. On the way, he stops to defend ‘proper’ Celtish towns and villages who are being marked for slaughter by the Emperor. Who has, you know, a fleet of dragons on his side.

Essential pre-reads: None. Honestly, as long as you get that Sláine = wandering hero who wants to preserve Celtic/Pagan/Earth Goddess traditions vs the oppressive forces of some kind of evil empire, you’re good to go. This story may follow on from the Brutania Chronicles, but the details of that saga don’t especially interfere.

Analysis: So, the final Sláine story. And it’s a good’un! Not least because new artist Leonardo Manco just goes well beyond his contracted duty to deliver art that he is personally proud of. Seriously, Mills makes a point of saying that Manco did a whole bunch of re-drawing at great length for free, a concept Mills had mocked in earlier Sláine sagas, but he still shows respect. It’s hard to rank Manco’s art, even against other legendary painters such as Simon Bisley, Greg Staples and Simon Davis. There’s something about his colours and brushwork that, frankly, makes me think of the sort of paintings you see in the National Gallery, only showing dragons fighting, or axe-based beheadings. Like if Botticelli painted the gory bits of the Greek myths, instead of the bits with naked Goddesses being born out of shells.

It is, frankly, astonishing. And it still works as comics, although even more than, say, the best of Glenn Fabry, I feel guilty for merely ‘reading’ it, rather than gazing upon each panel in wonder. But it IS a comic, and it IS meant to be read, to be skimmed over, and maybe gazed upon later.

Put THAT on your ceiling, art galleries of the world.
Art by Leonardo Manco

What about the actual story? Well, it’s based on what I feel has to be the most obscure legend Mills has unearthed yet. That’d be the ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ as written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12^th century. As far as I can tell, historians at the time, and indeed most historians today, have dismissed the book as basically entirely made up, especially the bits about Brutus of Troy. So OF COURSE Mills is going to defend those exact parts as a secret truth 😊.

Look, I have no idea how much Monmouth is in Dragontamer – it might well be just the names of people and the type of army and battle tactics they use, which are largely Trojan by way of Roman (based on a bit of Myth I do know – that Trojan Prince Aeneas, (Brutus’s ancestor) – who survived that famous 10-year War - was one of the early founders of Rome.)

ANYWAY this all takes a bit of a back stage to the other clear influence on DragonTamer – popular TV show Games of Thrones. Obvs a book series as well, but the timing of the Sláine saga suggests it’s the TV series that was more relevant. Basically, you’ve got battles going on in pseudo-historical Britain with lots and lots of dragons. And a mix of good guys who aren’t all good with bad guys who aren’t all bad, and have family struggles to boot. That sums up GoT and this book of Sláine pretty neatly if you ask me.

Mills has always been 2000AD’s best writer of villains (is he in fact the best in all comics? There’s a very good argument that he is!). And here, in his final 2000AD outing, he really brings the goods. Brutus is a delight, and the thing I’m most sad about the saga ending is we don’t get a couple more books of him pontificating and evil-ifying.

And he’s not alone! He has a drug-addled wife, and three sons of differing character. The best of these is the one who looks like evil camp Dragon Man, who is basically the protagonist of the second-half of the story.

Now that's an entrance! Elfric would be proud.
Art by Leo Manco

You’ll notice I haven’t said much about the story itself. Honestly, the plot mechanics are decent without being mind-blowing. What’s more interesting is the philosophising – once again, making this a delightful end-point for Sláine! On the one hand, you’ve got Brutus complaining that his war will soon be over, and he’ll get bored. On the other hand, you’ve got the (Celtic) Britons complaining to Sláine that every time he helps them win a battle, it makes things worse, and that even with his considerable help they kind of know they cannot win in the end. And you’ve got Sláine basically carrying on his classic line that this doesn’t matter, the way of the Goddess/Horned God is always to keep on fighting even if loss is inevitable, and so what if lots of people die along the way.

Look, if kids in 1977 said they wanted Cowboys and Dinosaurs, 
Pat Mills is working on the idea that kids today want Romans and Dragons. He's not wrong!
Art by Leonardo Manco

Sláine, ultimately, is a proper hero, but absolutely not a nice guy. And it’s fitting that his final tale should make this distinction nice and clear.

There’s one other major theme of this story, which feels kind of new for Sláine – and no doubt would (will?) one day be explored more by Mills. It’s the idea that curses pass on down the generations in any family, at least to 3 or 4 generations. In this story, that relates to the sins of Sláine’s parents (I guess?), but also very much to the sins of Brutus, who sees the fruit of his karma in his various under-performing children. Per previous Sláine stories, Mills suggests this is a classic part of Celtic lore, but I would’ve liked a bit more on that to emerge in the story, rather than just saying it – it’s one of those bits of mythology I’ve always found annoying. Sure, it helps to see a trilogy of tragedy in e.g. Ancient Greek Myths, but it just feels deeply unfair! And, frankly, not even slightly borne out by personal experience or the general account of history. I suppose because the general idea of a ‘familial curse’ seems to centre around concepts such as ‘greatness’ or ‘success’ which are alien to almost all people, and cannot account for the misfortunes of people who marry into a cursed family (unless they too are cursed, creating a crazy web of curses if you cross enough generations…). And in general, Mills seems to push the Horned God / Earth Goddess agenda of ‘sure, be ambitious, but don’t for a second think that the point of life is to become rich/famous.’

Anyway, getting off topic! DragonTamer is a beautiful and fascinating story, and by not actually ending, it brings about a truly fitting ending for our eternal hero, Sláine.

Repercussions: So, this is  -for now- the final Sláine story. Not designed to be such when it was written, and it really shows. You can pretty much see where Book 2 (and maybe 3) of this saga would’ve gone, with Sláine taking on Brutus's other kids and maybe wife, ending in a big showdown with Brutus himself. But, for all that, this is in fact as good a place as any to stop. 

Given that Sláine has, in his day, literally travelled through time to help Celtic-esque forces against various forms of ‘evil Empire’, and/or to explore British/Irish legends, there is no end to the stories one could tell. So why not just end in the middle of one such saga? You get to end on a high, you want more, and it rams home the idea that Sláine’s more existential fight (for the hearts and minds of us readers, and the world we live in today) is never complete.

Writing: 8/10

Art: 10/10 Yeah, we've reached the peak here haven't we. Haven't we??

Brainball count: 37 humans + 3 dragons

Next time: we're into the Top 10! And not many surprises, I shouldn't think!