Don't read this if you don't yet know what happens at the end of Prog 1325's episode of Slaine...
I don't make a habit of posting on this message board as I try to stay off the Internet period, but I feel I have to defend Pat over some of the criticisms levelled at him with regard to the manner of Niamh's death.
In the first draft of his script, Pat had the scene between Niamh and Moloch close on them fighting, then cutting to Slaine finding his dying wife. It was my suggestion that we give Niamh - a long-term supporting character - a death scene to remember, which would make Slaine's desire for vengeance all the more powerful. She's been an important character in the Slaine stories, and to gloss over her death seemed like a missed opportunity. It was intentionally shocking, but it needed to be if it was going to shake Slaine's world to the core...
So, I apologise if you were offended by the manner of her death, as I am responsible to a large extent. It was a horrific page - and Clint did a fantastic job - but that's the nature of evil...
As for the criticism of it being on the inside back page, I admit that passed me by. Clint requested that the story be run in double page spreads - hence the way it's moved around the comic to accomodate, for example, a necessary page-turn (i.e. the end of part 3 of Caballistics) or a lovely centre-spread by John Burns in part 5 of Nikolai Dante. It never occurred to me that putting the end of Slaine on the inside back cover would be a problem, as I tend to read fiction from the front and work my way forward.
But then I always was a traditionalist.
Splundig vur Thrigg,
Matt.
