Slaine where to start?

[CAN1F]

What the order of Slaine books?

[ZenArcade]

Give me a moment CAN1F.....DAAAAARK JIIIIIIIMBOOOO!!! He'll be along shortly. Z

[Steve Green]

Hi,

just went through the shop which lists the order.

1: Warriors Dawn
2: Time Killer
3: The King
4: The Horned God
5: Demon Killer
6: Lords of Misrule
7: Treasures of Britain
8: The Grail War
9: Lord of the Beasts
10: Book of Invasions Vol 1
11: Book of Invasions Vol 2
12: Book of Invasions Vol 3
13: The Wanderer
14: Brutania Chronicles 1
15: Brutania Chronicles 2


Book of Scars sits outside I guess since it is a lot of flashback - think it was published before the first Brutania Chronicles

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Steve

[TordelBack]

Chronologically (from Slaine's perspective) Book of Scars fits between Wanderer and Brutania Vol 1 - the flashbacks are part of a framing device that marks Langley's swansong on the strip. 

Slaine himself hops around in time a lot, but with the exception of the 'Lost Tales' and 'Battle of Clontarf'  in the Lord of the Beasts collection and 'Arrow of God'  in The Grail War collection the current reprint line is presented in the order in which the man himself would have experienced events.

Essentially it's Vol 1-9 in the brown-spined paperbacks, then Books of Invasions, Wanderer, Book of Scars and Brutania Chronicles in the luscious hardbacks.

[Colin YNWA]

I thought it stopped at The Horned God... or am I feeling snarky this morning!

[CAN1F]

Is Slaine worth getting into?

[Greg M.]

Is Slaine worth getting into?

Up to and including the Horned God - absolutely. Stone-cold 2000AD classic all the way.

Afterwards... well, you'll find wildly divergent opinions on the subject around these parts.

[Colin YNWA]

Defo and absolutely the beginning and I'd actually say the content of the first 6 books are great. I was also really enjoying The Brutania Chronicles. The rest you'd best decide for yourself I guess... which makes that a yest I guess!

[ZenArcade]

The Horned God was uber 2000AD. I was literally queuing at the shop every week to get it. After that it can be really hit and miss. Z

[IndigoPrime]

1, 3, 4 and 10–13 are the highlights for me. 14 was, too, initially, but I abhorred the follow-ups. The post-HG stuff is hit and miss, as others have said, and I decided against bothering to complete my paperback collection with #9 during the half-price sale, after reading a few back issues of the stories in question.

[AlexF]

A lot depends on the art, I think. The story meanders a lot, but is never less than competent, and often wildly inventive and delightful. But if you love a certain artist it will paper over story problems (personally I think Slaine the King and the Horned God are fair from the most exciting Slaine stories, but the art elevates both massively.) Likewise an artist you don't like can make a good story almost unreadable (Secret Commonwealth, anyone?)

Clint Langley's work can be pretty divisive, for example. It's certainly impressive, but not everyone's cup of tea. Mills tends to write things in a pretty self contained way so if you miss out some of the collections it won't affect your enjoyment of each one individually.

[crossbusterxk]

Im hoping for a collected format like they did with the Mek Files.

[TordelBack]

...
and I decided against bothering to complete my paperback collection with #9 during the half-price sale, after reading a few back issues of the stories in question.

Vol 9: Lord of Beasts is an odd collection, containing some of the best Slaine (Swan Children) and some of the very worst (Secret Commonwealth), as well as some of the most artistically original (Lord of Beasts from Garres, Triple Death from Wayne Reynolds and Beyond from Staples). It's also hugemongous: when it comes to pages, KatScan didn't think it too many.

For me the weakest material is in The Wanderer (Vol 13, although it's not called that). However, a recent secondhand purchase showed me that some of the worst excesses of Mills boob-joke dialogue been edited out, and the use Hicklenton's extraordinary cartoons (in the Renaissance sense) in the linking pages is well worth the price of admission. Such an utter tragedy uwe never saw him tackle the strip proper, but this little taste of what might have been makes this collection of silly stories unmissable.

[TordelBack]

Just to add: I know there's a bit of a tendency to eulogise dead art droids, but seriously, Hicklenton's Slaine needs to be seen to be believed.

[Hawkmumbler]

An odd tangent, but wasn't their a Slaine newspaper strip at some point? My Best of Milligan and McCarthy collection makes reference to one, published alongside their Summer of Love.