Rebellion have just announced a new edition of Pat Mills and Simon Bisley’s classic Sláine story The Horned God for May 2024 – in time for the the 35th anniversary of the story’s original publication in the pages of 2000 AD. The news comes as the weird-warping Celtic warrior celebrates 40 years since his first appearance this week.
Sláine: The Horned God Anniversary Edition will be an oversized (355mm x 270mm/13.98″ x 10.63″) 208-page paperback that will be reproducing the story from brand new scans of the original film stored in the 2000 AD archive. With the enlarged size and new scans, Rebellion promise the new edition “closely matches Bisley’s original artwork – giving readers the opportunity to see the greatest Sláine epic in unmatched detail.”
As always, Rebellion will be releasing a special webshop exclusive hardcover edition – but this time it will be a box set featuring the three series or “books” that comprised the saga in separate hardcovers.
As Rebellion says:
“Rebellion is also delighted to announce the Sláine: The Horned God Anniversary Edition Slipcase. Available exclusively through the 2000 AD webshop and also measuring 355mm by 270mm, this boxset will feature the three books of ‘The Horned God’ in separate hardcovers, housed in a stunning slipcase covered with Celtic motifs and the ’S’ from the original Sláine logo that featured in Pat Mills and artist Angie Kincaid’s first story in 1983.”
Sláine: The Horned God has long been seen as the high watermark for the series and a 2000 AD classic, with Bisley’s revelatory fully-painted artwork being lapped up by fans in 1989/1990 leading to a number of imitators within and outside 2000 AD. It was published as three separate weekly series across 1989 and 1990 – Book I in progs 626-635; Book II in progs 650-656 and 662-664; and Book III in progs 688-698.
Sláine was created by Pat Mills and Angela Kincaid in 1983, first appearing in 2000 AD’s Prog 330. One of 2000 AD’s premier characters, the adventures of the Celtic barbarian warrior have been depicted by a succession of top tier artists in the pages of the anthology: Massimo Belardinelli, Mike McMahon, Glenn Fabry, Greg Staples, Chris Weston, Simon Davis, and more have drawn the visage of Sláine mac Roth, his grotesque warp-spasm persona, his extended cast, and Ukko the dwarf. The last Sláine adventure in the weekly anthology was 2021’s Dragontamer (2000 AD Progs 2212-2219, 2221, and 2228) which was gloriously rendered by Leonardo Manco.
Celebrating 40 years of the woad warrior, 2000 AD is also doing a massive sale on Sláine collections – both print and DRM-free digital – with discounts of 40% retail price on their webshop.
