‘Sláine: The Horned God’ Oversized Anniversary Edition Is Coming In May 2024

by Richard Bruton

As part of the 40th anniversary of Sláine over at 2000 AD, they’ve just announced a new edition of Pat Mills and Simon Bisley’s The Horned God, in incredible detail and bigger than ever.

Sláine: The Horned God Anniversary Edition is coming in May 2024, just in time for the 35th anniversary of its first publication in 2000 AD in 1989, with this latest edition bigger than ever, measuring 355mm by 270mm in both softcover and a 2000 AD web shop exclusive slipcased edition. It’s also been produced using new, better scans direct from the original film from the 2000 AD archive. All of that means there’s more opportunity for readers to see Simon Bisley’s fully-painted artwork in all its glory.

The softcover edition comes as one (big) book but the web shop exclusive hardback comes as the Sláine: The Horned God Anniversary Edition Slipcase, with the three Horned God books in separate hardcovers, inside a rather tasty looking 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 was a warrior cast out from his tribe and wandering the mist-wreathed realm of Tír na nÓg, the ‘Land of the Young’, along with his near-constant companion, the lying, lewd, and lecherous dwarf, Ukko.

The Horned God takes us deep into the mythology, where the Drune Lords have poisoned the land with their magic. Sláine rises up against them with the aid of the Earth Goddess, needing to unite the four kings of Tír na nÓg and use their mystical weapons as he and the Sessair tribe prepare for all-out war against the Drunes.

The Horned God is considered the definitive Sláine storyline, appearing in 2000 AD in three instalments between 1989 and 1990. Indeed, you can make a damn good argument that it’s the creative high point for the title and perhaps should have been the finale to the series.

Packed with all the elements that made Sláine a fan favourite, The Horned God was a perfectly-timed mix of Celtic mythology, anti-authoritarian politics, and extreme violence, with Bisley’s fully-painted pages artwork setting the standard for comic art in the 80s – and something that spawned a whole host of imitators in the fully-painted comic stakes (for good and ill).

Sláine: The Horned God Anniversary Edition is released by 2000 AD in May 2024.

You can read an interview with Pat Mills revisiting this modern masterpiece here.

Now, as a little bonus, a couple of the covers to previous collections…