Last year, David McDonald of HIBERNIA COMICS put together a really cool 2000ad fanzine which focused exclusively on characters from the comic that were of Irish origin. I contributed a Sinister-Dexter tale to the anthology, which went down well enough, apart from the too-specifically-Irish-by-far pun I included at the end, which lost most readers (as the majority of them weren't specifically Irish at all. D'oh!) So I learnt a lesson from that, so I did. Know your readers!!!
This second edition of the comic abandons the 2000ad angle and instead draws together random tales of fantasy and fiction, all of which are based in Ireland and contain Irish themes and characters. Designed as a "convention special", the stories are, as such, shorter and sweeter. Big fan of Slaine that I am, I wanted to do something in that vein, so decided to have a crack at bringing Fionn Mac Cumhaill to the, er, small page. I mean, come on, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, he got psychic powers from burning his finger while cooking a magic salmon for God's sake, and he stabs himself in the head with his own damn SPEAR to stop himself nodding off, how freaking awesome is that! If only I had the power to suck on my thumb and have all the answers to life's conundrums revealed to me in an instant...that would be SWEET. A big spear to poke myself in the head with when I was falling asleep while trying to get through "Shutter Island" for the twentieth time would also be convenient. But alas... I have neither. Sigh. Anyway, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, a bit of a brute and not very bright but he had lovely flowing white locks and...the Salmon Knowledge!! Here he is in action:
How indeed?? In this story, one of Fionn's most famous feats of derring-do (the outsmarting and slaying of fire-breathing underworld fairy Aillen at the Hill of Tara) comes back to haunt him when he encounters a foe hell-bent on taking revenge for this heroic act. Will Fionn manage to prevail this time? You'll have to read the story to find out!
Art is by FILIP RONCONE, who went above and beyond the call of duty and put this 3 pager together in just three days!!! Not only that, but he also managed to produce what is one of my favourite pages of artwork based on a script I've written so far.
Enjoy, and hopefully I will get the chance to write more Fionn adventures in the future. I had a lot of fun writing this one.
DVD
No comments:
Post a Comment