Will Sliney’s Celtic Warrior

27/09/2011

Firstly, congratulations on the new series. It’s heavily set in Irish lore and mythology. Is that solely where the idea came from or are aspects of this influenced by things further afield?

Honestly, story wise it comes straight from the Celtic Mythology. Being from a country that has such a rich wealth of storytelling there is no need to step further a field. Comparisons that are drawn to characters such as Conan are simply because a character such as Conan was inspired by the Warriors of folklore, such as Cú Chulainn himself.
That said I do have a huge respect for similar tales of fantasy. Story wise, in all honesty, I see this as an old school quest story, told from the point of view of the army. Think Jason and the Argonauts except that the journey is under taken by the bad guys.

What can we expect from Celtic Warrior? Action, violence, romance, mystery?

Plenty of action and tons of violence that’s for sure. It wouldn’t be a Cú Chulainn story without several beheadings. If it was a literal translation of the story this guy would be rivaling Rambo for body counts.
I’m leaving the romance side of his story out of it for another time.
As for mystery. Well there may be the odd twist and turn in the tale. Who knows?

Celtic Mythology is something, as you’ve said, ‘that’s untapped in the american comic book market’. With something like Northlanders, focusing on Vikings, being quite successful lasting 50 issues, do you see now as the first time something like this could succeed Worldwide?

Absolutely. I’ve heard many an Irish person say the same over the last few years. I would like to see Cú Chulainn as well known as legendary folk such as King Arthur or Robin Hood.

You’re writing, drawing and coloring this. Does that mean it’s slower to produce than you’re used to or is there adrenaline/redbull speeding things along?

It does of course take longer, but over the last year or so I’ve just been getting faster and faster at drawing. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m producing at least 40 pgs of art a month. So it won’t be too much of a struggle.

Art wise, can you tell us a little how you’re approaching this?

Yeah. Well its going to be full of fantastic scenery and powerful landscapes, however all of them will be based strongly on real life Irish locations. My biggest inspirations art wise would be the Thor books from the last few years at Marvel. It wont look too much like them, but there is a certain tone of colours there that I want to hit.
After that then I want the characters to look epic. Like they were sculpted by the gods themselves.

You’ve gotten a lot of support for Celtic Warrior already from Irish artists, comics sites, etc. What are your thoughts on how the irish comics scene is progressing?

Its going great. I’m noticing more comic book supplies in stores, there are more young people starting to realise it as a potential career and that is fantastic.

Tags: celtic warrior, cu chulainn, eclectic micks, will sliney