A striking, almost abstract close-up: a grim iron war-helmet, ridged and rune-scored, its single visible eye glinting cold blue beneath streaks of dried blood, set against swirling orange flame and jagged antler-like shapes rising from the smoke. A speech balloon commands restore the kingdom of pleasure to the earth, Sláine Mac Roth, framing the image as an invocation or divine mandate rather than a scene of combat. The helmets stylized, almost sculptural design and the surrounding chaos of color suggest a supernatural or ritual moment rather than a straightforward battle panel, the visor reading more as an idol or totem than as armor on a living body. Sláine Mac Roth is the heros full name throughout the 2000 AD strip created by writer Pat Mills, and the phrase kingdom of pleasure recurs across the series as the utopian promise attached to Sláines destiny as chosen champion of the Earth Goddess. Bisley took over the strips art in 1987 after Pat Mills spotted an early painting of his, a robot cradling a baby, and placed him first on ABC Warriors before moving him to Sláine, where his heavier, painterly, mythic approach to imagery like this helmet became the defining look of the character for years afterward. Sláine himself, as conceived by writer Pat Mills, is built on a pseudo-historical Celtic framework, tribal warfare, druidic ritual and worship of the Earth Goddess Danu, and images like this helmet, more totem than costume, show how completely Bisley internalized that mythic register rather than simply illustrating it from the outside.
Slaine Mac Roth
