Reviews on the Docket
A list of upcoming media coming to Senchas Claideb's reviews
Originally, I wanted to have had the last review of Hound ready for this week, however, as I’m waiting on a new edition of Cú Chulainn’s death-tale to come in that I want to use as a resource for the final installment. I also wanted to take a chance to look ahead at some new stories that I have been interested in reviewing for quite some time. The media I have outlined here is in no particular order; it is likely I’ll be jumping between topics as I make my way through this To Be Read pile, but I am nonetheless excited to talk about them on here.
Graphic Novels
I have not been much of a traditional comic book or graphic novel reader most of my life but launching Senchas Claideb quickly turned me on to trying out this medium of literature after seeing the amount of Celtic influences in this art form. I have a whole stack of comics and graphic novels following Hound that I’ve wanted to review since before Senchas Claideb even launched! The top three that I want to tackle include the following:
The Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman by Liam Sharp and Romulo Fajardo Jr. (from DC Comics)
Shadows of Thule by Patrick Mallet and Lionel Marty (from Humanoids)
Sláine by Pat Mills (from 2000 AD)
The few superhero comics I did read as a kid were usually Spiderman comics, but the omnibus of Batman and Wonder Woman on my list here is one of the stand-out comics in the DC/Marvel publishing spheres that includes a setting from Irish mythology for two of the most recognizable heroes of superhero literature. As you can see in my photo, my edition is still in its shrink wrap, but one thing in the back cover blurb that stood out to me was how the author seems to draw a distinction between the gods featured in this story and the “faerie folk” of Tir na Nóg, which is along the lines of an idea I generally maintain when comparing mythology and folklore.
Shadows of Thule, from what I understand, was originally meant to be a Bran Mak Morn graphic novel but the writers weren’t able to secure the license to the character for this project. In addition to the Celticism elements, I will likely have to do some research into the publication history of this particular graphic novel. Aside from the “trademark friendly” alterations to names and such, this seems to be well within the vein of Howardian pastiches featuring brolic Pictish barbarians fighting eldritch horrors and fell necromancers. I imagine I will have some notes about the linguistic decisions of the writers when it comes to portraying Pictish characters, but I am looking forward to the prospect of reading this story.
Sláine is a series that has been recommended to me at least once before and I have been chomping at the bit to read for quite some time. Considering the first volume of the definitive edition is coming out this March, I thought it would be the perfect time to actually get around to reading it. Other than some critiques from a fellow Celtic Studies scholar and praise from classic Sword & Sorcery fans, I don’t know a lot about this series but am excited to dig into it for the first time.
Prose Fiction
In 2023, I backed
’s Neither Beg Nor Yield anthology, which features a host of new sword and sorcery stories by various authors. Two of the yarns featured in this collection are inspired by Irish mythology; last year, Jason suggested I review some of them back in March as part of my “Irish theme,” but already had a full plate—this year, I won’t be confining myself to a single month for Irish-centric reviews and articles. The stories “Reckoning” by Keith J. Taylor and “Bona na Croin” by Jeff Stewart each pull from vastly different areas of folklore and myth that establish the sort of characters, settings, and situations they are most interested in exploring. Taylor is the author of other Irish and Celtic-inspired fiction, probably most well-known for his Bard series—I also happened to be featured alongside him in DMR Books’ Samhain Sorceries anthology. Jeff Stewart has been published in previous Rogue Blades Entertainment collections, which I have not had the pleasure of reading. I was informed, however, that I had been in attendance at 2023’s Howard Days at the same time as Jeff without either of us realizing it and regrettably missed out on having a chat about Celtic mythology. Here’s to hoping we get to meet at this year’s gathering!Kindle, Hardcover, and Paperback copies of Neither Beg Nor Yield are available on Amazon! Definitely a must-read if you need new Sword & Sorcery stories!
Another collection that caught my eye some time ago (well before Senchas Claideb, I think) is the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press’ collection of Celtic and Norse-themed stories by Howard, Swords of the North. I first noticed this collection long after the first, limited edition ran out and occasionally sought out the possible kind souls who might be willing to sell their copies. You can imagine my elation when I found out a new edition would be coming out in June of 2024.
I’ve talked about Howard and S&S multiple times before on Senchas Claideb, but never have I specifically addressed his use of Celticism in his stories. Swords of the North, paired with the collection of his letters to H.P. Lovecraft in A Means to Freedom (published by Hippocampus Press) is going to make for countless great reading sessions since I get to compare his fiction to his actual thought process and quotes on direct inspiration for his characters and stories.
Swords of the North is available on the REH Foundation Press website and through Amazon!
TTRPGs
Heroes of Tara is a project I have been following since its announcement back in 2021. It is a Dungeons & Dragons 5e supplement that draws from Irish mythology and folklore, and therefore is right up my alley in terms of things I ought to review on this Substack and types of campaigns I’m wont to run. After a somewhat tumultuous crowdfunding process, the designers are nearing the final stages of getting physical copies to backers and have already sent out the final (for now) PDFs. After receiving mine, I immediately started looking through and beginning my notes. This will likely be one of the longer reviews I do in the future as there was a lot of research that went into the creation of this ~400 page supplement and would want to give the lead designer a similar effort in researching material.
Heroes of Tara: Player’s Guide is available as a PDF purchase on DriveThruRPG with future plans for POD.
Visual Media (TV/Film)
Finally, something I have always wanted to do, even well before Senchas Claideb is take a closer look at the WGN television series Outsiders. The show itself was short-lived, lasting only two seasons from 2016-17, but is one of the few shows that I more or less “organically” encountered by first taking an interest to it from commercials. What initially caught my attention was the premise of pagan mountain men living in modern Appalachia fighting back against encroaching land developers. What really surprised me when I started watching it was the use of certain elements such as ogham in the background of the sets, terminology and personal names that had a semi-Celtic flare, and even a language that sounded to be some sort of Celtic conlang. Even as a college freshman with little serious academic experience, I noticed a few “peculiarities” about the cultural elements the writers depicted on screen. I imagine this is a review that would also take quite some time as A) it’s been a while since I’ve seen the series and 2) even when I first watched it, I had very big opinions on it and at the time didn’t have a platform like this to share them on.
These reviews will be taking some time to tackle and won’t be in the order I’ve listed them here, but I at least felt like drumming up some excitement so my readers have something to look forward to once the Hound reviews are over. As of now, I’m not sure if they will be as rigorous and dense as I’ve made my Hound scholarly reviews (it’s likely Heroes of Tara will go on for quite a bit), but I suppose I’ll have to read/revisit them first and see what would make the most sense in analyzing the Celtic elements.
Thanks for reading this week’s post! Comment below if there are any other pieces of Celtic-inspired media you think I should check out in the new year!
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Wow, impressive year ahead of you, Ethan. Thanks for getting the NBNY stories on your docket - I look forward to learning your thoughts. I do hope you'll get to reading all the other stories alongside those though!
As an aside, you and Jeff did meet and talk--he had to change his story for me after learning of your story for Samhain Sorceries :)
The three Slaine graphic novels collected together as The Brutania Chronicles are amazing. The art is head and shoulders above the rest of the series and it feels like there's an attempt to disregard some of the more convoluted bits of the story that have emerged by that point in order to make it more accessible to new readers.