Slaine test page

A true rarity here.

This is a test page produced by David Pugh has his 'audition' with Patrick Mills as an artist on Slaine. Mick McMahon's health issues had had him temporarily withdraw from 2000AD, and Massimo Bellardinelli had been reassigned to 'Ace Trucking'. Mills wanted a double team for Slaine, recognising the popularity of the strip. 'Bradley' artist Simon Harrison also auditioned, but it was two unknowns, David Pugh and Glenn Fabry, who got the job. Little did they how much heavy lifting David Pugh would have to do cover for Fabry's painstakingly slow page rate, and how much David would be written out of the history of Slaine by the fans...

Thank you to Lee for the trade!

This composition would be re-sed for another page early on in David's run on 'Time Killer' in Prog 415.

David Pugh, as well as being a very interesting man, is a fantastic comic artist and is cruelly underrated especially for his work on Slaine which, to my mind is second only to Bellardinelli and MacMahon, combining much of what was best in both.

You can view David's charity work - Bus Fare - at http://busfare.webs.com/

All his remaining Slaine artwork is up for sale; you can view the Celtic awesomeness on his Facebook page. David is retired from comics now, but is a passionate world traveler and he's currently working on his first novel in India.

Ink and whiteout on coated paper
30 cms x 41 cms