Bird Of Prey

Charge your mead glasses: Hawk The Slayer flies again in a new comic series

JASON KINGSLEY HAS long counted 1980’s Hawk The Slayer among his most formative films. Now 2000 AD publisher Rebellion – the company he co-founded with his brother Chris Kingsley – has tapped writer Garth Ennis and artist Henry Flint to produce a five-issue comic sequel to the 1980 British fantasy film, in which the titular hero’s team of warriors (including giant Gort, elf Crow and dwarf Baldin) set out to rescue a kidnapped abbess from the clutches of his evil brother Voltan.

VOLTAN AMBITION

“Hawk and his comrades in arms have always been a part of my history, from first watching the movie to re-enacting it in the local woods when I was a boy,” Kingsley tells Red Alert. “We’ve been working with the director, Terry Marcel, on some initiatives related to Hawk’s future, and we both agreed that a comic would be a good way to explore further adventures in that world.”

Ennis also counts Hawk The Slayer among his childhood favourites. “I’ve loved the movie since I saw it aged 11,” he says, “Partly because it was so unlike anything else of its kind and partly because it just works: the story goes in a straight line, the heroes are a memorable and extremely formidable crew, and the villain Voltan is simply fantastic. It accomplishes a great deal with comparatively little.”