Coming from such a fine pedigree - in having the Slade genes, it is no wonder that I quite enjoyed creating Samantha Slade. Especially as the ever popular Hoagy and Stogie were part of the package.
There may be good reason to wonder about the origins of the concept of Samantha Slade.
I had been approached by a developer for Playstation to see about working up a RoboHunter game for the PS2. But when they contacted 2000AD's royalties and rights department the idea of being able to work with the RoboHunter name was quickly dropped, as soon as they found out how much Rebellion demanded for its use.
So, as a 'workaround' I suggested that we base the game adventure on RoboHunter's children. There would be a way round using the Sam Slade name and it would also bring us into the future even more, allowing more options. I suggested a brother and sister 'team' and worked up some character designs and a couple of sample pages. But, by then the impetus had gone out of the project and his children died 'still born' ( if that is not too tasteless.)
Meanwhile some fans had contacted me and in chatting I mentioned the idea of Sam's daughter - she was definitely on my old web-site at Gibson Studios. So they sent some samples of 'Sam's daughter and Hoagy' in to the editors of 2000AD to try for work. Next thing I know - Alan Grant has started writing Samantha Slade.
Strange how things work out....
