Some weeks ago I posed a question. You can read all about it here. Namely, what happened to the original paintings produced from classic 'Golden Age' books and box sets. Did they still exist? And if so, where are they now?
We knew through research that many lesser pieces were returned to the original artists; both Tony Hough and Tony Ackland were kind enough to share some of these surviving pieces with us, and even let us look at a few unpublished works of art.
Today's post goes a little bit further. I am happy to say that a great many fantastic pieces of old school fantasy and science fiction art produced by GW is still safely stored in Nottingham. But not quite where you would expect. You see (as many of you will have learnt through reading yesterday's interview with Tim) that Blanche, and others, often paid for things (like rent) with their works. Tim Pollard was lucky enough to receive a great many of the pieces and has framed and preserved them to this day.
We should thank him for it.
So join me as I guide you through SOME of Tim's art collection. So sit back, relax and let that retro feeling wash over you as we explore what he has hanging on his walls.
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| Space Marines by Wayne England. This painting, in crayon and ink if memory serves, graced the front cover of White Dwarf 110 and introduced Wayne's work to GW fandom. I can remember studying this cover with great interest upon that issue's release and this particular painting has remained one of my favourites ever since. The painting harkens back to the day when there was a little more artistic license to interpreting the Astartes. |
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| Next up, the Legion of the Damned by John Blanche. This, of course, graced the packaging of the Skeleton Horde, the WHFRP supplement, The Restless Dead, as well as being used as an internal illustration. A wonderful piece that oozes character and takes us back to a simpler time when a skeleton was just that, and needed no rusty armour or shredded cloth to impress. A scary tree lurks behind. Fantastic! |
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| Ahh, the Imperial Army, also by Blanche, which was used as an internal illustration in White Dwarf and as the box art for the first set of plastic Imperial Guard. Apparently, Tim's face was going to appear on the head of the slain alien lying on the floor in the foreground, but this did not happen due to time restraints. Classic. |
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| A Necromunda battle scene, also by Blanche. This was a painting I don't think I have seen before. Was it ever published? I wonder if it was commissioned for the original version of Confrontation (which of course, started out life as the 40k RPG, before morphing into a WD published skirmish game and then being published (in a very different form) as Necromunda ) but I cannot be sure. Tim pointed out that his, Sean Masterson's (former WD scribe, Editor and contributor to Dark Future) and Sid's (ex 'Eavy Metal) faces appear on this somewhere. Can you see them? Andy Craig can also recall being given this painting by John Blanche when he was painting Necromunda miniatures. |
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| The original Terminator box set artwork. John Blanche. I need say nothing more about this one. OUTSTANDING! |
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| A second piece, again involving Space Marines with additional help from some early ork boyz, by Wayne England. I am not sure if I have seen this one before. Was it ever published? Beautiful isn't it? It always seemed to me that these pieces were part of some far larger work of art. |
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| More classic Blanche. This one was used on the front cover of White Dwarf 108 and for Adeptus Titanicus main rule book. |
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| Skaven by David Gallagher. Rather Warhammer Armies is it not? Again, I am not sure if I have seen this one elsewhere. Was it published, if so, where? |
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| An evocative piece by Ian McCraig (who also painted the FF book, the Forest of Doom) the artist who designed the Games Workshop logo - a fact that is not very well known. |
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| An un-used John Blanche cover for Sabbat's second album, Dreamweaver, featuring the faces of Tony Ackland and Bob Naismith apparently. |
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| Gloria in Excelsis by John Blance. Not a Warhammer piece but utterly breathtaking. Imagine having this hanging on YOUR wall? You'd put bars on your windows, wouldn't you? |
Well, here's hoping you have enjoyed this little artistic stroll through some of Tim's collection. Do you know anything more about any of these pieces of art that you can share with us? Which ones are your favourites and why? Are there any that you despise? And, perhaps most importantly, do you know the whereabouts of any other classic paintings for British fantasy's yesteryears?
If you do, post us a link below or get in contact with me at realmofchaos80s@yahoo.co.uk.
Cheers,
Orlygg.
The Necromunda battle scene was published in a WD with the rules for Confrontation if I remind right. (WD circa 130). The two faces shown at the right bottom corner seem familiar. It seems it was pretty common during a period to show the studio faces in the paintings and the books (just take a look at the end of your RT book).
ReplyDeleteLots of great art for this game from John Blanche and others (the ganger with a smiling mask and uzi....OMG)
The Ian Mc Craig dragon attack shwon here is an absolute hit to me.
Yes, i really like the dragon painting too. Very fluid! I've justgot back into his work after buying the new Fighting Fantasy app on my Kindle. Gotta love that Shape Changer!
DeleteThe Necromunda/Confrontation pic looks familiar to me too. I think the Confrontation articles contained b&w segments of it, though I haven't owned those issues for about fifteen years now!
DeleteThat first Wayne England painting graced the first WD I ever owned. Owned, that is, not bought; it was a gift from Arthur Tubbs who was three years older than me and lived up our road. I blame him for getting me into wargaming. I wonder what he's up to now? Ah, wargaming nostalgia... smells like jossticks because Arthur's mum was a proper hippy!
ReplyDeleteAll salute Arthur Tubbs! What a name! He sounds like a character from Wodehouse! It was an early issue for me too. The third i bought.
DeleteHis much more sporty twin brother was called Edwin. As I recall they were both rather slender; perhaps in response to a surname that could otherwise have brought them much grief at school? Thinking about it now, they do sound like Bertie Wooster might be avoiding them over an unfortunate incident involving an heiress, a prize marigold, and an indelible stain on a particularly valued waistcoat belonging to their uncle. I'm sure Jeeves will save the day...
DeleteWonderful stuff.
ReplyDeleteFantastic stuff, thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteOh that David Gallagher Skaven piece, wasnt that in the 3rd ed army book?
ttfn
It was in "Warhammer Armies" as a full colour page - it the last one before they went to being a big boxed game, though I lose track of edition numbers there...
Delete4th Edition was the first of the big boxed versions of the game they put out with High Elves and Night Goblins, which was the edition I started with.
DeleteThough my armies used the excellent Skeleton army sprues and the Screaming Skull Chucker from 3rd edition which was still available in 1993, heck I was even given the metal chariot by a teacher during that period as he didn't want it.
And I had a few of those excellent early Skaven miniatures as well.
I still regret ever getting rid of all of them.
Thanks for showing us these fantastic works! Makes me wonder what it would take to own something like that myself. Closest thing I own to something this fantastic is a signed Brom print, and it's still not nearly as cool as an original Blanche or England.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these - they really take me back!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the space marines fighting orks (6th one down) appeared in one of the paper back books from the original space hulk (I think the one with the cool story about the planet falling to genestealers - one of the best bits of background narrative written, well I think so anyway...)
Thanks again
This one's interesting as the orc and marine at the bottom of the picture are very similar to an orc and marine that appeared in another piece by Wayne, which was in WD 110, you can check it out here: http://fuckyeahbritisholdschoolgaming.tumblr.com/image/34771541082
DeleteThese are some cracking images, I'm very jealous of Tim!
That picture of the turquopise Marines vs Orks is at the back of the 1st edition Space Hulk Mission Book, in black and white.
DeleteThat game was my first exposure to 40k. I remember thinking that the difference between regular Marines and Terminators was that the former didn't wear helmets, based on that picture. :)
I'm not sure that the Ork pic was in the Space Hulk book, I'll check mine when I get home!
DeleteSomeone remind me in 5 hours!
Yes, yes it is. :] Space Hulk was my first foray into 40k, at the time I never cottoned that they were Orks!
DeleteThese pieces of art are wonderful. Evocative, insightful... lovely!
ReplyDeleteLordy, that's some collection. I'd give my right nut to have Blanche's Legion of the Damned hanging on my wall.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that painting is THE image of a skeleton horde for me (moving like they're animated by Harryhausen, of course).
DeleteOf course.
DeleteAye, I'm not a Fantasy player but it's that painting and the artwork of the vampire count with the high-back collar that made me buy the army book just for the artwork.
DeleteWhat a lucky fellow. And to think, that is just a small part of his collection. Crikey!
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant glimpse at some vintage artwork! Thanks for that! "The Legion of the Damned" also appeared on the back of the booklet that came with the "Return of the Witch King" expansion for HeroQuest. That's where I first saw it -- easily one of my favourite JB pieces ever!
ReplyDeleteFun fact: With my grip on the english language being rather tenuous back then, I couldn't, for the life of me, make sense of the sentence "We are Legion" on the banner carried by those skeletons ;)
Les Edwards still has some preliminary sketches available. He's the artist of the HeroQuest boxes, but those paintings were also used on White Dwarf covers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting pics of the paintings above. Great works.
I am glad you all enjoyed some of Tim's collection of artworks. There is more to come apparently, so we will just have to wait and see what he unearths next.
ReplyDeleteJohn's colours are so much more vivid and stunning in the originals, but never gaudy. A bright pageantry of dark gothicism, may sound like a contradiction, but it works.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also associate his skeletons with Harryhausen's, same sense of awe and wonder to
their works.
And England, Gallagher and McCraig are great too.
Makes me wish they'd make a series of GW art books with all of the art reproduced in top quality colour and resolution. A sort of definitive collection of WarHammer art.
The Black Library are open to ideas these days. At the last Warhammer World open day I had a chat with Jes Goodwin about all his Eldar work and why has it never been released. He looked over at the BL stand and told me to talk to them, so I did.
DeleteIf enough people demand it...
For me, there was 2 pieces amongest those in Tim's collection here which really hooked me into Warhammer and 40k, the Legion of the Deamned piece and the Terminator assualt piece, just looking at those on the boxes made me want to own them!
ReplyDelete