How many of you recognise this illustration? I must admit to not having seen it before, either. It was perched above the sales till at the Wargames Foundry the other weekend and spying it, I took it over to Bryan Ansell and Tony Ackland to ask them about it.
It is, obviously, a piece of art produced by the one and only John Blanche and the characters depicted are from the Inquisitor novel, published in 1990, which was also the first ever Warhammer 40,000 novel incidentally.
Here is the original work, still sealed inside it's protective plastic sleeve. Studying the picture took me back to that early version of the 40k universe. Nothing was really set in stone and we learnt about the place over the years through short stories, colour text and the reams of reams of illustrations that appeared in White Dwarf and other supplements. The gaps in this world were deliberately vast, and into those vacuums our own imaginations were set free to contrive all manner of dark and dangerous things.
The first thing that strikes is the face of Jaq Draco. It is obviously a take on Sean Connery in Russian garb taken, apparently, from a still from the Hunt For Red October, though Bryan felt that the eyes and eyebrows were closer to Blanche's own.
It was Harlequin Man (top left) that captured the flow of the conversation, as he was based on none other than Mr Robin Hood, Tim Pollard. Bryan went to say that the Harlequin Man figure appears in other John Blanche art. Can anyone else think of any pieces in which he appears?
It's funny what can be learnt buying a few pots of paint at Stoke Hall!
Orlygg
I'm glad they corroborated the Sean Connery thing. Always stood out for me. Can't help you on the other though.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they corroborated the Sean Connery thing. Always stood out for me. Can't help you on the other though.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting Orlygg, not least because my Scavvy artwork from the Confrontation rules is on exactly the same artboard by the looks, and is roughly contemporary. Can tell us what the text is above John's signature in the bottom left corner please? I can't make it out!
ReplyDeleteIt's a listing of the portrayed characters - Jaq Draco, Harq Obispal (the Inquisitor who commands anti-Genestealer operations on Stalinvast in the first book) and the said Harlequin men.
DeleteThat said, I always thought the image was quite well-known - it was featured in WD139, I think, as part of an Illuminations piece on Blanche's work. He pointed out the Connery influence in that one, too.
Cheers, Chris
It was featured in a white dwarf, and they talked about the Connery influence. The image is in the original inquisitor book (with the weird dimensions), but I don't think they have the images in the reprint/release.
DeleteI've seen it before, because I remember finding the placement of the hat in the foreground a bit odd. I can't think where I've seen it, because I haven't read Inquisitor and I don't remember seeing any adverts for it.
ReplyDeleteI've seen it, too, and I got into GW at the end of 2nd ed 40k, though I always pored through the older stuff. I've a feeling it appeared in an early 90s White Dwarf (a second-hand book shop in Cardiff had a stock I used to snap up) as an illustration of a planetary governor or something.
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