The Joy of Astrogranite: An interview with Pete Knifton

Graeme Davis, among others, shared the sad news today that another old school Citadel creative has gone. Namely illustrator Pete Knifton of 2nd Edition Bloodbowl fame. This saddened me as his distinctive, humorous style really set the tone of that game for me. I have many, many fond memories from my youth pouring over the often amusing illustrations from the BB rulebook and many of the supplements... my favourite being the goblin pogos I've headed this post with.

But as I grew older and my appreciation of that unique, peerless period of GW's history spearheaded by Bryan Ansell grew deeper and I started to connect the dots a little more. I started to notice that many of the artists who I had loved so much had actually contributed to Warhammer, Rogue Trader and beyond.

Pete Knifton was one such creative.

I am sure all of you will be familiar with this fantastic piece of work. The Pacification of Flotis III. This beautifully detailed illustration appeared in WD 113 and I can still remember being startled by how striking (and unusual) it was for the magazine at the time. Of course, I now know that Bryan was keen to try anything and everything and him being such a fan of 2000 AD he had a desire for a Warhammer comic too. Sadly, nothing would ever come for his vision though (as with many things he envisaged) GW did eventually produce such a publication.

This illustration is a fantastic overview of much of the early Rogue Trader Imperial Guard range from the 1980s. The 2000AD/Aliens style mash up that it was. I've always loved the range and foolish sold much of it off years ago... not that I'd still have it now of course. But I still consider it a very foolish thing to do as these models are fantastically imaginative. Very much like artists such as Knifton. 

A big draw to his work was the storytelling and humour so prevalent across much of his output. The comic book style, the macabre touches and the the schoolyard joking still resonate with me to this day. As I am sure it will do with you, dear readers. The image directly above came from an article from Jervis Johnson about different types of pitch to play across and helped illustrate the pitfalls. I love the improbably impaled orc head to the left... as it asks so many questions to the observer. How did the head get there? Was it the result of a particularly awkward fall? Or had the head been previously severed and was rather piquishly pushed down onto the spike? 

I guess we could discuss the storytelling in this piece for some time but let's move on...

To this funny little piece. I always loved this one with the grinning orc boy stomping the foot of the unfortunate Gouged Eye player. As I kid, we used to pinch tracing paper from the art-store in the back of our classroom and I can recall tracing this picture and amusing my friends with it for a while. 

Pete also illustrated some of the early terminator models put out before the seminal boxset and Space Hulk cemented their look. I seem to recall there were a number of issues when a series of different styles of model were released. I like the little Latin touch on the arm... translating into 'I will return' but a link to Big '80s Arnie's famous catchphrase perhaps?

Other illustrations of Knifton's didn't have such an impactful lifespan as his terminators. Here we see the MKXIV Bullock jetcycle which as seen many a fan sculpt over the years but to my limited knowledge no actual models. I loved the jetbikes in the '80s and even had a few. One day, when I'm flush with cash and time... I'll build myself a Rogue Trader army of Imperial Guard to make up for my youthful foolishness. 

Having followed many of the 'names' that graced the glory days through the decades I know that Knifton had a long a varied career. Working for Alternative Armies, drawing Transformers comics, painting front covers for thrash bands and so on... In the days when Facebook was just taking off and it wasn't a morass of AI lies, stupidity and posts about someone's cat it was easy as pie to connect with other people. Social media was much more trusting and immediate back then as I am sure you can recall. You connected with your friends and people who you admired... some times they even returned the interest. 

During my research phase ten years or go or more, I was lucky enough to share a series of random rambling chats with Pete Knifton and those conversations have simply sat in my archive unpublished. Having heard the sad news today, I though it appropriate to edit those chats into a little interview like I did in the old days to help celebrate and remember another important contributor to the world we all love.

So that's enough rambling from Orlygg, I'll hand you over to Pete Knifton so his story can be told in light of his recent passing. I'm sure many of you will have your own memories of his work for GW and the myriad other things he did. I have edited his words for clarity and punctuation as these conversations took place over Facebook messenger over a period of time. 

RoC80s: How did your artistic career begin? 

PK: I'd always liked drawing from an early age. I remember covering every scrap of paper I could find with drawings of Fireball XL5 and the Daleks. I used to go to the local printers and beg for cuts of paper. I was never one for copying pictures so I used to do my own versions of the characters I saw in the comics that I bought. Comics were very important to me as a child. At that time though, people used to say that comics encouraged illiteracy but far from it... they inspired me to read!

RoC80s: How much fantasy and science-fiction material was available to you then?

PK: There were loads of fantasy and mythology books out there. But for me it was my beloved illustrated encyclopedias. I absolutely loved them! Marvel and DC comics were more sporadically available in the '60s and I ate them up. I particularly enjoyed the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and of course, Batman! At one point I wanted to become a political cartoonist but the influence of comics was just too strong and I managed to miss that particular artistic avenue. I did a lot of practise sketching the faces and poses of people in the public eye though, which was most useful later on when GW would give us artists their metals models to provide art for. 

Pete Knifton attending a Games Day in the late '80s sketching for the unwashed hordes. Note the Batman T-Shirt and the cheeky pint and ciggies... an '80s zeitgeist. 

RoC80s: So how did you end up working at GW during it's creative '80s heyday?

PK: Well, as I read more and more I became increasingly interested in the book covers that I was seeing. Around sixteen years of age I decided to have a go at painting one. Massively derivative of Chris Foss (his science fiction, not that other more famous book) it looked okay and I was inspired to try a couple more. A year or so later, I read about an agency in London called Young Artists. I approached Jon Spencer and he took me on. 

The Art of Chris Foss which inspired Pete's early forays into art.

Shortly after that, I started selling covers for mainly German and French publishers. When Jon left Young Artists, his successor had a good clear out of the art stable and I was among that number, sadly. I was a rubbish freelancer and kind of drifted away from the artworld. I hadn't had any proper training and was entirely self-taught. I ended up spending most of my time building model robots for a couple of years. My interests in robotics and comics put me in contact with a guy called Ian Cooke. He suggested that I phone Games Workshop to see if they had any use for me. Which I did. 

Artwork that was used to illustrate the Combat Card games published in White Dwarf. 

RoC80s: What can you recall of you time in the famous '80s 'Design Studio'?

PK: In those early days GW was a rough and ready place. Free and easy. It was packed with hippies and rockers and creatures yet unidentified. But, boy, they could all paint, and sculpt and draw! John Blanche was, in those days, a great guy and gave me a commission on my very first visit to the studio. As it was situated only 10 minutes away from my flat I could easily drop off work and collect my cheques. Ian was still doing bits and pieces for White Dwarf and all the guys there were so friendly I used to drop in for a cuppa and a chat. I used to check out whatever Tony Ackland was doing. Of course, the Design Studio at that time was full of banter and was about as chilled as you could get. Things would sadly change later on but in those early days we had no idea about what would come. 

Pete's love of comic books shone through with his enigmatic artworks from the late '80s. 

RoC80s: So how did things change at the 'Design Studio?'

PK: When I started it wasn't corporate at all. It was Bryan's vision. He wanted us all happy and urged us all to just make stupid stuff up. He was so encouraging and we even got paid for some of it! There weren't really any rules as far as the creative process went. No lore to abide by. John Blanche used to ask me what I thought of ideas they were developing when I visited and he'd often ask me to do pictures based on what I saw. Much of the Bloodbowl and Imperial Guard stuff came out of those meetings and I was always very happy to do it. It was my dream job, freelancing for GW at that time and I was able to bring in my love of comic book art with much of the work I did. Taking the lead in the Bloodbowl artwork for it's second edition was one of the greatest times of my life. I was working with a bunch of mates and creating something so original. Sure, there were arguments, disagreements but they were never serious under Bryan's watch. 

The egos hadn't landed yet.

To conclude, we have lost another one of the greats who built the imagery of this hobby we love. Imagery that lesser creatives use to this day in the very corporate and safe worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. But there was a more vibrant age long ago, one with few rules and vast imagination. Modern painters and sculptors truly are standing on the shoulders of giants...

Pete Knifton was one of those giants.

My thoughts go out to Pete's family and friends. His work will be valued and appreciated for many, many more years to come.

Orlygg