Following up on last year’s The Art of Warhammer 40,000, The Black Library now gives of the logical sequel, The Art of Warhammer.  This hardcover collector’s edition contains 224 pages by some of the most noted Warhammer artists.  The art in this book has been culled from a number of sources including game supplements, rulebooks illustrations, book covers, etc…Warhammer fans are some of the most fervent fans there are, taking particular pride in not only the substance of the Warhammer world but also the style.  The visuals are as important to Warhammer fans as anything which is why they spend countless hours meticulously painting miniatures.  The graphics are what helped make Warhammer as popular as it is today with gaming items, books, miniatures, computer & video games, and more.

The roll call of artists includes the great John Blanche, David Gallagher, Adrian Smith, Karl Kopinski, Geoff Taylor, Alex Boyd, and Paul Dainton.  Each piece in the book give the name of the painting, the artist’s name, the original source, and the year.

I really love Taylor’s “Dragonslayer” from the William King Novel of the same name showing a huge red dragon breathing fire onto an airship above snow-covered mountains.  I also love the impossibly armored Engra Deathsword  by Adrian Smith, about as intimidating of a figure as you’d ever care to see.  Taylor’s Chaos Knights are also quite stunning.

Most of the book is in full color but there are some black and white illustrations as well, notably the Blanche pieces which are utterly dazzling in their incredible detail.  Blanche’s Citadel of Chaos has so much going on in it that you could spend hours gazing at it and continue to find new things you missed.  Another standout piece is Paul Dainton’s Tomb Kings, a two-page spread of skeletal warriors, some on skeletal mounts and chariots, marching forward into battle.

Games Workshop always puts out great looking books and this one is no different.  The hardcover book is printed on heavy, coated stock with dustjacket.  A gorgeous package!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Tim Janson, Gaming: Video or otherwise, Comics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.