The Art of Clint Langley

I know it's been out for a while now, but I just have to tell you how good The Art of Clint Langley is! It's a Black Library publication devoted to the CG artwork of the man himself.

Long time readers of this blog will already know that I am a long time fan of Clint's work, ever since his fully-painted stuff appeared in 2000AD, the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, many moons ago. For a long time now, Clint has contributed probably hundreds of illustrations (if not more) to Games Workshop products, whether novel covers, collectible card game art or comic strips.

He is well-known for the fantastic covers he has produced for a whole range of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 novels, including my very first novel The Dead and the Damned.

The text of the book (which is written by Clint himself along with various BL writers and editors) gives a greater insight into his work and his working methods. But the best thing about the book is that it is packed full of sumptuous Clint Langley images, which cover the whole range of the GW's intellectual properties.

To give you a taster, here are just a few of the choice morsels you will find inside. If you want to see more, and I'm sure you do, you can check out Clint's website here or, even better, buy the book here.

The origins of Shiversprite

As part of the ongoing discussions about my last published Fighting Fantasy gamebook (to date) Howl of the Werewolf, a forum member over at the FFG Forum posted this the other day.

Wow! I finally got it and it doesn't disappoint. Atmospheric and immersive, and somehow believable. I like the reference to a certain alcohol advert a few years ago (the Shiversprite poem!) and the various werewolfy stuff . I managed to make it to Varcolac on my first go (but no further, alas).

To my knowledge, this is the first time that someone has made the connection with the original inspiration behind the winter elemental that appears in the book (or at least the first time they've put their thoughts down anywhere). Here's Shiversprite as realised by the book's illustrator Martin McKenna.

Shiversprite

And here's the advert (quite correctly spotted by tweetygwee, as mentioned in the post above,) that inspired its creation.

The Judderman

One last snippet of information for those who might be interested, I believe that it was Clint Langley (the artist who produced the artwork for my first Black Library novel) who was behind the conceptual designs for the Metz Judderman.

And I've just spotted another subconscious connection between the Judderman and Howl of the Werewolf, involving the last scene from the ad. Anyone else spot it?