Another semi-regular look at key documents in the creation of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader - this time it is the White Dwarf issue Let us dive in!
Here’s the entry in the book on White Dwarf 110 from the timeline of creation of Rogue Trader:
February and WD 110, with its amazing cover of Space Marines by Wayne England, expanded on Ogryns, one of the abhuman factions that were part of the Imperial Guard at the time. It also featured an advert for the Imperial Guard plastic boxed set, as available early 1989 with its Napoleonic cover by John Blanche.
Why is it key? In this issue we see the expanding empire of Games Workshop - more content on 40K Rogue Trader, Adeptus Titanicus, Dark Future and more. It feels like a company really finding its stride.
Here’s an image from that issue’s article on Ogryns that is a personal favourite:
(Image - Ogryn about to demolish an Eldar jet-bike. From White Dwarf issue 110, page 17.)
Let us take a look at the issue:
A few links and notes that arise of out the issue (and video above)
Fan theory that Dark Future is the start of the 40K universe.
Dark Future: Blood Red States (video game version)
Note that Terminator Armour did not start in WD 110, but in WD 108 (more here.) I say at the end of the video that vehicles, as in kits for them, are not really a part of Warhammer 40,000 much yet. But we’d had Rhinos appear in WD 103 from July 1988 and Land Raiders in WD 105. So they were becoming so!
Thanks for reading!
(Image - Rear of White Dwarf 110 showing two vignettes of Imperial forces and scratch-built armoured vehicles.)
Links of Note:
Note! There is more about this project here. The direct chat for this project is here. You can comment here or find me on BlueSky.
Also note! This book project is a personal one and not affiliated with any company that, in my day job, I work with or partner with.
Great to see these old WDs being explored like this! I've not actually got many issues that predate the late 120s, so this is a real treasure trove. I loved that late 80s era where all of the dioramas hid the bases - must have been so much work to do those!