Black Library: The Art Of Warhammer 40,000

by Black Library

A Warhammer 40,000 art book

Discover more than 20 years of Warhammer 40,000 art from Black Library in an immense 248-page hardback packed full of incredible imagery.

READ IT BECAUSE
Take a trip through Black Library's Warhammer 40,000 covers over the years with this astonishing collection of art from some of the greatest fantasy and science-fiction artists in the world.

DESCRIPTION
For over 20 years, Black Library has been telling action-packed, character-driven stories set in the grim dark future of Warhammer 40,000, and bringing those stories and characters to life through dramatic, dynamic cover illustrations.

Offering a unique behind-the-scenes perspective on the creation of more than a dozen of Black Library’s best-loved book covers, Black Library: The Art of Warhammer 40,000 is the ideal visual companion for readers of Warhammer 40,000 fiction. This art book contains over 200 pages of full-colour cover artwork from Black Library novels past and present, including depictions of fan-favourite characters such as Gregor Eisenhorn and Celestine the Living Saint, in addition to a brand-new reimagining of the classic cover art for Dan Abnett’s bestselling Warhammer 40,000 novel First and Only.

Genres: Science Fiction, Art

248 pages, Hardcover

Published August 8, 2020

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The artwork reproductions are of outstanding quality but the title is misleading as the majority of the art displayed is of a recent vintage — this is not an all-encompassing art history of WH 40K, which is what I expected. Also, the artwork is not inclusive of all the lore’s races, with several xenos species like Tau & Tyranids going entirely unrepresented, which is frankly inexcusable.

[Eliran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I overall enjoyed this collection of cover art from Black Library, the publishing arm of Games Workshop. There are lots of colorful, and evocative images from several Warhammer 40,000 and Horus Heresy novels collected in this book.
A gripe I've seen from other reviews, they do use a lot of "glossy" 3D photorealistic art from recent times. The art is wonderful, but from such a storied history Black Library has, there is a treasure trove of art work from years past they could've dug up. I don't hate the modern looking art work, but I do have an appreciation for the heavy line sketches and hand drawings, and it would've made this book much richer in showing this art legacy.
Another gripe I do have is that there could've been more artwork from non-Space Marine Imperial factions, but that's just a given from Games Workshop; Space Marines sell!
Gripes aside, I did overall enjoy this book and will definitely enjoy thumbing through it now and again to take in the art.

[Gonzalo Elvira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, i bought this book and i was super excited to take a look. But the joy and high expectations went down as soon i began to look the pages inside.
Yeah the book brings pages of diverses artists, but is not even close to the great artwork and stuff they said to sell.
I didnt saw a single illustration of the great artwork display that they have at their disposal, not even the big fishes who worked there are shown in the book. Only Phill Moss (1 page) and Adrian Smith (a few more pages) are on the book, where are the rest of them?
And all the covers of books they said to be here, men i have like 20+ books of the Black Library and not a single one of them are here niether.
Long story short, this is the first artbook im truly dissapointed of buying, is not worth it since it lacks the esscense of what it should be.
I dont recommend it at all.

[Andrew Nierenhausen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed by the glossy digital art being the only style represented. It was also overwhelmingly portraits with the figure centered in frame. Not the most diverse selection of art, especially when half the book was just different coloured space marines. I'm also sad that the xenos were sorely lacking. The highlights of the book for me were some of the older imp guard art they showed, which looked way better than the reissued covers.