White Dwarf | A Short History
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- White Dwarf is 500 issues and 47 years old. The magazine, first published to cover the entire UK roleplaying industry, has evolved and changed considerably over the years, and this is a short history of it all.
After a hundred issues it became the house magazine for Games Workshop, exclusively covering their games and Citadel's miniatures.
In time it focused more on Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000, along with the games set in those worlds. It has provided some of the greatest hobby guidance, Eavy Metal showcases, and of course battle reports in history, and more 40k content than you could possibly imagine!
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I’m glad that you’re doing what Games Workshop refuses to do these days - properly record its most enduring publication’s history.
There’s a 12 page long article about the history of White Dwarf in the 500th Issue.
@@jonscott6459 And not a single article in the same issue regarding Warhammer Fantasy.
@@ImrahilToChaos I’ll get back to you in a couple of months with a reply 😎
Weekly White Dwarf was forced on us. We didn’t want to do it but it was meant to drive footfall to the retail stores. Didn’t work. And producing that weekly mag and Visions at the same time was really tough, especially when the page size and count of visions was increased mid run. If I hadn’t of been put through that I’d probably still be working at GW.
As an ex dwarfer thanks for doing this.
If I ever compile my list of “100 Stupidest Decisions of Games Workshop”, the weekly WD would likely be #1. Anyway, thanks for another great retrospective, J.S.!
Good on you Jordan, doing history a service here. The "fat dwarf" era will live forever in my mind as the greatest time in GW history.
Me too
Id really like a breakdown of White Dwarf by editor. Thatd be interesting. That being said, have you sought out Paul Sawyer for an interview? Fat Bloke was a legend to our group. ❤
I'd love to get a chance to speak with Paul, fingers crossed we can get one sorted
Unfortunately Paul is in terminal health status at this point in time so honoring him before he goes would be an excellent idea.
❤
If you want to make it, we would love to see it. White dwarf would, in theory, be the broadest possible Warhammer based theme. Some play 40k, some fantasy, blood bowl, some more than one. But everyone's enjoyed a white dwarf at some point, even those poor souls too young to have only read issues post 90s
Absolutely! Make that series on The Dwarf!
I can't get over how well you rock those beads man.
True good sensei vibes.
Jordan, it always brightens my day to see your face dude. Have a great day!
To echo other comments here, an in-depth look at different editorial eras would be fantastic.
I'd enjoy a more in depth series on white dwarf - this episode was great.
I think a video of some kind about Alan Bligh and his works would be really cool! The White Dwarf idea is also really cool! You poor busy dude : ) At least you have lots of potential content. Don't get too stressed though, the channel and videos are great. Thanks Jordan!
I've actually been working on cataloging a collection of early 80s White Dwarfs that came into the shop recently, and I'd absolutely love to see the breakdown by editor. Sorting them has taken so long because I can't help but stop to read almost every issue and just be amazed at how quickly rpgs started evolving. I've been trying to add as much info about each issue as my description box will allow, and I've started picking up on different artists' styles before I even get to the credits page. Then, of course, I wind up going on a google excursion and find out all the other amazing things a lot of these artists went on to do!
Given that I don't think I have read a White Dwarf since 1989, I, for one, would be quite interested in seeing a retrospective of all the eras until now. Perhaps with actual reading of some sections of the best of those magazines to illustrate what was so good and how things changed over time. .
I was a D&D guy and a FF guy alongside that, which is how I found your channel in the first place.
You do some of the best deep dives into aspects of those hobbies even without it being your primary passion. So to see you delve into one you really enjoy is going to be just awesome, I am sure of it.
It's a great idea and if you can pull it off, it will be amazing! Go for it!
I love the idea of a greater exploration of White Dwarf. My very first was 174 back in 1994 at age 9. After that I acquired and bought as they came out all of them until 2002 when I left school. At that point I was no longer playing Warhammer but I did read the old magazines at times. Eventually I sold them all on Ebay, but it was a great time.
Yes, please do a completely White Dwarf history! I'll gladly spend 2, 3 or even 10 hours listening to that while I paint 😊
Would love to see a retrospective by editor! My favourite will always be the Paul Sawyer era. I had a job interview with him once and he was a really nice guy but did mock me for collecting Bretonnians 😂
I recall one of the big issues with the white dwarf weekly came to ahead when a limited avaliblity terrain peice was being sold and advertized in the white dwarf. Problem is it went up and sold out on the friday, white dwarf was sold on the saturday. A whole issue of the white dwarf was based all around a model you couldnt buy, by the time you could read about it.
White Dwarf is one of the major elements of my teenage years. I would love a deeper dive into its history.
White Dwarf was great now it sucks & Blows 😂
If I had power over GW’s board, I’d buy a lighthouse, move all the archive there, set up a recording studio and give Jordan the keys.
Too epic. You'd run the risk of igniting True Fandom and that could bring on the End Times.
Would love a WD retrospective. Please include the international edition editors, as Dave Taylor and team did amazing things for the Australian edition
That's a great shout re the international editions
Love to see a series of WD!
I would especially love episodes dedicated to Gobbledegook and Thrud the Barbarian. And especially the best story of Thrud - the 3 part where someone tries to befuddle him with the Potion of Niceness ❤
Breakneck speed by your usual standards, enjoyable nonetheless.
YES 100% loving your dives into GW's history as always ❤️
I'll watch everything you do no matter what, but yes do it do it do it!
Yes, please!
WOAH there Jordan! You talk about White Dwarf and shoot out the ''S" word in the first 25 secs if the video!??! Thats a grudgin'.
Would absolutely love to see a deep dive into the history of White Dwarf divided up by editorial reign.
For me, White Dwarf went downhill with the issue the plastic Giant was released. The magazine from that point on felt like a giant (haha) in-your-face advertisement. The word count seemed to drop along with any in-depth hobby content. It has, however, managed to recapture a lot of what it used to be in the 90s and early 2000s since it's relaunch in 2016.
Do an issue by issue video for each one. That’s 500 videos. Content for years to come!
I'd love to watch that series!
pedant mod on: "actually it is not Art Déco, it is a Art Nouveau font". Great job Jordan, very interesting video, as always.
Ah, my mistake! I'm not particularly clued up on art history so I grabbed for the low hanging term there!
Great stuff. Would defo watch further WD content!
This is great and I really loved this overview! Great stuff.
Yes please Jordan, that would be an amazing series!
Thanks for overview, please make a series about the editors ages, and perhaps about the issues in foreign countries. I read the magazine since german issue #3 and broke in the eight edition time of warhammer fantasy.
Yes you should definitely do a series on White Dwarf 🙂
White Dwarf always tickled my interest from the magazine shelves in the '90s. Those covers were amazing.
I will admit, I decided to buy as many of the back catalogue as I could find/afford on eBay and so far I’ve got about 350 issues👍🏼they are absolutely great.
I'm a big fan of Joe Dever and Gary Chalk for their Lone Wolf book series. Cool to hear about their involvement with White Dwarf.
God... issue 191. I own that one, it was the first of a handful I managed to irregularly acquire by hook or crook. "Welcome to the new-look 'Fat' Dwarf" is a phrase that lives in my head, and I might be biased but it seems like such a standout milestone of an issue! The energy, the excitement, the launch of Necromunda and the battle (skirmish?) report among other things felt about perfect to balance out what I'm sure had become an annoyingly cynical focus on advertising to people older than I was (being perhaps nine years old and very impressionable at the time, after all).
Still, this was the age of 'specialist games' getting equal billing with 40k, of Warhammer Quest and whole new armies being launched for Fantasy, of Shadow of the Horned Rat and Space Crusade... the early/mid 90s were a hell of a time to be (or get) into tabletop roleplaying and wargaming!
I think it peaked in the early to mid 1990s, the cover artwork and fun page layouts.
Loved the video as always Jordan. One of the things that I have been thinking about recently was doing a series of videos, where I talk through each of the fifty issues I edited (139-189 or 1991 to 1995). Your idea of looking at WD from the perpective of the different eras of editors is an interesting one and might be something we could to talk about.
That sounds like a fantastic idea Robin! We should definitely get talking!
I read WD religiously until the day the necrons were introduced, I read the bit of fluff and threw the magazine across the room, never looked at a mini again for eight years. I had also found the design shift too jarring and while looking back they did get into a good groove again, the simple omission of the staged battle photos on the inside and back covers was a big mistake IMO
Jordan, I've maybe read three issues of White Dwarf...and I would LOVE to see you break down the magazine era by era. I am very much here for your gaming history stuff.
Hi, great format, good delivery. Yes, lots of interest, in white dwarf, thanks.
go for it!
Ohhh it finally clicked Jordan Sorcery rhymes with Sword and Sorcery! That's v clever 😀😂
Should you do a WD project? Yes. Yes, you should. When you have time.
Yes please. Though as much as I love White Dwarf I’d like to get your thoughts on the other, more obscure, publications GW used to churn out. Inferno, Warhammer Monthly (the anthology comic), the Citidel Journal etc…
Great idea Jordan! Yes!
TBH somewhere between 1999-2000 WD became a collection of ads you had to pay for. That's when I stoped buying it.
Hey Jordan! Thanks again! My answer: yes! Just do it!
Please yes! More White Dwarf, love your channel ❤️
While I have fond memories from 2000s White Dwarf era, at some point you realize that you are buying ads. I have my free old metal White Dwarf mini, now there are selling the 500 issue White Dwarf at 32.5€.
Absolutely! More in-depth looks at WD please. That would be fantastic. Don’t worry about covering any issues post 1998 however. Instead, use that time on even more in-depth coverage of the ‘golden years’. 😉😂 Thanks very much.
I got into _White Dwarf_ back in 2007. Still have the first issue I picked up - it had Gondorian warriors on the front, so peak _LOTR_ game era. Took it with me on a family holiday to Paris and drank it all in. Felt very creatively inspiring as a young lad.
It's a pity I never got to see the fun, old, mish-mash versions. I stopped picking it up some years ago once it went into hard *catalogue/showcase* mode. Still, knowing the history now is much appreciated. 😁
I think it would make an interesting series to go though the different eras of White Dwarf. My very first White Dwarf was 109 - January 1989 when I first got into the hobby. Over the years I have picked up earlier issues from before my time, so I have pretty much from about issue 60 (and quite a few earlier issues) up until issue 265, where I drifted away from the hobby for a few years (girls and guitars, the usual story). I got back into painting again not long before the weekly White Dwarf experiement. While that was ultimiatlly a bad idea, I loved Warhammer Visions - I really wish they still did them, even if just once or twice a year. I still buy White Dwarf, I sometimes wonder why though as its really not an entertaining read. Maybe I have just aged out?
Would love to see a WD series of videos! Honestly, some of my most vivid memories of the hobby come from just picking up the newest edition back in the 90's/00's. I started with that issue 217 and the free Necron, and it was just so cool as a kid reading all the stories & battle reports, seeing what models/pieces where in the Mail Order Trollz section at the back and thinking how cool it all was. The era with 'Fat Bloke' Paul Sawyer at the helm was just utterly magical. Not sure the newer ones hit the same way these days - sure it's always been an advert/catalogue - but the newer ones just feel a bit more sterile and honestly, not as fun! That could just be nostalgia talking though!
Great overview & primer!
I think that a series covering each era of WD would be handy, but before that I want a video on the Citadel Journal.
Great video! As a kid, it was the Space Crusade cover to issue 145(ish?) that drew me in, having just seen the game at school - and pretty soon I was hooked. Still have the card Fantasy house terrain, and a 40k bunker in the attic! I’d love to see more videos covering its history.
As someone who has been around a bit longer than the White Dwarf it is something that I’ve grown up with and have thoroughly enjoyed over the years. I for one would like to see a more in depth series related to each editor
As a side note I didn’t particularly care for the weekly format and also sadly after GW killed Fantasy I also rather lost interest in White Dwarf…I tried for a while but it lost the spark I felt it used to have. This isn’t said from a place of bitterness either, I have nothing against AOS or anyone who plays it, but it just isn’t the fantasy setting I liked. I would love to see some more Old World content in there and would definitely buy the magazine again if they started to include it.
I’d be interested in any and all videos you do covering White Dwarf in its various ‘eras’, however those are defined (by editor as you say seems like a good way of doing it). I have pretty much every copy from 100 to 210 and am very much enjoying reading them, but would love to hear about later issues which are completely new to me.
Yes, please do this review of the different ebitors. I just sub'd just so i can see this!
Would love a series - the nostalgia will be amazing!
I'd like to see a series on White Dwarf. I'm here for the long term.
I recently cancelled my subscription because I wasn't reading them. I started it in 2021, but not too long ago, I got a few issues from 1993. That was the magazine I was looking for with the modelling workshops and creativity I wasn't getting from current White Dwarf.
A modelling workshop in 2024 would be awkward... 3D printing would feature.
Whitedwarf was good before TH-cam came a long.
My first issue was 148 in April 1992, but had only grabbed it on a whim. I had picked up the WHFB 3rd edition rulebook a few weeks earlier despite the store owner making it sound like the stuff of cult worship! I was intrigued and already had a passion for miniatures since I was little. Prior to that, as a kid and through my teens, I had DM'd a few D&D games so I had a few Dragon magazines and had lived through the Satanic Panic of the deep south 80s. WD had such beautiful images of terrain and painted miniatures whereas Dragon rarely had such except in a few ads. I was eventually sucked in to the Warhammer world, but only picked up WD sporadically until I started subscribing in the 170s through about the early 300s. I had since only picked up a few with issue 366 as my last numbered edition. I grabbed an unnumbered (what!?) version in Nov 2012, and my final in Feb 2019. It just no longer had the magic for me, but would very much be interested in seeing you cover early issues!
First time I did that meme in real life was trying figure 40k 7th edition 😂
Ya, deep dive into the magazine would be cool. Don’t burn yourself out doing it tho haha I know from project in school did on history of BB, the rabbit hole is real with old white dwarf stuff.
A definite yes please to a history of White Dwarf series!
I’d love to see your proposed history series - sounds amazing
Dwarf, short history. 😂
Yes, yes and YESSS to a WD video.
Yes, please! Thanks for the share!!
+1 for an in-depth history.
This series would be great!
I would certainly watch that series if you made it.
I still have a stack of early 1990s White Dwarf magazines somewhere
I've been loving your History of Warhammer series, would certainly enjoy a White Dwarf series! Keep up the great work
I would certainly look forward to a short(?, how many would we be talking?) series of videos focusing on White Dwarf seen through the lens of some of its main era editors!
On second thought I would also clearly watch a long series! :D
Please make some white dwarf video content. I really hope you will publish the ultimate games workshop almanach. I will preorder at once. 😁😉
100% would be interested in the history of white dwarf! Keep up the great work Jordan, you’re the best Warhammer Historian!!
Yes we want this !
Do it Jordan! Great work!
I'd love to see more on White Dwarf, perhaps also highlighting some particularly memorable issues. It might be nice to look at some of the overlaps with the Citadel Journal, too
I love flipping through old issues of WD so definitely please do more videos like this!
I think a deeper dive on White Dwarf could be good but also very time consuming. Perhaps set expectations early (“this will be a six video series”) before committing. Great content as always! 😀
A very good point!
Yes please! I'd love to see a series about WD.
A series would be great
Yes! More please! 😊
Yes to your proposal!
Very interesting!
These videos are so good. Really comprehensive and knowledgable. Definitive. Great work 🙌
Thx Jordan
YES PLEASE!!!
Yes please!
Warhammer Visions was utter, utter garbage. I got issues 0 and 1 and then immediately cancelled my subscription
Really interesting, thank you. Yes, I’d love a deeper dive into the history of White Dward 👍
I suggest you divide your WD survey up by topic/feature rather than editor. How has the magazine covered Josef Bugman over the years? The Eldar? Man O'War? The Horus Heresy? What were the major landmarks in the catalogue pages or the Bat-Rep section? Videos on stuff like that would be more interesting than a survey of editors.