The 40K History of the Black Library: Inquisitors, Guardsmen, and an Ultramarine (2001 Part Two)

Hello and welcome to the twelfth installment in our series chronicling the history of the Black Library, as told from a Warhammer 40,000 perspective. For convenience, here is the list of the History so far:

• Part One: The Beginning. 1990. Inquisitor and Deathwing.
• Part Two: A short pause. 1993. Space Marine.
• Part Three: 1994-95. Harlequin and Chaos Child.
• Part Four: 1997. Dawn of the Black Library and Inferno!
• Part Five: 1997. The first year of Inferno!
• Part Six: 1998. Gaunt’s Ghosts and Last Chancers debut.
• Part Seven: 1998. Warhammer Monthly’s first ten issues.
• Part Eight: 1999. The books are back!
• Part Nine: The books of the year 2000.
• Part Ten: The short stories and comics of 2000.
• Part Eleven: Winter and Spring 2001. Eisenhorn appears.

The first half of 2001 was a bit lighter for releases, with just a pair of novels (Dan Abnett’s Xenos and Pawns of Chaos by Brian Craig). But what a rebound the second half of the year would hold! With more stories of the Gaunt’s Ghosts, Last Chancers, and Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, the Black Library was clearly happy to give fans more of what they wanted.

But as we’ll see, a legendary Ultramarine also made his Black Library debut. First, though, let’s look at the quartet of novels that so helped define 2001!

Execution Hour, by Gordon Rennie

It’s fair to say that the body of work focusing on the Imperial Navy is sadly rather small, and even this- Gordon Rennie’s debut novel- was intended to be the first of a trilogy that never materialized. Execution Hour features the crew of the Imperial cruiser Lord Solar Macharius as it faces down the forces of Abaddon the Despoiler during the Twelfth Black Crusade, and helped showcase Games Workshop’s tabletop 40K spinoff (Battlefleet Gothic) that had launched just two years prior.

Even then Rennie was calling his shot. In a 1999 interview with editor Marc Gascoigne for Inferno! #17, he listed a Battlefleet Gothic novel as one the things he was keen to work on. Prior to this point had largely focused for scriptwriting for comics for Inferno! and Warhammer Monthly, with one of his best-known works, Bloodquest, being featured in Inferno’s “issue zero” preview. Given his background in comics (he wrote some Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper for 2000AD, for instance), that’s not too surprising.

But even then he was occasionally working in prose, with his first Black Library short story appearing in Inferno! issue #4 (Rites of Passage). He’d pen another five before tackling the longer form.

Execution Hour has left a strong legacy for Black Library readers due to its writing and focus on void combat. No less a veteran than Gav Thorpe has called it the best of its type_1, and readers wouldn’t be kept waiting long for a sequel.

Honour Guard, by Dan Abnett

It’s every writer’s worst nightmare: finishing a piece of writing and somehow losing it. Maybe the dog ate it, perhaps it disappeared into the aether, but somehow the fruit of your creative labors falls off the vine and disappears forever.

The most I’ve ever lost is an entire article (o hai, WordPress!). For Dan Abnett back at the turn of the millennium it was nearly an entire book.₂

Now here’s the interesting part. Sometimes when you have to redo something all over again, serendipity happens and what you’ve written as a replacement is better than what you’d lost. That’s exactly what happened to Honour Guard, and without the rewrite the character of Lijah Cuu would never have existed.

The writing process can be a mystery not just to readers but to the writers themselves, but it brought us a story of the Ghosts’ insertion on a Chaos-held world, tasked with recovering artifacts holy to Saint Sabbat before they would be lost forever.

Kill Team, by Gav Thorpe

In that wonderful way that history has of flowing like streams rather than being a straight line on paper, Kill Team was the result of a confluence of factors and events that wind their way through the story of Warhammer itself.

Much of what we know of the game and the world today was still taking shape in 1990. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the game’s First Edition, had come out just three years prior, and it would be another three before we saw a Second Edition. In July of that year, White Dwarf #127 hit the newsstands, and with it a massive lore section and army list for the Eldar.

The Eldar, or “Space Elves,” had certainly existed in the game prior to then, but now they were getting the full faction treatment. Amongst the readers completely captivated by this issue was a teenage kid named Gav Thorpe.

“It’s what caused my 14-year old self to fall in love with the Eldar,” he once noted₃, “and has inspired every Eldar story I’ve written since.”

The inspiration didn’t stop there. Thorpe was smitten with the idea of creating his own race for Warhammer 40K, and before long he had written his own fan content around Space Lizardmen called the Shissellian League₄. Thorpe’s Space Lizardmen would have been entirely consigned to his own personal nostalgia were it not for one detail: Shissellian society was divided into four elemental castes, with a fifth one based on ‘spirit.’ Sound familiar?

Flash forward to the turn of the millennia, when our teenaged Gav has now become an adult who’s landed his dream job at Games Workshop. As he relates it:

Naturally, Games Workshop was keen to put this new faction to work in the pages of their fiction. With a second Last Chancers novel greenlit, Thorpe’s pitch- the Chancers are mobilized to assassinate a T’au general₅– was something of a layup.

Malleus, by Dan Abnett

If the trilogy-opening Xenos had hooked you on the adventures of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, you didn’t have long to wait as the follow-up book, Malleus, dropped just a few months later. Malleus moves forward a hundred years after the conclusion of Xenos, as a figure from his past reappears to brand him a heretic. Eisenhorn must unravel the fraying threads of conspiracy while staying ahead of those from his own side trying to hunt him down.

“In context of the Eisenhorn trilogy,” wrote Track of Words in their 2018 review₆, “this is a classic second book, taking the characters out of their comfort zones and putting them through harder, darker experiences. It marks the beginning of Eisenhorn’s gradual progression from a moderate puritan to…something else.”

Malleus is also notable for the introduction of Gideon Ravenor, who would go on to become a major Abentt character in his own right (with 2005’s Ravenor kicking off his own trilogy).

The Anthology: Dark Imperium

Once again the Black Library also released a 40K anthology of short stories edited by Marc Gascoigne and Andy Jones, taken from the pages of Inferno! and White Dwarf magazines.

• Ancient History, by Andy Chambers. An echo of the nautical tales of the 18th and 19th century, Chambers weaves a gripping tale of a smuggler press-ganged into service in the Imperial Navy. (Originally in Inferno! #19)
• Angels, by Robert Earl. Space Marines of an unidentified chapter arrive to deal with a monstrous threat to an Imperial world. (Originally in Inferno! #13)
• Apothecary’s Honour, by Simon Jowett. This story is centered on an Apothecary of the Avenging Sons, and the sad duty of gene-seed harvesting. (Originally in Inferno! #16)
• Battle of the Archaeosaurs, by Barrington J. Bayley. A Guard regiment and Warlord Titans are sent to take a primitive world, only to find it has dinosaurs of its own. (Originally in Inferno! #18)
• Daemonblood, by Ben Counter. Counter’s second story for the Black Library, this one features a Battle Sister pursuing a Chaos-taken Ultramarine in the hopes of granting him redemption. (Originally in Inferno! #12)
• Hellbreak, by Ben Counter. An Imperial Commissar captured by the Dark Eldar is forced to fight in the arenas at Commoragh. (Originally in Inferno! #15)
• Hive Fleet Horror, by Barrington J. Bayley. Another story of Adeptus Mechanicus misfortune, this time at the hands claws of Hive Fleet Kraken. This story was Bayley’s last for the Black Library. (Originally in Inferno! #20)
• Know Thine Enemy, by Gav Thorpe. Salamanders come to the rescue of Imperial Guardsmen defending an artifact from relentless Eldar attacks. (Originally in Inferno! #14)
• The Lives of Ferag Lion-Wolf, by Barrington J. Bayley. A mighty warrior tells of the exploits of his life before and after he became a Chosen of Tzeentch…but when it comes to the Changer of Ways is anything truly as it seems? (Originally in Inferno! #14)
• Nightmare, by Gav Thorpe. A young boy hears a voice in his dreams calling him to join a crusade against monsters. (Originally in Inferno! #13)
• Small Cogs, by Neil Rutledge. An Imperial Guard regiment dressed in their ceremonial uniforms is suddenly ordered to battle against an eldar scouting force. This would be the third and final short story for Rutledge in the Black Library. (Originally in Inferno! #17)
• Snares and Delusions, by Matthew Farrer. A Word Bearer Chaplain chases a destiny that will reward him with immortality if he can send an Eldar Craftworld to its doom. (Originally in Inferno! #16)
• The Wrath of Khârn, by William King. The Betrayer leads a raid on a temple devoted to Slaanesh- but will the wiles within get the better of him? (Originally printed in White Dwarf #231)

Tales from the Inferno

With issue #25 being devoted entirely to Fantasy tales, the second half of the year didn’t have a ton for 40K readers- but what it did have was fairly impressive.

• Chains of Command, by Graham McNeill. This story marked the first appearance of Uriel Ventris, according to McNeill serving as the “prelude to a novel, almost as a training run, you might say, to see whether we thought the character had legs enough to move into the big league.₇” As the inaugural tale of a key character, this story would see multiple reprints including Words of Blood (2002), The Ultramarines Omnibus (2006), Nightbringer (Black Library Masterworks, 2015), The Uriel Ventris Chronicles (2019), and The Hammer and the Eagle (2020). (Inferno! #26)
• Firestarter, by Jonathan Green. When a mutant appears with the powers of pyromancy, it’s up to Nathan Creed to douse the flames. Reprinted in Crucible of War (2003) and Necromunda Omnibus 2 (2013). (Inferno! #26)
• Liberty, by Gav Thorpe. Another origin story of sorts, this one introduces us to Lieutenant Kage of the Last Chancers, before the events of the novels brought them together. It was reprinted in Words of Blood (2002) and The Last Chancers omnibus in 2006 (Inferno! #27)
• Missing in Action, by Dan Abnett. A string of mysterious killings in the hive have caught the attention of Inquisitor Eisenhorn. Like Chains of Command, this story featuring a highly-regarded character virtually guaranteed a heavy reprint run, including in Lord of the Eisenhorn collections (2004, 2022), The Magos & The Definitive Casebook of Gregor Eisenhorn (2018), Nexus & Other Stories (2020), and Dark Millennium: The Dan Abnett Collection (2020). (Inferno! #27)

Visions from the Inferno

Inferno! had always contained a strong visual element, and many stories would have illustrations accompanying them. Note that titles in italics are original illustration works by the named title; otherwise, they are named after the story they accompany (the art itself is untitled).

• Eisenhorn, by Karl and Stefan Kopinski. Inferno! #27 was a very consequential issue, and who better to lend it some added majesty than the Brothers Kopinski and their cover art of Inquisitor Eisenhorn? (Inferno! #27)
• Firestarter, by Des Hanley.  (Inferno! #26)
• Liberty, by Simon Davis. (Inferno! #27)
• Missing in Action, by Clint Langley. While like many artists hanging their hat at Games Workshop Langley had a background in comics (2000AD, Marvel), his body of work for Warhammer has been substantial (indeed, in 2008 he even has his own Warhammer art book published). He’d joined the White Dwarf team full-time in 2003 as a layout designer, going on to provide art for a great many of the Black Library’s novel covers including the Gaunt’s Ghosts and Sandy Mitchell’s Ciaphas Cain series.  (Inferno! #27)
• The Vengeance of Morthrax, by John Gravato. Gravato provided the terrific cover art of a Chaos Space Marine for issue #26.

Meanwhile in Warhammer Monthly

It was a landmark year for Warhammer Monthly, with enough in the slush pile that they were quite happy to offer a ‘bonus Christmas issue.’ That bonus issue happened to be the publication’s fiftieth, prompting a bit of introspection from the editorial team.

“When we first started Warhammer Monthly,” wrote Marc Gascoigne, “we thought of it as a noble experiment, to see if the Black Library could produce a comic that happened to be set in the wonderfully rich and exciting Warhammer game worlds- but which was a damn good read in its own right… I firmly believe we’ve managed it, and how!”

Andy Williams reflected on what the accomplishment actually meant. “Our roots have been and will always be deep on the Games Workshop hobby,” he noted, “and there our impact has been undeniable.

“I’ve seen miniature Darkblades lead armies to war, companies of Iron Snakes take the field, model Kal Jericos and Ulli & Marquands fight in never-ending tabletop skirmishes and Bloodquest scoop the highest accolades.

“I can’t deny it’s been gratifying to see our creations spark gamers’ imaginations; however I see our achievement at a far wider level, and that is in the creation of stories. That has always been our goal, and fifty issues on I’m proud to say it’s been our achievement as well.”

Here are the stories that helped ring in the milestone!

• Blood Rites, by Jim Alexander (script) and PJ Holden (art). We’ve seen Alexander plenty thus far, but Holden is a newer face. By this point one should reasonably assume that any illustrator doing work for Warhammer Monthly probably also has some background in 2000AD, and while this is certainly the case with Holden his tale takes some interesting turns. For him, 2001 was the year he leaned into comic illustration as a profession, a path which would soon see him drawing notable characters like Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd. In 2007, he’d helm his own book for Image Comics, Fearless, a superhero story where the hero must battle debilitating anxiety through the use of a special drug. As the founder of Infurious Comics, he also worked heavily to get comics books accessible on mobile devices, for which he was profiled by the BBC. (Warhammer Monthly #49)
• Bloodquest – Back into Hell, by Adrian Smith. For the cover of the 50th issue, the Warhammer Monthly editors went all out, commissioning a suitably epic portrait for the Bloodquest comic series. (Warhammer Monthly #50).
• Bloodquest III, by Gordon Rennie (script) and Colin MacNeill (art). The Blood Angels have recovered the ancient relic sword that kicked off the start of this long-running series, but at terrible cost. The quest may be completed, but there can be no rest until Leonatos is recovered.  (Warhammer Monthly #50)
• Daemonifuge – Lord of Damnation, by Gordon Rennie (script), Karl Richardson, and Chris Quilliams (art) continues the tale of Sister of Battle- and suspected heretic- Ephrael Stern. Quilliams took over drawing duties beginning in issue #47. (Warhammer Monthly #45, #47, #48)
• Ephrael & Pariah, by Mark Harrison. Harrison had provided the cover for issue #42 with Abnett’s Titan, now he was back to lend his talents to Daemonifuge. (Warhammer Monthly #45)
• Gravier, by Karl Kopinski. Inquisitor Gravier last graced a cover in issue #38, when he was illustrated by Adrian Smith. Now one of the Brothers Kopinski takes a turn for the cover of #44.
• Inquisitor: Ascendant, by Dan Abnett (script) and Jim Brady (art). Inquisitor Gavier- hunting for his mentor Defay, finds himself betrayed and in danger in the war-scarred wastes of planet Sepulchris. (Warhammer Monthly #44, #46, #47, #48)
• Kal Jerico, by Adrian Smith. Smith puts the notorious bounty hunter front and center on the cover of issue #45.
• Kal Jerico: The Delivery, by Gordon Rennie (script) and Wayne Reynolds (art). Some bounties just aren’t worth the hassle, as Jerico finds to his dismay. (Warhammer Monthly #45)
• The Redeemer: Blood and Circuses, by Debbie Gallagher (script) and Wayne Reynolds (art). Klovis the Redeemer must fight for his life after being dropped in an arena, battling against mutants, bounty hunters, and more. (Warhammer Monthly #50)
• Succubus, by David Stoddart (script) and PJ Holden (art).  Here, he and Stodart tell a tale of Dark Eldar gladiatorial pits. (Warhammer Monthly #44)
• Titan, by Mark Harrison. Cover art doesn’t typically follow any creative naming conventions, generally just being the thing they’re depicting. Thus we see Harrison’s art for the cover of issue #48 called, simply, Titan– the same as his cover art for issue #42 (despite being very different pieces).
• Titan: Cold Steel, by Dan Abnett (script) and Anthony Williams (art). Princeps Hekate and the crew of the Titan Imperius Dictatio face their greatest challenge yet as they battle the forces of Chaos. (Warhammer Monthly 45, 48, 49)
• Titan: Forge of Heaven, by Dan Abnett (script) and Anthony Williams (art). For the Titan’s crew it’s time for a little R&R- and by that it’s meant ‘refit and reforge,’ not ‘rest and relaxation’ in this one-shot story. (Warhammer Monthly 50)
• Titan: Ground Zero, by Dan Abnett (script) and Anthony Williams (art). The story concludes for Princeps Hekate and the crew of the Imperius Dictatio in the wastelands of the factory world Artemis. (Warhammer Monthly 44)
• What Goes Around, by Iain Lowson (script) and Graham Stoddart (art). The story of a single Necromundan gun and its owners, told without a single word of speech. This was the first of two stories Lowson would contribute to the Black Library, and he would go on to have something of a journeyman’s career through writing. He penned a couple of novels for the Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein RPG setting in 2011 and 2013, and contributed a short story to the anthology Cthulhu Lives!: An Eldritch Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft in 2014. He’d also been heavily involved with the Official Star Wars Fact File magazine series in the early 2000’s. (Warhammer Monthly #45)

And that’s a wrap for 2001. 2002 was a year of some amazing beginnings, and we’ll look at the first half of the year in our next installment!

Footnotes

1. At least back in 2016, when he gave the interview.
2. He relates that here, on his (long-defunct) blog.
3. On his blog. He also posted scans of all the Eldar pages from that issue in case you’d like to take a side-trip through the literal pages of history.
4. Here. Thorpe has a reverence for the history and posterity of the game he’s devoted so much of his life to. It makes it a treat to write about when he’s in the frame of the story, such as now.
5. Interestingly, we’d see this plot used by Abnett for Gaunt’s Ghosts just a few years later in Traitor General, the eighth book in the series.
6. Brief but insightful, Michael holds to a high standard for these and always worth a read.
7. Blessed be any writer who takes the time to offer context and commentary on their own stories.

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