The Death of White Dwarf Magazine? I guess with time everything ends…
White Dwarf I started working on… Well, at least it is the right cover.
I know I’m really out of the loop on this, but I’ve recently learned that White Dwarf Magazine – Games Workshop’s in-house magazine has finally died.
Or from what I can gather is morphing into weekly Visions book that will concentrate on Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WHFB), Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K and Lord of the Rings Strategy Games (LOTRSG). I feel kinda sad about this and seeing White Dwarf as I knew it finally end.
You see I used to write and do production work for White Dwarf magazine during the Paul Sawyer era, three years (or was that four years) of my life that were truly a remarkable journey for me.
Why?
Because I finally go to do what I wanted to when I first picked up White Dwarf 96 ten years previous – read it cover to cover, poured over the pictures and started my journey into the Games Workshop hobby. I got to work on White Dwarf.
I started working on White Dwarf Magazine around issue 213 – the Lizardmen issue that spotlighted my terrain I built out of cardboard, garden wire and other leftovers you would find in the garbage – like bottle tops. (You can read the article and more here)
It was a surreal experience stepping onto the White Dwarf team and becoming one of the Paul Sawyer’s crew. He gave us our collective mission, we were going to make the Hobby fun and show with our passion for the toy soldiers, the games and convey it in our articles.
And boy did I try…
It was unfamiliar ground for me, I had never written for professional publication and the learning curve for me was huge. I was a Graphic Designer, working hard in the Production department, and although I wanted to work on White Dwarf, I never really thought I had the talent to write at this level – it frankly scared me to death every-time I submitted something.
I kept swinging at it, making our Copy Editor Graeme cry at time as he molded my mangled English into something that could be read. A thankless task I constantly thanked him for.
I like to think I managed to show the Gaming Hobby in a more entertaining light, that I brought some joy into the games. I had the honor and privilege to work on a Magazine that touched thousands of Gamers, and what was considered now the Silver Age for White Dwarf.
It was a Silver Age for me too, starting me on a road of adventure. Without that spur that writing White Dwarf gave me I never would have had the courage to write the stories that I do now. Thanks to Paul Sawyer’s do it approach, his faith in letting me find my voice and tell it as it is, it pushed me to find my own words and I thank him for that.
I think my last White Dwarf article was for the USA version and was published back in 2001 just before I was ‘let go.’ It was a LOTRSG article talking about terrain building for the life of me I cannot remember the number and although it was my last article for White Dwarf I got to fulfill one more dream. I got to write about something for Lord of the Rings – the books that started my journey into fantasy over 31 years ago.
So, so long White Dwarf thank you for your gifts.
