PAGE TO TABLE - PART TWO
A Barbarian, a Dwarf, a Poet, a Skaven and his emotional support Rat-Ogre……
And so we begin, by delving back. Back into the Before Times, when The Black Library was still a handy mcguffin in the lore rather than the publishing staple it has become today, to a stretch of time from 1983 to Black Library's launch in 1997 to look at the miniatures Games Workshop put out based on a smattering of characters featured in both White Dwarf magazine, and the novels that were published during their partnership with boxtree.
Before we get onto our feature quintet for this week, it does bear mentioning that, during this period, if you were reading the novels there is a very good chance you could go through the good old Citadel Miniatures Catalogue and find minis that bore a striking resemblance to some of the characters therein (especially for tales set in The Old World) - our friend here from the old Norse range always struck me as being a match for how a character from one of those early stories, a Norse werewolf, was described towards the tales climax (apologies but the title of said tale currently escapes me…), whilst other moments found themselves rendered in particularly fine art coughthecoverofWFRPcough.
But! You have come here today to hear me ramble about miniatures released as specific characters and it was not the Dwarf and his long-suffering poet sidekick we will be discussing shortly! No no, instead we go back to the mid-80’s as White Dwarf found itself in need of comic strips and one young artist answered their call with a figure from out of the mists - Mighty! Of hews! Tiny! Of head! For five wonderfully bonkers years future 2000AD stalwart Carl Critchlow regaled readers with the tales of Thrudd The Barbarian! The sort of pastiche that only succeeds if you have a familiarity with the source material, Thrudd is, quite clearly, a mickey-take of all things Conan the Barbarian and those imitators that followed, and whilst his time under Grombrindal’s watchful gaze ended in 1988, Critchlow returned to Thrudd in the early 2000’s with 5 self-published issues of his further adventures. As to miniatures, Thrudd has found himself surprisingly well-catered for as there were several limited edition releases from Games Workshop themselves, including a special Blood Bowl Star Player, all of whom bring the lunk-headed oaf to life with a whole lot of charm. These would not be Thruds only time in miniature form however, as he would receive several miniatures courtesy of ex-GW staffer Andy Foster of Heresy Miniatures to tie in to the comic book release, and in plastic courtesy of CMON’s Zombicide: Black Death boardgame as they put out a set of Carl Critchlow-designed figures as part of their Special Guest Box line of expansions, where Thrud was joined by dark warrior Black Currant, fierce valkyrie Persephone, and might(?) mage To-Me Ku-Pa (cough). Not a bad spread for the big guy
But Thrudd was not the only personality to find themselves immortalised in lead during this period. Throughout Boxtree’s time publishing on behalf of Games Workshop, the adventures of dwarven Slayer Gotrek Gurnnison and his oathbound remembrancer Felix Jaeger had steadily found fans and they were immortalised for the first (but not last!) time in 1993 with a pair of miniatures that retain a lot of their charm to this day. Certainly as single-piece castings they lack a little dynamism but you’d not mistake them on the tabletop. And honestly? In this humble writer's opinion Gotrek has not been bettered to this day….
Our unlucky adventuring duo were not alone however! As during the short story Skaven’s Claw (serialised in White Dwarf before later being collected in Skavenslayer) the world was introduced to the premier mastermind of Skavenblight, the plotter par excellence, if only his minions would do their jobs correctly yes-yes, the one, the only, Grey Seer Thanquol!
(and his loyal rat-ogre Boneripper)
And they were playable on tabletop as well! Both pairs had their rules published in White Dwarf alongside their mini release, and were subsequently included in the 4th Edition WFB Warhammer Armies Dwarves and Warhammer Armies Skaven respectively, which at the time? Kinda nuts to be fair, and pretty much the only examples of characters designed for fiction translating to the tabletop for quite some time. Which we will touch upon next time.
Until then, thank you very much for taking the time to read this, and catch you in the next column.
-Dawfydd