> en Na 7: a CLINT LANGLEY Dark visions from the grim worlds of WarhammerCREATURES IN THE BUSHES... int Langley is a man of vision, Ic is a dark and ewisted vision that he beholds, one fraught with the grim lsimulacra of arcane battlefields and shattered futarescapes, of the dark milieu of the Warhammer world, Whar's more, we love it As one of the Black Library's most prolific science fiction and fantasy artists, this visionary has breathed real life into dozens of characters. From stern inguisitors, rooting out the seeds of heresy; to the stalwart soldiers of the Imperial \d devour a man’ very soul rifuly Over fifty novel covers and more than a hundred col Guard; to daemons that 0 Clint has envisioned them all quite be: lectible card game images for Sabertooth WarCry and Dark Millennium series, and Clint doesnt show any signs of let ting up. Given his heritage, and his single-mind determination to articulate the daemons and heroes of his imagination through his art, its hardly surprising really farback as Ecan remember, I was always drewing mon: ster, warriors and spaceships. My patents were both artist nd encouraged me to draw what I liked, but ie was when 1 wanted to be a comic artist. From that point, [ wasnt interested in doing any other job lines grandfather, too, had a role co play in the evolution of this nascent desire to illustrate far-future gladiators and nightmarish horrors, ‘He was a kind of a weird inventor, who collected scrap metal. grew up on a farm and spenta lot of time scratching. around for machine parts that | imagined might be ray gun ‘or & piece of a space ship. first saww 2000AD that I reais To an extent, chis ia childhood practice that Cline still ‘maintains to this day, procuring various textures to help lity to his work, and a grit s0 real you apply the detached ‘Nous the pieces of scrap become a Space Matine shoulder pad or a bionic eye. Bark from a tree can become a Nurgle ‘wart — it about drawing inspiration from everyday objects Before Clint’ foray into the madness and carnage of his art proper, he tained at Hastings College of Art and Technology: iLturned up two months late for my interview but, some ‘ow, I managed to wing my way into an Exhibition Design course. Much to the frustration of my tutors, I managed to ick it out by incorporating a fantasy 0 most of my assignments, sci element 10 urneda simple exhibition hall intoa We Imperial hardware show by cutting out and sticking down Rhinos, Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts onto an isometric floor plan. There was also the odd off-duty Space Marine and owaggering hive gangers, and it would have been rude not to have a charging lunatic with a chainsword The conventional at route wasnt for Clint, i seemed, and ation Art Ci own way and set about creating a portfolio of work for the following a Fou e, he decided to go his fancasy art and comics industry, aking solace in the inspiea- tion of his predecessors. ‘My early influences cam a8 Frank Frazerta, Boris Vallejo, Jim Burns, John Blanche, fan Miller and Peter Jones who all created incredibly detailed imagination and skill. ‘As for comic artists: Kevin O'Neill, Don Lawrence, Smith, John Hicklenton, Simon Bisley, Mike McM Glenn Fabry and Massimo Belardinell hhighly stylised work thar appealed to the direction I was looking for in my own ar Clint career started out with British cule comic 2000AD, e was able 1o branch out and work for US RPG companies like White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast but this relationship was not to last. put comic work on hold in 1997, just when my work was getting popular. I burned my bridges, so to speak, and went from great fantasy artists such works They all produced off travelling to South East Asia for six months. Upon his return, Clint found ic hard to get picked up fo mote comic book work but found diversity in doing some story boarding for a notorious television commercial fo ‘Metz schnapps, during which time he created ' The Judder kind of Jack Frost igure ith the comic opportunities few and far between, it was at this the Black Library ‘Td zead While Dwarfas kid; loved all the imagery. leven did sketches of some Space Marines at college, but it took ‘me ten years to ger in touch with Games Workshop. It was strange that I hadnt done so before, because 1 love the oint that Clint approached Games Workshop and worlds and the imagery. I suppose I was a litte scared that they turn me down, Cline need not have worried, Through author James Wal in touch with BL Publisher Mare Gascoigne bringer, Graham MeNeills a something of a shift in stylistic direction f ‘Arguably, in most recent times, Clintis best known fantastically real computer rendered art but he didnt start out down the CGI route 1 painted professionally for ten years before switching to -omputer. It resulted in a shift from the real to the kind of hyperreal. My work had a more stylistic feel to it. It was, edgier and possessed a life ofits own. ‘Nighibringer was the beginning of this change in divection. T would sketch in pencil then paint with the computer. ‘Within a year of finishing this piece, though, I didnt really sketch after thatI find that my work evolves without me realy having snuch control overt. Often the picture I have in my head at the start will be completely different to the finished piece Its why I prefer not to do sketches. Using the computer is iberating; Tm not bel re to create the image I've got in my head that I'm happy with, by moving it around, creating a different angle or zooming in. Once youive done a sketch, you'e pretty much stuck with i Jen to 2 sketch anymore. It allows Cline cites several pieces in the evolution of his craft, With The Daemon's Curse there was something new 1 lizard skin and the environment all came together: Before this, piece, where Ti cried this technique before, the elements were fighting each other really started to get to grips with using textures: ste ‘Back from the Dead is another piece that really works. It looks like it's about to step out of the page: Being prolific is one of Clint’ defining characteristics, He churns out hordes of iluserations, including the many novel covers for the Black Library, entire graphic novels fo 200AD, whole collectible card sets for Sabertooth, not to ‘mention all the other material he produces. How does he do it? His answer is a simple one Lots of coffee and late nights 1 think mainly, 'm just driven by creating this work. Cre ating the Games Workshop artis always interesting. I have such an affinity with all the different factions and races from these worlds and I throw myself into interpreting them. Increating imagery for such welloved universes as those envisioned by Games Workshop therek the inevitable fan base to consider and with that comes pressure. ‘One of the most difficule pieces was the first Gaunts Ghosts omnibus because, at the time, there was Adrian Smith’ interpretation, which most people associate the cha acter with, Gauntis very popular plusas 1d already illustrated Ciaphas Cain, Valready had my commissar as it were. “There's always pressure; but especially when you get to d or third chara It was differe the seca er cover, Lind or another of the seminal Black Library characters that Clint illustrated. ‘When Iwas piven Darkblade it was great. In my head this would be the ultimate, cool shot of Malus mounted on his, beast. The first of ly my favourite but it wwasnit until Reaper of Souls, I think, that I brought the evil out, imperious quality Clint clearly exhibits real assurance when he's dealing with the less salubrious denizens of Black Library fiction ‘The anticheroes, I find, are a doddle, Tve grown up with them and rooted for the bad guy every time. For me the worst kind of brief you can give me isa heroic, good-looking character. Ask me for a Space Marine or anyone whos got atitude ~ chars what leads my work’ ‘Artitude is a Key factor in Clints compositional prefer I'm confident whey I'm creating characters that are stand> nere, looking like they mean business. Im happy to do ¢ action shots, but for me that’s my favourite kind of imagery the iconic shot This sense ofthe ‘conic shor that Clint engenders in his work stems from his love of film and given the hyper-teal quality of his pieces its not diffcule to imagine the art as merely a still from a live-action movie. The use of the lone fighre oricon is characteristic of Clin’s work, too, that or the duel. Surprisingly, though a fan it wasn't movies of the Fan tasy and Science Fiction genres that d sensibility towards the icon; this came from a different milieu eloped Clint’s 1 was really influenced by the Spaghetti Westerns grow ing up. Cline Eastwood was my namesake. I grew up in the 708 and 1 just loved the cool of the Spaghetti Westerns long drawn-out shots, the gunfights and the music and that inspires my work With over fifty covers under his belt and counting, welll be seeing lots more of Clint in the future and his wonderfully dark and macabre renditions of the mer worlds will doubtless continue to amaze and disquiet us. Even if he tried, it's unlikely that hell be able to do anything regarded as conventional, by his own admis “When I'm old and grey, L might start painting landscapes. That's whet 1 like to do, though I know I'l end up doing something nightmarish, wich crearures in the bushes. All that remains now is to turn the page and enter this ‘world of mayhem and carnage, of nightmares and as Clint puts it, ereatures in the bushes’ CLINT LANGLEY was talking to NICK KYME Brighton, Englandints artwork has a great deal to commend it, on [nt ee har standing quality; the books of mine he's done the s for have sold appreciably be hasnt. Trust me, for an author, tha anything I might have to say about his technique, ot his dramatic composition, or anything else techni cal I dont really understand Jc is distinctively his own; theres no mistaking a Cline Langley piece for else, whatever the mood or subject matter. Few other artists are quite so adept at capturing the feel of a book in a single, well-chosen image, redolent with richly text detail and vividly realised characters. He’ confident and sensible enough nor to take the descriptions in the text too literally, changing things to make a more dramatic picture wherever necessary, creating a kind of snapshot of the book asa whole rather than trying to render a par- ticular scene in exhaustive detail than the ones he ‘more important than painting by anyone Which may be why his cover series work so well, capturing both the tongue-in-cheek tone of the novels and the action-packed set pieces that punctuate them. The illustration he did for Caves of Ice is antagonists in Death or Glory would indeed be orks, sure I included plenty of hand-to-hand comba with che bestial greenskins. The resulting cover is a joy to behold, successfully recasting Cain as an interstellar Arnold Schwarzenegger, although somehow the scant ily-clad women seem to have fallen by the wayside. Every time I complete a new book, I find myself look ing forward to seeing what Clint’ going to do for the ‘cover, and I hope helll continue to pleasantly surprise me for years to come SANDY MITCHELL ‘Author a particular favourite of mine, managing to capture a both Cain’ swashbuckling charisma and the blazing energy of the battle scenes in one perfect image. It also includes what I consider to be the defini five depiction of Jurgen, Cains faithful and repulsive sidekick. Up until this point 1 had only the vaguest idea of what he looked like, but now that’s the picture I get in my head whenever he wanders onto the page. Tim also particularly pleased with Clint’s depiction of Cain on the cover of the omnibus volume, Her ofthe imperium, which, I feel, does an excellent job of capturing the character’ sar- donic personality Unusually for a cover artist, Clint can claim the distinction of having actively influenced the content of at least one of the novels he's illustrated. While we were chetting at a Games Day signing session a couple of years ago, he happened to mention that held like to do a parody of the classic Conan covers, with Cain standing on a pile of dead orks, preferably surrounded by y-clad women. This sounded good idea to me, so having already determined that the (rarer eeeause of th phic and atmospheric depictio th of those things at he does that. A In terms of (Others are famed mehow manages to be ‘To tell the truth, act with the devil, ert Johnson sty and incidental detail, his work is magnificently lush and character there too, Real humanity. 'm hard pushed to think of anyone who produces fantas rocative. But there’ real work that is so ravincingly real unmistakable. The ery last button and fringe of braid, damn Cline’ style heer clarity and but none of that ever gets in the way of inten: re, Each of the Dark drama and xotic flavour, figures for me, has 0 be has: Essenhorn the fist Gaunt easing fg we striding toward: all the de th the tradi 1s, emblematic design for the Black gallery The cover of the Eisenhorn On got to be mi Clint ha captured the chara fer better than any other version, but 1s not just the fabu functioning part of the plot) 1es the ruth- the gait a the personality « of the head, suspi and war scanning the shad. ambush, There’ a scene in the movie Sivanger Than Fiction played. by h and blood form. She is stunn Jhlessness. Looking at the Eisenho! when an author Emma Thompson, central character in to the point of sp fh her no Son xactly how sh seller. Let's be hi r The isenhor ou'e all buyingDeAo Skt, BLACK SUN * NoviL cov * 2004 Storm of Iron and Dead Sky, Black Sun. 1 still remembe back when I was a young, wet-behind-the-ca nabe author who was just embarking on his first nove S: far, Clint’s done three covers for me: Nightbringer when Iwas handed a piece of paper with Clint’ cover for Nightbringer, 1 was blown away by the vividness of the imagery and the crispness of the detail, 1wo traits that have remained constant joys to me in Clint’s work since then, Thung that cover above my desk as I was writing Night: bringer and ita habit Ive gotten into over the years whenever Tim writing a book. The fact that my characters are suddenly right in front of me, a (more or less) three dimensional ren: of something plucked from my imagination really makes it that much easier to keep going. To see someone else’ vision of that character come to life on the page and in colour is a thrill I dont think Il ever tize of I thought Clint rendi- tion of Uriel looked like a cross berween Jack Nicholson and Bruce Campbell having 2 really angry day — and that’s an evocative image that’s stuck with the character ever since. In addition, Clint’s covers have inadvertently helped in the creation of some of my favourite supporting characters, When I first saw the cover of Nightbringer and noticed the ‘Space Marine with the flamer behind Uriel, I just k had to put him into the book. And, just like that, Ve Sergeant Pasanitis was born, fully formed and ready with his deadpan wit, Likewise, when the cover of Storm of Iron came through, I saw that Chaos Terminator and knew, just know, that he was going to be one of the baddest dudes in the book Dead Shy; Black Sun was a cover that deliberately wasnt all- action, bullets and explosions, conjuring up the image of a fone warrior in the midst of a deathly wasteland, It captured the grim, desolate hinterlands of the daemon world of Medrengatd and had a perfect stillness to it that was a great counterpoint to the covers that preceded it GRAHAM McNEILL AuthorA E iRogue Star until after fd f , but I ly taken by how the three main characters, without even k their full stor re and hero of cured as the proud ther t ing of the path she he book. Korvane app e on to shape how I about, and write about the T like mo: , though, is the all tone. In el ‘you can in fact judge a book by it job rig right frame of mind, Its a and the rogue traders often have to mal laws wel thro DY HOARE Authorte Jucky to have Clint Langley. Let me try to Warhammer 40,000 universe is. ntmar quite different ationalist SF settings, a weird alchemist’ vat of galaxy where the technology of science fiction meets the stylised pageantry of gothic AS yout can see it’ a creative alchemy I sti bit to describe, so it’s handy to know thar someone som where has managed to bortle that strange mixture and inject it into Clint Langley Clint has the great gift of being able to unite two visions: an eye for telling realistic details and the imagi nation to present these with a vivid, larger-than-life intensity. Tve heard the term ‘hyper-reality’ used t0 describe the stylised, adrenaline-injected feel of certain artistic pieces, and it's a concept that fits Clint’ art beau- tifully, Hi worlds that are lush and enticing, h and every beautifully textured sur But theyre nightmare have an unreal lustre. worlds, too, prowled by monsters and grotesqueries imprinted so powerfully on your mind by Clint’ art that you have no choice but to think of them as real. Fortu nately, the men and women of these worlds ate up to the hallenge; grim and powerful heroes of the sort you in your minds eye since childhood, standii these fantastic la es as though daring the of their worlds to try and bear them down, Ive had the great good fortune to have Clint as the illustrator for all four of my Black Library book three portraits of Shira Calpurnia, and one of Junktion’s Sinden Kass, and all of them have done their j e Crossfire artwork captures the thick, yellow sunlight that bathes the world of Hydraphur, the intricate designs of its towers 2 strength and defiance of Calpurnia herself. Le strikes a mote ominous note, a datkened scene with Calpurnia leading a squad of sinister, armoure s, Junktion evokes the desperation and cla reluctant heroics to save his And I kept findi at the cover of Blind as a perfect 1 the baroque and menacing atmosphere woke in the Bastion Psykana. y 10 have Cline La But dont take my dn these pages and see for yourselE. MATT Author Cosstne * Nove cover 30 Now coven * 2004CAPTURING REALISM much the nition but that was perfect as it really allowed me to ork on the sh and I've not used any new phe T have a file of limbs, heads an and I put them together ina most artists do, Td way, Irs quite grim really — I'm actual ok in a mirror to try ye angles right. Butonce1 flesh ed usin hop nera, It had terriblea (cia emeenrereen nena nesWays Pa fe ears ee e 2sRsMsER 40,000 ROLEPLAY SUPPLEMENT covEt* 2008 CURRENT INFLUENCES 'm pretty much ced by anybody who's produc 1 think ic has its own identi paul Dainta just Itgoes in the direction it wants to g in that he re understood far . sha pi by; and Im almost , Tim quite surprised at Ym cu for the first T LANGLEYunfamiliar with Clint’s work prior to be brought on board to write the first Kal Jerico novel, al, but I be instant fan, ( ood & ame ppiest day cover fla them). I took one lo book would sell well. His covers caprure the munda like the city-o background for the Blaad Royal the heroic way in which he depict harkens back at Clint’ cover art and knew the rim, urban landscape 1 especial Yet, at th alJer ‘onan created Frank Enver, kalo almost godil would be quite happ Pr tain Kal 1000 Rovat Nove. cover 2005 My absolute favourite cov L ted with as to b tacky iting the dep ok Thay ated for ible, I even had Kal and Yolanda deste | their pai hen they tite because the icular styl WILL McDERMOTTc Toes Pee eee Sn cuefencerynderful and I found it very useful s.1 a character that I thi Oddly of thSe rere 4uthors often bite their nails and fier about their and dread. If youire lucky, you get an artist chat really understands your story and can find a way to bring your characters to life ina single, evocative image If you're rally hicky, you get an avis like Cline Langley Clint’ covers for the Darkblade series have been an inspiration ro meas the series progressed; he realy brings, the character to life in all his dark and twisted glory. Clint says alot just with the way he composes his images ~ the ay he pairs Malus with his cold one, Spite, says a lot about the character in subtle, understated ways. When I first saw the cover for The Daemon's Curse I was blown away by the image of a sl t, pale figure in orate armour on the back on an enormous, dinosaurlike cold one. The contrast between the two figures couldnt be greater, at first glance Spite seems to completely over shadow its rider. So the image begs the question: how fearsome does this guy have to be in onder to master'a monster like that? You get a sense of Malus’ indomitable will in his upright posture and the hard look in his dark fees. Hes not a muscle-bound barbatian; he triumphs by virtue of being harder and meaner than anyone else around him. That crystallized the essence of the character for me in asingle image, and I kept that book on my wrt ing desk every single day as I continued to tell Darkblade’ story, Whenever I found myself wondering what Malus might do next, or how he was going to get ‘out of the next fix he found himself in, Daemon's Curse and look my antihera in the eye. Clint may also be one of those cover artists out there course of the ed the cover for Reaper ‘was done. At the time ‘whose illustration actually directed story it was created for. He compl of Souls well before the book itself the plot was pretty well set in my mind, but when the Black Library showed a poster-sized copy of the cover at UK Games Day my e eerwards with a quick note: make sure you puta burning city in che story! With an incredible cover image like that, how could I argue ~ and so I gladly changed the end of the book to ‘match Clint’simoge. ¢ can T say? Clint knows how to tell a story MIKE LEE ‘Authorene encelustration like’ film-andeeita mae Odiae eesSHADOWS OF THE WARP AND WARCRY at Sabertooth Games we have had a long and eat relationship with Clint Langley. As an artist, his dynamic mning pieces have added a lot to many of our projects. With epic versions of Teclis, Malus Darkblade and Count Theodric Gausser for War Gry, Clint established himself as 0} favourite artist In some conversations with him he floated the idea of possibly doing al of the art for a whole set of our Dark Millennium card game, We thoughe this was a great i and promptly set Clint to work. Throughout the process, vay with his imagination and ability to convey atmosphere and Clint sent us sketches and we w Clint is obviously a huge fan of Warhammer 40,000 it shows in his work, Cards stich as Vietus, a Templar’ Emperor’ Champion; Sergeant Hirsch, in Ulthwe Marine sq} der and Far sr Bethaneal eldar psyker, are easily highlights of the set really reinforce ex of Wathammer 40,000 This set also introduces the Hammers of Dor fore-un lean ta the job! a bra re it, getting to run with a hereto plored group ima, be creative and really shine. Tackling a who sk but luck 5s the artist maA vg ca ea ae geeee ey ee ee een crn F 5 cag aera er reserPL eee a a ee CC eee me eae ee eee er eee rnnn ere ren * (ey oo Se eedY aeene ere rarely(Cae eee ee ear ectseee nee ec rey : . \ a -~ te (aseee eee ee cee Pee ee nes i ‘ee en eke ene = Cerner eteF (erate kneeseee ee ee eesf cod , Vyipt SO! aSe ee eee neen erry Serra rans as Se ee ee en nee CeaSenn ened 7) 7 See ne ee eeeeee eae eee © giannis ee ee cryeee ee end= ee nee) Pent ee eeeee ees ee rendeen nafo a pi : Wee tae aio Wy h 4 ¢ Ce CER aa ceed FFurexonn ene eae te ne needee eee eee! een ec Pearsee nr mr mest CO)For Nanny Trot— CL ABlack Library Publition lights Campi added by ick Lg logs ArnogeddaGh ed by Mare Gascoigne Jogo and'all associated marks, names, characters illustration {3 Dan Abe Chelan Dunn Mat ure: ny He iGeapite Wilicansr ned wes Mike Lee, Will MeDermott, Graham MeNeill, Sandy Mitchel, on a Oe Dud esedican ll 1 Sabrvoothand of couse ean HST remird tbe UK apd other otis out i Find out mere abou the Hck Lib ri Fed out m Games Workshop ard the Re eal ips 908s Alternatively, call our mail order hotli (Uo Sor394 GAME (U First published in the UK in 2008 by BL Publishing, Game 145-916 40.00 UK. din the EU, Workshop Led W Nove. con