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White Dwarf

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White Dwarf is Games Workshop's monthly magazine. It is produced in a number of countries, with the U.K. being considered the "mother" magazine.

Background

Cover of White Dwarf #100, April, 1988

White Dwarf began as a bi-monthly magazine covering roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, and its publication started a few months after the end of Owl & Weasel in April 1977 after the 25th issue of the zine[1], and as sales of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and other games surged, Games Workshop recognized the need for a "more professional, glossy magazine"[1] in order to improve the "sales" and "image" of Games Workshop. The inspiration for this shift came from the standard put in place by TSR, the publisher of D&D, which had replaced The Strategic Review with Dragon magazine in the USA in 1976[2].

With a vision to create the premier magazine for enthusiasts of science fiction and fantasy games, particularly D&D[3], Games Workshop needed a name that could bridge both genres and so Ian Livingstone proposed a name of the magazine :


"We needed a name for it which applied to both genres and settled on my suggestion of White Dwarf as it was the name for a dying star while everybody knew what a dwarf was in fantasy games and literature."[4]


And so in July of 1977 the first issue of White Dwarf was published, and reprinted in August 1979[5]. It was initially distributed to London games stores, which at the time were "Games, Games Centre and Knight Centre"[6] and through subscriptions, primarily among the existing Owl & Weasel readership[7]. The first issue was priced at 50p (or $1,50)[8] [9] and when it was reprinted in 1979, the price was 60p (or $2)[10]

The first issue of June/July 1977, introduces its subject to the various types of roleplaying companies and different companies that produce miniatures. Its editor, Ian Livingstone begins the magazine by describing the creation of roleplaying games and how there are over fifty games, with ten miniature production companies, spanning many different ideas and concepts at the time.

Beginning of the magazine production

Producing the early issues of White Dwarf presented numerous challenges. With limited office space, editor Ian Livingstone had to create the magazine at his own flat[11]. This labor-intensive process is described by Ian Livingstone like this :


"After getting the galleys of text back from the typesetter, I would begin the task of laying out the pages. This was old-school analogue magazine production in the pre-Apple Mac days. It was a fiddly and time-consuming task of cutting up the galleys by hand using a scalpel and steel ruler, then, using Cow Gum, carefully pasting the blocks of text and artwork into place on art paper taped to a home-made light box to produce the double-page spreads camera-ready for the printer. Anybody who used to do this for a living will no doubt remember the sharp smell of the solvent-based rubber solution glue that was Cow Gum, and the mild high that came with it. In my case, the long hours spent on the light box combined with the cocktail of Cow Gum fumes and the damp caused by the leaking roof in my bedroom resulted in the occasional chest infection."[12]


After Games Workshop moved to Hammersmith in West London, the magazine was " too much work [...] to produce the magazine"[13] only with Livingstone, and so they hired "features editor Albie Fiore, and later editorial assistant Andy Slack, production artist Robert Owens and paste-up artist Mary Common."[14]

The original publisher was the Pentagon Printing Group and they produced the magazine for Games Workshop. It was later, when Games Workshop started producing miniatures for their own game and branched off completely from the Dungeons & Dragons format, that White Dwarf became a monthly magazine devoted just to Games Workshop products.

When Games Workshop's products took over, White Dwarf was turned into a magazine and a "catalog". The "catalog" section featured new miniatures that were released by Games Workshop/Citadel Miniatures and even had a place where they could be ordered. It was with this incarnation that White Dwarf became a true Games Workshop-only magazine. This was fully expanded beyond miniatures in the 90s to include the new releases of Black Library, the literary publisher for Games Workshop. From then on, short stories and other literary works played an important role in articles.

Later, when Games Workshop bought the license to produce miniatures for the Lord of the Rings series, White Dwarf expanded. It was the first time in over 200 issues that a non-Games Workshop concept would be featured in the magazine.

In 2014, White Dwarf became a smaller weekly publication supplemented by a monthly magazine dubbed Warhammer Visions. However in September 2016 this setup was reversed, and White Dwarf returned to being a monthly publication.

Articles

There are many standard feature articles for Warhammer 40,000:

English Editions

You can read the first issue of White Dwarf (no Warhammer 40k content, but surely an historical release!) here.

United Kingdom

The edition is divided into a number of sections; Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40,000, The Lord of the Rings, Hobby, and Frontline. While the first three sections are self-evident, Hobby is dedicated to the hobby community, painting and hobby advice; Frontline also contains a list of all hobby centers and independent stockists, an events calendar and miniatures available to order. The current U.K. Editor is Mark Latham. There is an official database of White Dwarf (from issue #100 onwards) available on the Games Workshop website at Games Workshop Database.

United States

The magazine covers Warhammer (Age of Sigmar), Warhammer 40,000 (40k), and Lord of the Rings. It also has articles on the hobby aspect of the games (modeling, painting, etc.). Current editor for the U.S. edition is Guy Haley. While the U.S. version has many articles in common with the U.K. edition, it often will also have U.S.-only sections by the U.S. White Dwarf and web teams.

The cover art is different from UK and US editions.

Also note that the U.S. White Dwarf edition numbers are one behind their U.K. counterparts.

Other Editions

White Dwarf has been issued and translated in many different countries. Some dates are reported to give you an idea of when it started in each country and how many numbers are available today.

  • Australia (AU)
  • Canada (CA)
  • German (DE)
    • #1 December 1994 - January 1995
  • Spanish (SP)
  • Italian (IT)
    • #30 Mar. 2001
    • #62 Feb. 2004
    • #80 Oct. 2005
    • #112 Jul. 2008
  • French (FR)
    • #190 Feb. 2010 (UK 362)

White Dwarf Index

  • This index uses the UK numbering
  • Note that there may be differences in content and regarding page numbers between issues published in different countries.

Content of White Dwarf relevant to 40k

In the following page you will find a list White Dwarf issues, all in one page, that contain 40k material, in particular:

  • Warhammer 40k articles
  • Miniatures Catalog

Sources

  • 1: Livingstone, Ian. Dice Men : the origin story of Games Workshop. Unbound, Slovenia, 2022. pg.45
  • 2: Ibid
  • 3: Ibid, pg.103
  • 4: Ibid
  • 5: Games Workshop, White Dwarf, n.1, August 1979, second printing. (first printing in July 1977).
  • 6: Livingstone, Ian. Dice Men : the origin story of Games Workshop. Unbound, Slovenia, 2022. pg.103
  • 7: Ibid
  • 8: Ibid
  • 9: Games Workshop, White Dwarf, n.2, August/September 1977.
  • 10: Games Workshop, White Dwarf, n.1, August 1979, second printing. (first printing in July 1977).
  • 11: Livingstone, Ian. Dice Men : the origin story of Games Workshop. Unbound, Slovenia, 2022. pg.106
  • 12: Ibid
  • 13: Ibid
  • 14: Ibid