It is with sadness that we report the passing of legendary illustrator and Games Workshop Art Director John Blanche, who died on Monday 1 June at the age of 77...
John Blanche was the foundational Art Director for Games Workshop, joining them in 1977 and working for them well past retirement age as the company grew from a small local outfit into an international behemoth. He was the primary creator behind the grim and gothic visual aesthetic that defines the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes and widely celebrated as the grandfather of the "grimdark" aesthetic.
John’s passing was announced to the public by his family and longtime collaborators last week and drew a massive outpouring of tributes from the fantasy art and tabletop gaming communities.
Games Workshop posted on Instagram to say “It is with great sadness we learned of the passing of John Blanche. John was an artistic powerhouse whose unmistakable style was a unique lens through which many of us came to know and love the worlds of Warhammer. John was also a friend and mentor to many of us here at Games Workshop. Our heartfelt condolences go to his family and friends. The universe John helped create is a big place. He will be missed.”
I had the pleasure of knowing John. I won’t try and sum up his entire legend here but John Wombat and Ruth Moreira’s book Blanche: The Rise of Grimdark is a collection of accounts and anecdotes by loved ones, legends and fellow lead-belt luminaries that details perfectly his contributions to British sci-fi and fantasy and tells you everything about his wonderful character.
Furthermore, the outpouring of love, admiration and tributes on social media over the last week has been comprehensive, inspiring and moving. Tributes have come from all over the world, and from people of all ages. It has been moving to witness. Proof indeed that a creative mind can inspire countless people.
What I can tell you is that John Blanche was a warm, friendly, genuine and decent man. He held everyone as equals and always sought to help and listen to the ideas of others. He would gain a wonderful twinkle in his eye when he found something funny and he did not suffer fools. He exuded creativity and inspired tens of thousands of other artists (maybe more) and in turn he found all of their creativity inspiring too. John was always fascinated by what was new and loved to see new ways of painting, modelling and creating. He was a pleasure to be around.
There is not enough space here to list even a fraction of his creative endeavours and accomplishments. But if you've ever looked at a piece of Games Workshop artwork either on a box or in a magazine, it's likely he did it. Perhaps it is best to highlight that in the history of art, there are few artistic movements, styles, collectives or groups named after their most celebrated practitioner or originator, and yet if you ask anyone who has enjoyed Warhammer for any length of time what 'Blanchitsu' is, they will know.
Blanchitsu is a style born from John’s incredible ability to reach into that grand archive that he carried in his head, and birth, in the form of a miniature, something uniquely “grimdark” (anther word that his work was an exemplar of) and it has inspired some of the most memorable ideas in the hobby. Rembrandt, Leonardo, Goya… none of these enjoy such an honour.
When an artist passes, we are privileged enough to have their art to remember them by, though this does not diminish the sense of loss. In fact, it often makes us wonder what other great ideas might that artist have brought to life. By John's passing we have, all of us, lost.
LeftLion magazine also had a relationship with John and were honoured to have him create the cover of Issue 55 back in October 2013, creating a wonderful painting of a lion cradling two Janus masks among a pile of skulls and babies. Of that cover John said:
“It’s a statement about the arts. The lion is symbolic of Nottingham and the skulls on sticks are the Janus masks. They are not just the smiling and grimacing faces of theatre, but they are also death’s heads; it all comes to death in the end. The Roman god Janus is looking forwards into the future and backwards into the past at what is to come and what has been.“
You can read the full LeftLion interview with John Blanche from 2013, where he discusses the past and future of Games Workshop, as well as art, illustration, taxidermy and much more.
Our best wishes to John's family, friends and all who loved him at this time.
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