Uncovered: Kieron Gillen’s “Warhammer Monthly” Stories, his first pro work

Comics writer Kieron Gillen is at Gosh Comics in London later today (Saturday 20th October) to sign copies of the seventh collection of The Wicked + The Divine stories – but do you know his first professionally-published work was in Warhammer Monthly?

These days, of course, Kieron’s well known for his work on The Wicked + the Divine and Phonogram, as well his work on Marvel titles such as Thor, Journey into Mystery, Uncanny X-Men and much, much more for a wide variety of publishers. By his own admission over on his Tumblr, The Wicked + The Divine has the occasional nod to Warhammer in its stories, and, of course, his love of Warhammer is well known – he talks at length about the game and its universe here in an interview for SyFantasy, for example, and has written some of the tie-in novels.

His love of the game aside, Kieron’s first comics work was two strips for later issues of Warhammer Monthly, the comics anthology  published by Games Workshop’s publishing arm, Black Library, from March 1998 to December 2004, running to 86 issues in total.

The magazine featured stories set within the fictional universe of Games Workshop’s miniature war games Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, amongst others, but unfortunately, there’s no official archive of the title, one of the first places you could find Warhammer-inspired comics (Boom! and Titan Comics, among others, have published Warhammer comics since).

Warhammer Monthly Issue 74 - Cover by Karl Richardson

Warhammer Monthly Issue 74 – Cover by Karl Richardson

Warhammer Monthly Issue 74 - Herd-Instinct by Kieron Gillen and David Millgate

Warhammer Monthly Issue 74 – Herd-Instinct by Kieron Gillen and David Millgate

So downthetubes contributor Richard Sheaf ploughed through his collection of Warhammer Monthly, and it appears Kieron’s first work for the title was in Issue 74, with a short strip called “Herd Instinct”, drawn by David Millgate. He then appears in Issue 84, with a strip called “The Chosen”, drawn by Steve Pugh.

Warhammer Monthly Issue 83 - Cover by Mike Collins

Warhammer Monthly Issue 83 – Cover by Mike Collins

Warhammer Monthly Issue 83 - The Chosen by Kieron Gillen and Steve Pugh

Warhammer Monthly Issue 83 – The Chosen by Kieron Gillen and Steve Pugh

Of course, Kieron wasn’t the only established or emerging talent working on the title. Other writers working on the anthology, perhaps best known for their work these days for 2000AD, include Dan Abnett, Jim Alexander, James Peaty and Gordon Rennie.

There are some great strips in this anthology, so if you track any down in your local comic shop’s back issues, do check it out!

Kieron Gillen on Tumblr: Another Way to Breathe

Gosh - Wicked + Divine Signing - 20th October 2018•  Kieron is at Gosh from 1.00 – 2.00pm today to sign, chat and be generally all that you hoped he would be today, Saturday the 20th October 2018. Don’t miss this opportunity to get the latest volume of WicDiv signed! Can’t make it? All of the current volumes (including the highly anticipated 7th part) of The Wicked + The Divine are available to pre-order signed through the Gosh website for mail order or in-store pick-up (click on your desired cover above). If you’d like something else signed please email them at info@goshlondon.com | Keep up to date on all Gosh events the Facebook event page

• Check out Richard Sheaf’s Boys Adventure Comics blog at boysadventurecomics.blogspot.com

Warhammer. Warhammer Monthly, Black Library  © Games Workshop



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