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So I was flipping through my copy of The Emperor's Will and I got his feeling in my gut that GW has horribly overused certain bits of art. Not as badly as the days of Necromunda when they would use the same image 2 or 3 times in the same book, but that there are certain images that keep popping up.

I'm not talking about the general idea of an angry bald man waving an oversized weapon and screaming. That never gets old. No I mean a specific image we see again and again, edition after edition. Any candidates?

Ye ol' Emperor on the aurellian commode is probably the most over-used imho -



y'know, as evidenced by the cover of that very book lol

I love it though.

I'm not so familiar with the modern art, but some of the older stuff was recycled a lot in 2nd and 3rd edition. A few generic Space Marine pics appeared time and again, and some of the Necromunda stuff appeared in most releases and articles.

Those in-between-text separators are used often. There's a rather repetitive one with the Cadian helmet on top of a Lasgun that I've seen everywhere from the base rulebook to cityfight to the Imperial Guard codex.

The Emperor artwork posted above probably. Though it's of tremendous importance as it's the only real modern depiction of the Golden Throne or the current state of the Emperor, and it sums up the grimdark setting of "the savior of humanity is a rotting corpse".

I would have thought that



Was on the top of the list.

Probably something Blanche did, one of those horrible horrible drawings that consist of spikes where the edges of things are spiky and the spikes themselves have spikes etc etc.

Utterly repulsive and butt ugly.

Pyriel- wrote:Probably something Blanche did, one of those horrible horrible drawings that consist of spikes where the edges of things are spiky and the spikes themselves have spikes etc etc.

Utterly repulsive and butt ugly.

Is this spikey enough? ^^

Also, the image of the Marine with the 'And they shall know no fear' banner. Both lovely bits of art, but they show up more often than strange spots on a hooker's groin.

This one comes up a lot for all things BA related. It was in the first Angels of Death Codex 16 years ago. Still going strong in the latest edition. it has also been used in the last two editions of Space Hulk also.

I think it is still one of my favourites though. It has that iconic 'heap of space marines' composition, just like the Crimson Fists on the front of RT. I think there is something nice about that, which really captures the whole epic heroic style of 40k.

This one is fricking everywhere...

SilverMK2 wrote:This one is fricking everywhere...

Spoiler:

LOL, you're right man!

Not really sure since I havent been so long time gamer, but I have seen this quite often:



Its still one of my favourite art pieces from GW though

MrMerlin wrote:

SilverMK2 wrote:This one is fricking everywhere...

Spoiler:

LOL, you're right man!

I cracked up

Also, the image of the Marine with the 'And they shall know no fear' banner. Both lovely bits of art, but they show up more often than strange spots on a hooker's groin.

Agree, that is really nice. The Blanche spiky crap consisting of disproportioned hookers with more cables then skin and hair straws with spikes on everywhere ought to be burned and the artist locked in an asylum where he belongs.

In the grim future of warhammer 40 000 there is only war...and hairy spikes everywhere.

I would say Coteaz's "I am a Man!" Hammer swing image is used a lot. Like, everytime someone utters the word "inquisition".

Enzephalon wrote:Is this spikey enough? ^^

Commorragh must be the worst place in the galaxy to have a slip-and-fall accident.

I think the most overused thing in GW art is the skull. must everything be covered in skulls.

I would say Coteaz's "I am a Man!" Hammer swing image is used a lot. Like, everytime someone utters the word "inquisition".

This is a very good picture but still reeks of that crap almost everything suffers from.
If the poor guy was actually standing on a flat surface rather then I dont know, what IS he doing anyway, wading through a swimming pool filled with skulls on fire or what, then it would be so much better.

When I watch that pic the only thing I can think of other then him slipping in that sea of flaming skulls, is that he will be killed in about 3 seconds due to getting his weapon arm all tangled up in all that ridiculous toilet paper hanging in the way everywhere and that his retainer will collapse right after that from carrying around all those library tomes, possible into that swimming pool filled with flaming skulls.

Who the hell makes those everywhere in the 40k universe, there are gigantic pits filled with flaming skulls with spikes on everywhere. Are there legions f chaos cultists doing community service for their gods by digging flaming skull pits (with spikes) and wrapping everything in toilet paper in order to get their welfare checks or what?
The universe is so brim full of flaming (and spiky) skull piles and pits that no matter where a hero of the Imperium happens to walk he will undoubtedly wade straight into the nearest such pile/pit. No wonder everybody in the Imperium always make these outraged faces.

I know for sure that should I live in the 40k universe I would immediately invest all my savings in the toilet paper industry and become so rich that I could buy myself one of those spike-factories and gakking dull them down.

MajorTom11 wrote:Ye ol' Emperor on the aurellian commode

Made me lol at work.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Chowderhead wrote:I would say Coteaz's "I am a Man!" Hammer swing image is used a lot. Like, everytime someone utters the word "inquisition".

That pic reminds me of Innerspace for some reason. With the gaping hole in the background, it looks like he's in the stomach of a daemon or something.

This by Crikey.

Ugh..

If you have a realms of battle board you know the truth. In the real world we have the theory of Plate Tectonics which says land rests on a bed of flaming magma and occasionally shifts causing earthquakes.

Well in the Grimdark Future they have Skull Tectonics which says all land rests on a bed of rolling skulls.

Skull spike pits are probably a natural terrain feature.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Smacks wrote:

This one comes up a lot for all things BA related. It was in the first Angels of Death Codex 16 years ago. Still going strong in the latest edition. it has also been used in the last two editions of Space Hulk also.

I think it is still one of my favourites though. It has that iconic 'heap of space marines' composition, just like the Crimson Fists on the front of RT. I think there is something nice about that, which really captures the whole epic heroic style of 40k.

Good pick, that one is even older, from a RT era White Dwarf then later on the cover the Compendium (or is it the Compilation, the yellow one).

This one the full image from the earlier post that I think is overused

No.

This is the most overused GW art.

Grot 6 wrote:No.

This is the most overused GW art.

I don't see anything

Grot 6 wrote:No.

This is the most overused GW art.

Waaaaaaaay too late on that one

Great White wrote:

Grot 6 wrote:No.

This is the most overused GW art.

I don't see anything

There you go then. LOL

Jon Garrett wrote:

Also, the image of the Marine with the 'And they shall know no fear' banner. Both lovely bits of art, but they show up more often than strange spots on a hooker's groin.

I've always liked this image. Mainly because it looks like one of the SM's in the back row has nodded off and the Servitor under the DCCW looks like he doing the buddy Christ pose to the Dread.

Grimtuff wrote: Mainly because it looks like one of the SM's in the back row has nodded off

Dammit, now I can't unsee that.

Chowderhead wrote:I would say Coteaz's "I am a Man!" Hammer swing image is used a lot. Like, everytime someone utters the word "inquisition".

He looks like he should be on a surf board. Dudes catching some knarly waves on the Sea of Flaming Skulls, and smiting the daemons like a pro!

He looks like he is playing the 40k equivalent of golf. You can see which skull he is aiming at even