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*note I've put this in general because it does not pertain to any one single GW product lore line, however if mods feel it needs to move please do move *


I've noticed over the years that GW publishes a lot of art, lore and art/lore books that often appear and then vanish. Sometimes they reappear again or they resurface on a secondhand store etc.... But in general even when they are currently published they sometimes get overlooked by many. So I thought it would be fantastic to put together an archive that lists them all out so that any who are interested can at least keep an eye out (and so we can all remember to every so often hound BL's email inbox with requests to get some reprinted/print on demand).

It's also a great place to share our views on them, which are worth getting, which are not really that nice, which are dated, which are outstanding etc...


I'd like to keep this thread focused on several limited areas:
Artbooks - concept, cover, book etc...
Artwork - posters, paintings, etc...
Lore books - often including a lot of art, but in general a book that focuses more on world building over story telling.
Comics - I figure these are limited enough and fit alongside art, plus a good many were also published in lore/art books as well over the years.
Roleplaying Games - these can often include new art as well as completions of art alongside lore and thus are more than worth adding to this list.

In general we are avoiding pure stories, however I think any story book published that includes artwork is also worth including as well for general reference.


OOP = Out of Print
IP = currently in print (includes physical print and digital)
Ltd = limited access only at Warhammer World UK store.

Art Books:
Jes Goodwin Eldar Sketchbook - out of print - contains exactly what it says on the cover, a huge selection of concept designs for the Eldar race from 40K in black and white sketches.
Inquis Exterminatus (has been reprinted several years ago as a softback) - Both OOP - 40k art from the early days of Rogue Trader up to the art of the edition at that point (3rd edition), along with art from graphic novels such as Daemonifugue, Blood Quest and Titanicus.
The Gothic and the Eldritch - OOP - A collection of Jes Goodwin's design sketches and art, comes with a few see-through overlays that give more insight into some designs. Topics tackled range from Astartes, Eldar to the uniforms of the Imperial Navy and a more universal Imperial Guard, to the more obscure like Hrud and Imperial robots.
The Inquisitor's Sketchbook - OOP - The (in)famous John Blanche counterpart to Jes' artbook. Chockful of background art and designs, all 40k themed.
Insignium Astartes - OOP - A splatbook on Space Marine heraldry and whatnot, a very low effort publication with subpar graphics and art for the most part.
The Face of Battle - OOP - A collection of colour art done by David Gallagher, for 40k, fantasy and White Dwarf.
Black Library The Art of Warhammer 40,000 - IP - What it says on the cover, a collection of 40k cover art done for BL. Mostly focuses on the new stuff, but some of the older first edition print artwork is also featured and put alongside art commissioned for reprints.
The Emperor's Will - OOP - A collection of codex and novel art dealing with everything Imperial, but Space Marines.
The Emperor's Might - OOP - Space Marine art, from both novels and codex books.
Flyers of the Dark Millennium - OOP - Companion piece to the short lived Stormcloud Attack game. Artbook with simple aircraft art and squadron information.
Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire - OOP - Artbook showcasing the uniforms and heraldic devices of each province, city state and certain regiments of renown.



Lore Books:
Liber Slaanesh - OOP - a diary/journal style book that focuses on the Old World setting, but includes general references, lore, history, characters and artwork of Slaanesh. Does cross over and include 40K elements. Reprinted in Liber Chaotica
Liber Khorne - OOP - a diary/journal style book that focuses on the Old World setting, but includes general references, lore, history, characters and artwork of Khorne. Does cross over and include 40K elements. Reprinted in Liber Chaotica
Liber Tzeentch - OOP - a diary/journal style book that focuses on the Old World setting, but includes general references, lore, history, characters and artwork of Tzeentch. Does cross over and include 40K elements. Reprinted in Liber Chaotica
Liber Nurgle - OOP - a diary/journal style book that focuses on the Old World setting, but includes general references, lore, history, characters and artwork of Nurgle. Does cross over and include 40K elements. Reprinted in Liber Chaotica
Liber Chaotica - OOP A single volume that includes all 4 prior individual god books and a second Chaos United segment (mortals/humans).
Liber Necris - OOP - A book on Vampires and Undead of the Old World.
The World of Warhammer - OOP - An ancient splatbook (4th / 5th edition?) detailing in broad strokes the Old World and the races inhabiting it at that time.
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade - Has been updated and reprinted into a hardback edition, now also OOP - A companion piece to the Gaunt's Ghosts series, written from the perspective of an Imperial historian trying to piece together how the crusade started and is currently ongoing.
The Battle for Armageddon - OOP - A report of the last war for Armageddon, with some interesting writing backed by cringy photoshop and dodgy art.
13th Black Crusade - OOP - A report of the 13th Black Crusade, told from the perspective of a Cadian general. Again with cringy photoshop and sometimes dodgy art. The regiments listed in the back of the book are those of actual participants who played during the global campaign.
Tactica Imperialis - OOP - A publication meant to showcase some noteworthy Imperial Guard campaigns, but mostly used to promote Iron Snake Space Marines.
Index Astartes - Apocrypha - OOP - Rogue Trader era articles and art concerning the Adeptus Astartes.
Index Chaotica - Apocrypha - OOP - Rogue Trader era articles and art concerning the forces of Chaos.
Index Imperialis - Apocrypha - OOP - Rogue Trader era articles and art concerning the Imperium, so the Imperial Army, robots, titans and whatnot.
The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer - Has been reprinted various times but is now OOP - Soldier's handbook of somewhat dubious, but comedic intent. Also comes with a section of prayers.
The Munitorum Manual - OOP and has been folded into later editions of the primer - A companion piece to the primer, going into requisitioning equipment.
Blood on the Reik - OOP - Background book detailing the daily life in the Empire. Filled with sketches of Imperial citizens along with colourful descriptions and information.
Index Astartes parts 1 through 4 - OOP - Reprints of White Dwarf articles giving fluff and in some cases, rules on all founding chapters and some second found chapters as well.
The Inquisition - OOP - BL published A4 softback encyclopedia detailing everything Inquisition based put out by BL at that point, mostly the stuff from Dan's novels though. A massive amount of custom art was made for this book.
The Horus Heresy - Collected Visions (first edition print) - OOP - A collection of art mainly from the Sabretooth CCG, as this version predates the novels, along with a short story by Graham McNeill.
The Imperial Knight Companion - OOP - background and heraldry of Imperial Knights
The Witch Hunters Handbook - OOP - A small handbook written by a retired Empire witch hunter, detailing how to find, hunt and kill the unclean.
The Life of Sigmar - OOP - A small handbook that can be pretty much summed up as the bible of the Empire. Comes with simple illustrations in woodcut style.
Xenology
Liber Xenologis - RELEASE BLACK LIBRARY WEEKEND 2021 FEBRUARY - art and lore book focusing on Xenos from the 40K story setting.

Comics
Bloodquest hardback Vol 1 recoloured - IP(limited quantities) - Classic adventures of Blood Angels space marines. Collected hardback edition which reprints the classic black and white comics once found in Warhammer Monthly.
Bloodquest hardback Vol 2 - Continuing the classic comic adventures. NOTICE ON SALE Print on Demand Black Library Event 2021 (February)
Warhammer Monthly - OOP - a collection of comic strips that link up issue to issue. Home of strips such as Bloodquest.
Darkblade Vol 1: Born of Blood - OOP
Darkblade Vol 2: Wast of Blood - OOP
Darkblade Vol 3: Throne of Blood - OOP
Darkblade: Reign of Blood - OOP - completion of Darkblade Vol 1-3
Deff Skwadron - OOP - A black and white comic from the pages of Inferno! detailing the adventures of a squadron of Ork flyboyz.
Ulli & Marquand - OOP - A black and white comic detailing the antics of a pair of murderers and thieves in the city of Mordheim.
The Redeemer - OOP - A comic about the Redeemer, a character from Necromunda.
Eternal Damnation - OOP - A collection of black and white 40k comics from the pages of Inferno! and Warhammer Monthly.



All-in-one
Inferno Classic - OOP - comprising of 46 issues; a completion of comics, short stories, artwork, lore snippets from all corners of GW's library of the time (Old World, 40K, Necromunda, Bloodbowl, etc..). Reprinted in Print on Demand semi recently. Note issue 46 has currently not been reprinted.



Special Edition books
Realmslayer Transcript - OOP - gold edged book that contains the entire transcript for the Realmslayer Audio Novel. Includes 30 colour plates showing the covers of all the classic Gotrek and Felix novels.



Artwork
https://warhammerart.com


Other:
The Bloody-Handed by Gav Thorpe - IP - a tale from the Old World with 30 illustrations sold in ebook format only currently (previously did have print version). Tells a tale focusing on Hellebron and the Dark Elves

Roleplaying Games:
Soulbound - IP - new roleplaying game produced for the Age of Sigmar story setting.

These are useful sources for that info

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Portalublications

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/List_of_Warhammer:_Age_of_Sigmar_books

https://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/List_of_Warhammer:_Fantasy_Battles_Books

Okay, going to have a gander at my own collection and go from there:

Art Books:

Inquis Exterminatus (has been reprinted several years ago as a softback) - Both OOP - 40k art from the early days of Rogue Trader up to the art of the edition at that point (3rd edition), along with art from graphic novels such as Daemonifugue, Blood Quest and Titanicus.
The Gothic and the Eldritch - OOP - A collection of Jes Goodwin's design sketches and art, comes with a few see-through overlays that give more insight into some designs. Topics tackled range from Astartes, Eldar to the uniforms of the Imperial Navy and a more universal Imperial Guard, to the more obscure like Hrud and Imperial robots.
The Inquisitor's Sketchbook - OOP - The (in)famous John Blanche counterpart to Jes' artbook. Chockful of background art and designs, all 40k themed.
Insignium Astartes - OOP - A splatbook on Space Marine heraldry and whatnot, a very low effort publication with subpar graphics and art for the most part.
The Face of Battle - OOP - A collection of colour art done by David Gallagher, for 40k, fantasy and White Dwarf.
Black Library The Art of Warhammer 40,000 - IP - What it says on the cover, a collection of 40k cover art done for BL. Mostly focuses on the new stuff, but some of the older first edition print artwork is also featured and put alongside art commissioned for reprints.
The Emperor's Will - OOP - A collection of codex and novel art dealing with everything Imperial, but Space Marines.
The Emperor's Might - OOP - Space Marine art, from both novels and codex books.
Flyers of the Dark Millennium - OOP - Companion piece to the short lived Stormcloud Attack game. Artbook with simple aircraft art and squadron information.
Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire - OOP - Artbook showcasing the uniforms and heraldic devices of each province, city state and certain regiments of renown.

Lore Books:

Liber Necris - OOP - A book on Vampires and Undead of the Old World.
The World of Warhammer - OOP - An ancient splatbook (4th / 5th edition?) detailing in broad strokes the Old World and the races inhabiting it at that time.
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade - Has been updated and reprinted into a hardback edition, now also OOP - A companion piece to the Gaunt's Ghosts series, written from the perspective of an Imperial historian trying to piece together how the crusade started and is currently ongoing.
The Battle for Armageddon - OOP - A report of the last war for Armageddon, with some interesting writing backed by cringy photoshop and dodgy art.
13th Black Crusade - OOP - A report of the 13th Black Crusade, told from the perspective of a Cadian general. Again with cringy photoshop and sometimes dodgy art. The regiments listed in the back of the book are those of actual participants who played during the global campaign.
Tactica Imperialis - OOP - A publication meant to showcase some noteworthy Imperial Guard campaigns, but mostly used to promote Iron Snake Space Marines.
Index Astartes - Apocrypha - OOP - Rogue Trader era articles and art concerning the Adeptus Astartes.
Index Chaotica - Apocrypha - OOP - Rogue Trader era articles and art concerning the forces of Chaos.
Index Imperialis - Apocrypha - OOP - Rogue Trader era articles and art concerning the Imperium, so the Imperial Army, robots, titans and whatnot.
The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer - Has been reprinted various times but is now OOP - Soldier's handbook of somewhat dubious, but comedic intent. Also comes with a section of prayers.
The Munitorum Manual - OOP and has been folded into later editions of the primer - A companion piece to the primer, going into requisitioning equipment.
Blood on the Reik - OOP - Background book detailing the daily life in the Empire. Filled with sketches of Imperial citizens along with colourful descriptions and information.

Comics.

Deff Skwadron - OOP - A black and white comic from the pages of Inferno! detailing the adventures of a squadron of Ork flyboyz.

Thanks both - Brook that's an awesome list!

It's depressing how much of this stuff is out of print right now.

Found some more things, that should be everything in my collection then:

Lore Books:

Index Astartes parts 1 through 4 - OOP - Reprints of White Dwarf articles giving fluff and in some cases, rules on all founding chapters and some second found chapters as well.
The Inquisition - OOP - BL published A4 softback encyclopedia detailing everything Inquisition based put out by BL at that point, mostly the stuff from Dan's novels though. A massive amount of custom art was made for this book.
The Horus Heresy - Collected Visions (first edition print) - OOP - A collection of art mainly from the Sabretooth CCG, as this version predates the novels, along with a short story by Graham McNeill.

Comics:

Ulli & Marquand - OOP - A black and white comic detailing the antics of a pair of murderers and thieves in the city of Mordheim.
The Redeemer - OOP - A comic about the Redeemer, a character from Necromunda.
Eternal Damnation - OOP - A collection of black and white 40k comics from the pages of Inferno! and Warhammer Monthly.

edit.

Two more TINY books and I'm done:

Lore:

The Witch Hunters Handbook - OOP - A small handbook written by a retired Empire witch hunter, detailing how to find, hunt and kill the unclean.
The Life of Sigmar - OOP - A small handbook that can be pretty much summed up as the bible of the Empire. Comes with simple illustrations in woodcut style.

Lore:

The Imperial Knight Companion - OOP - background and heraldry of Imperial Knights

What's sad is that BL and GW don't make many of these available even if just in digital form where they can basically sell them for very little actual cost.

Or do monthly or bimonthly print on demand of various books. Guess the best we can do is keep reminding them

 Overread wrote:
What's sad is that BL and GW don't make many of these available even if just in digital form where they can basically sell them for very little actual cost.

Or do monthly or bimonthly print on demand of various books. Guess the best we can do is keep reminding them

GW resolutely refuse to just sell the people what they want.

Release the Eldar Sketchbook already!

Digital format would be nice, but personally I always prefer to have my books in dead tree format, less staring at a screen is pleasant sometimes.

Only books that are seeing regular reprints now are the Collected Visions of the Horus Heresy and the Uplifting Primer, though the latter may be due to the newsletter also being Guard themed and in the same satirical vein.

But yes, the limited runs they do on these is a damned shame, I do hope I get a chance to secure a copy of Xenology for myself next weekend.

I'd love to see the Gothic and the Eldritch and the Inquisitor's Sketchbook both make a return, maybe with the original designs and sketches supplemented by more recent designs both artists have put out in the last.. twenty(!) years since they were put out.

At the same time I'd also love if they did new ones - I'd love to see a big completion of Tyranid sketches and concept and artwork.

I'm sure ork and tau and other faction players would love them as well.

I've only got 1 "art/lore book" which is The Loathsome Ratmen and all their Vile Kin, but i absolutely love it.

There have been many others I have wanted to get but finances have not permitted and so many of them are now out of print. I agree, its frustrating.

Edited twice for spelling....may have something to do with the cider.

It's a pity they just don't have loads more art and lore stuff available on their websites. Everything is either directly aimed at selling you stuff or are intro sites for new players. The community has done a great job with wikis and stuff like scanned old white dwarf magazines, but GW must have so much stuff in their archives

I’m a big fan of these publications. The concept type art lets us peer behind the curtain a bit.

The standout ones for me were Jes’ original Necron concepts. As the range has expanded, we’ve see their models get ever closer to those concepts. It’s a genuinely fascinating thing to see how their abilities have grown over the years.

The background puff pieces are absolutely fantastic, and take good advantage of GW’s deliberately Uncertain Canon - in so far as everything written is true to the imaginary author, based on their own prejudices and preconceptions etc.

I know it might not be a popular opinion given Necromunda’s worryingly rapid book cycle, but the House Of series is, to me, the equal of the early Rogue Trader fluff. Some relatively straight answers, but even more rumour, hearsay, intrigue and half-truths.

Suffice to say I for one am very excited to get my grubbies on the new Xenology book!

Fun fact? I had (may still have) a copy of Liber Chaotica Tzeentch signed by the author, as he used to be a local lad who’d drop into T Wells GW. And as Maidstone is a pretty close, their store sometimes has ad-hoc signed copies of Dan Abnett’s work - though nobody is sure exactly which clone is doing the signing.

Now....conspiracy time....

A while back, I created a thread here on Dakka raving about this sort of book, and wanting new ones. Couple of years later, the new Xenology is announced. On the off chance someone at GW reads and takes heed?.....

Darling Fascist Bully Boy

Make all the books mentioned in this thread Print To Order, you child born out of wedlock.

Boomshanka

Mad Doc Grotsnik.

Finally, if my iPad doesn’t stop autocorrecting Jes to Jews, it’s going to get me into trouble one of these days! Really, genuinely need to watch out for that.

I collect old White Dwarfs. Here's a couple of photos of ads for what I think were GW's first two art books, from 1989.Couldn't see them mentioned so far. I would love to own copies, but I just checked on ebay and someone has Ratspike on sale for £500, so not likely i'll be able to afford them

Just had a thought, should the Imperial Armour books (the massively overpriced hardbacks) be included as well? Whilst they did provide rules, they also gave us fluff for the vehicles and from book three onwards, detailed military campaigns.

Also, the Fantasy Flight RPG books may be worth including? Gaming content aside, most of the splatbooks are great sources of world building and background info regarding the denizens of the settings created for each game.

Good guide I'll have to look at my shelves when I get home and see if anything's missing

 Overread wrote:
At the same time I'd also love if they did new ones - I'd love to see a big completion of Tyranid sketches and concept and artwork.

I'm sure ork and tau and other faction players would love them as well.

I had a copy of this when I was a kid, wish I still had it now, the first Ork book of any kind:

Lore
Waaagh the Orks (Warhammer 40, 000) Paperback – 1 Dec. 1990
by Nigel Stillman (Author), Lindsey Paton (Editor), Paul Bonner (Illustrator), Wayne England (Illustrator)

Don't forget the recent Tarot pack created by former GW artist Ian Miller. I own it, a quite nice keepsake.

 Shrapnelsmile wrote:
Don't forget the recent Tarot pack created by former GW artist Ian Miller. I own it, a quite nice keepsake.

Still waiting for mine, it will sit nicely with my John Blanche playing card set.

The bigger tragedy is all the 40k artwork that's been made that has vanished completely and was never put into an art book.

I'm talking about the stuff that FFG produced, most notably their 40K Conquest card game, where every card had a piece of artwork on it. Plus all the great artwork from the RPG books as well.

As far as I know, none of that stuff was collected and put out there.

Emperor's Will features Dark Heresy art pieces.

Emperor's Might features art from Deathwatch.

In both cases not much, but pieces have been taken up by GW.

I’m still vaguely hopeful we might see older books reprinted, even if like Rogue Trader and Realm of Chaos they’re WHW/Cafe exclusives.

Sure, the physical printing costs money, but with the layouts there, most of your costs are done and dusted, barring perhaps digitising them.

There’s clear demand for them (I still need to raid WHW again. I’ve got packaging and Looters itching for the Realm of Chaos books), so surely it would be worth it? Especially the Orky books. I’ve got all three, and they’re terrific.

Waaaah The Orks in particular should be reprinted, as it’s purely background. Not a single rule in sight

It's surprising they still haven't done a Lost and the Damned reprint yet.

The three Index - Apocrypha books they've done were also a great success, they really ought to do more of those, but tackling the various xenos races of that era.

 BrookM wrote:
It's surprising they still haven't done a Lost and the Damned reprint yet.

The three Index - Apocrypha books they've done were also a great success, they really ought to do more of those, but tackling the various xenos races of that era.

I thought they did Lost and Damned last year, I know they did Slaves to Darkness.

Indeed. Feels like they didn’t, as we almost instantly entered Lockdown in the U.K.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Indeed. Feels like they didn’t, as we almost instantly entered Lockdown in the U.K.

Yep, there was confusion on ebay for a while as first editions of the book were put on sale for less than hundreds of pounds by people seeing what the re-prints were on for and not realising they were re-prints... still couldn't afford a copy at the time.

First thing I'm doing when lock-down is over is a trip to Nottingham. No excuse really as I'm only up the road in Leicester (for any Americans interested that's like the equivalent of driving to the mall). I'll make sure to take my cheque book and a large carry-all for anyone here who wants stuff picking up and sending... and if i see Jes Goodwin i'll get his autograph for you.

Huh, consider me corrected. I had tried looking up the WHW exclusives, but couldn't find a list / catalogue of the items.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Indeed. Feels like they didn’t, as we almost instantly entered Lockdown in the U.K.

That's for sure

 BrookM wrote:
Huh, consider me corrected. I had tried looking up the WHW exclusives, but couldn't find a list / catalogue of the items.

There is a partial one - but it’s quite out of date. Plus the availability is kinda touch and go.

This is why when I do my Loot Run, it won’t be pre-announced. Saves the arseache of shunting money around only to have to refund.

I just cleaned out my attic and found a mint copy of Ratspike.