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My brother in law was reading Hokuto No Ken when he was in grade school as it was serialized. So were his friends. It most certainly was part of the regular Jump lineup back in the mid 80s.

That's Japan though, at a different time and place in history and what was acceptable.

The biggest hurdle will be the violence most likely. I think as long as the depictions of gore and the more gratuitous elements are kept in check (and can and should certainly be alluded to), this will go over fine.

Dunno if I'll be able to stock it on my classroom's shelves mind you, but it would be cool to recommend it to older kids who seem like they'd enjoy it, if the books end up decent.

the weapon of the main character is a slingshot. I expect that the most violent thing you will see is a kick to the ass.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

But here’s a thought.....why not wait to see what the books are actually like? They might cross level cack, overly dependant on the IP to sell. They might become bestsellers and a well regarded series of varied stories with a common background. And rather than my fellow 20-40 something Sad Gits, I’d suggest just handing the book to someone of the target age range with an interest in sci-fi and fantasy, then seeing what they make of it.

Seeing as none of us have actually read the books, I think a lot of the negativity may be due to the cartoony cover art. If only there was an apposite saying regarding this circumstance

 Barzam wrote:
Let's not forget, Devilman and Fist of the North Star were aimed at kids, too.

That's misleading, at best. The anime were, but they were toned down considerably from their decidedly not-for-kids source material (though still more extreme than kids' stuff today). Now, if you wanted to use something like Michiko-sensei...

 streetsamurai wrote:
the weapon of the main character is a slingshot. I expect that the most violent thing you will see is a kick to the ass.

It'll be like the old Spider-Man cartoon where the network insisted he wasn't allowed to throw a punch, or like Michaelangelo's Nunchucks in TMNT (or "Hero" over here, as Ninja were not allowed to be heroes) which were also not allowed to be used.

Yet you will keep on commenting.

Me? I’ve shown this off to teacher friends and parents of sprogs wot I know. They all seem quite receptive.

See, getting kids to read is 20% encouragement, 80% giving them something they actually want to read.

My parents kicked me off with a The Dandy and the Beano. Then Usborne Choose Your Own Adventure and Ronald Dahl. After that came Fighting Fantasy.

It wasn’t until my GCSE’s where I was given MacBeth (boring), Buddy (its grim up t’north. ‘Is Mam left and ‘is Dad is a drunk), Z for Zacariah (oh noes! Everyone is ded from nuke!) and Empty World (oh noes! Everyone is ded from plague!) that I got turned off reading. Until a combination of Gotrek and Felix and Discworld turned me back on two years later.

If a kid is showing an interest in this hobby, why not produce books suitable for them? I’ve no doubt the more precocious lil’ spuds could handle a BL Library novel - but I’m pretty certain their parents wouldn’t agree.

But these? Best of both worlds. Colourful, eye catching covers. Hopefully compelling (for a kid, not Sad Old Gits) stories, there’s not a great deal can go wrong.

These are an auto-buy for my seven year old daughter. She loves reading and would probably get through these in one or two sittings. Whenever I pop into the local GW store she always comes along with me and shows an interest.

As for people saying the Warhammer worlds are too dark, have you seen what kids are reading these days? Look up the Horrible Histories series to see what I mean.

Marleymoo wrote:
These are an auto-buy for my seven year old daughter. She loves reading and would probably get through these in one or two sittings. Whenever I pop into the local GW store she always comes along with me and shows an interest.

As for people saying the Warhammer worlds are too dark, have you seen what kids are reading these days? Look up the Horrible Histories series to see what I mean.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Yet you will keep on commenting.

Sorry, Mr opinion police. I didn't know it was a requirement in a thread to only have the same one as yours.

Was intended for StreetSamurai. But other posts happened.

Yeah, some of these guys are rapidly turning antagonistic whenever you disagree with them

Marleymoo wrote:
These are an auto-buy for my seven year old daughter. She loves reading and would probably get through these in one or two sittings. Whenever I pop into the local GW store she always comes along with me and shows an interest.

As for people saying the Warhammer worlds are too dark, have you seen what kids are reading these days? Look up the Horrible Histories series to see what I mean.

We tell our kids stories of old ladies being pushed and cooked inside ovens
And wolves who swallow grannies whole only to be torn open by woodsmen with axes

Haha, look he's got a Battlecat patch.

As Highlord Tamburlaine said, Hokuto no Ken was absolutely aimed at kids. Probably kids in their teens, but kids none the less. Yeah, the Devilnan manga wasn't, but the original anime certainly was. Takara even had action figures of him at the time. But, as Highlord Tamburlaine also said, that was Japan and a different point in time, where it was perfectly acceptable to depict a dog's head being ripped off by a psychotic bear and have it thrown at the dog's allies (Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, a true treasure trove of horrifying imagery aimed at kids). So, I suppose then, let's not forget that in the 90s, Aliens, Terminator, Predator, and Starship Troopers were all marketed towards kids, too. Aliens was even going to have a Saturday morning cartoon.

Watership Down - Plague Dogs - Animals of Farthing Wood - kids survived all those (heck most of us here likely experienced at least one or more of those animations whilst growing up).

Only the cartoons, never the movies. Everything was turned into a franchise in the 90's. Rambo, Robocop, Starship Troopers, even Conan had saturday morning cartoons.

 Overread wrote:
Watership Down - Plague Dogs - Animals of Farthing Wood - kids survived all those (heck most of us here likely experienced at least one or more of those animations whilst growing up).

Lol, I rebember that cartoon. Seems like it was made strictly to traumatise children. Things were so much gangsters in these days

Most fairy tales end up with someone eaten by wolves...

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Only the cartoons, never the movies. Everything was turned into a franchise in the 90's. Rambo, Robocop, Starship Troopers, even Conan had saturday morning cartoons.

Exactly. They were all sanitized, but kept the same themes and feeling of their source material, more or less. They can totally do that here.

I'd totally forgotten about Conan The Adventurer. I used to love that stupid show.

I'm also reminded that Alien was going to have toys based on it. Also, a Nightmare on Elm Street of all things had some toys back in the day, too. Man, what were people thinking?

Alien did have, however briefly, in the wake of Alien 3.

Out of curiosity what was the first Warhammer literature you've read and how old were you? What sort of an impact did it have on you?

Merely curious as I expect that these stories will have light hearth approach, sharing and flirting with only certain themes of the "adult" franchises. I do think it's possible to write a book in such setting but in our eyes this isn't going to be "our warhammer".

 Barzam wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Only the cartoons, never the movies. Everything was turned into a franchise in the 90's. Rambo, Robocop, Starship Troopers, even Conan had saturday morning cartoons.

Exactly. They were all sanitized, but kept the same themes and feeling of their source material, more or less. They can totally do that here.

I'd totally forgotten about Conan The Adventurer. I used to love that stupid show.

I'm also reminded that Alien was going to have toys based on it. Also, a Nightmare on Elm Street of all things had some toys back in the day, too. Man, what were people thinking?

Alien did have toys based on it. It had and still has waves of toys in fact. Freddy had talking dolls, everything was franchised to hell and back.

But who's to say these books won't keep the feeling of the source material? At this point everyone is, quite literally, judging books by their covers.

One thing I am wondering.

Will Slaneesh be required to register with local authorities once they get out of jail? Unable to live near schools/playgrounds?

 Knight wrote:
Out of curiosity what was the first Warhammer literature you've read and how old were you? What sort of an impact did it have on you?

Merely curious as I expect that these stories will have light hearth approach, sharing and flirting with only certain themes of the "adult" franchises. I do think it's possible to write a book in such setting but in our eyes this isn't going to be "our warhammer".

Probably Trollslayer.

I’m old enough, yet young enough, to have fallen in that gap between the demise of GW’s publishing wing, and the birth of Black Library. Between those eras, we only had the Codecies, Army Books and Rule Books.

I was playing with Titan Legions for years and never read a book - honestly I think the Grim-Dark is overblown and more in the minds of players than anywhere else.

GW has a gothic art style, but nothing in it is really "scary creepy" in the same way as a horror film. Sure demons and orks are potentially scary; but its scary like fantasy films rather than horror films. Heck its not even in the same league as say films like Hobo with a Shotgun or Machete or even the classic Alien and the chest bursting scene.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Barzam wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Only the cartoons, never the movies. Everything was turned into a franchise in the 90's. Rambo, Robocop, Starship Troopers, even Conan had saturday morning cartoons.

Exactly. They were all sanitized, but kept the same themes and feeling of their source material, more or less. They can totally do that here.

I'd totally forgotten about Conan The Adventurer. I used to love that stupid show.

I'm also reminded that Alien was going to have toys based on it. Also, a Nightmare on Elm Street of all things had some toys back in the day, too. Man, what were people thinking?

Alien did have toys based on it. It had and still has waves of toys in fact. Freddy had talking dolls, everything was franchised to hell and back.

But who's to say these books won't keep the feeling of the source material? At this point everyone is, quite literally, judging books by their covers.

I suggest you read the character bios on the site (https://warhammeradventures.com/). Not one of them fits with the feeling of 40k.

To repeat what someone said on Reddit- I can't wait for the issue where 13 year old Talen is executed by a commissar for abandoning the Astra Militarum. That will be a fun-filled time for the whole family!

 streetsamurai wrote:
the weapon of the main character is a slingshot. I expect that the most violent thing you will see is a kick to the ass.

This right here made me remember about this clip.




(Min 1:52 for reference, the link to the exact moment seems to be inoperative here at dakkadakka).

The main weapon of the main character was a slingshot here too.

 Grimtuff wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Barzam wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Only the cartoons, never the movies. Everything was turned into a franchise in the 90's. Rambo, Robocop, Starship Troopers, even Conan had saturday morning cartoons.

Exactly. They were all sanitized, but kept the same themes and feeling of their source material, more or less. They can totally do that here.

I'd totally forgotten about Conan The Adventurer. I used to love that stupid show.

I'm also reminded that Alien was going to have toys based on it. Also, a Nightmare on Elm Street of all things had some toys back in the day, too. Man, what were people thinking?

Alien did have toys based on it. It had and still has waves of toys in fact. Freddy had talking dolls, everything was franchised to hell and back.

But who's to say these books won't keep the feeling of the source material? At this point everyone is, quite literally, judging books by their covers.

I suggest you read the character bios on the site (https://warhammeradventures.com/). Not one of them fits with the feeling of 40k.

To repeat what someone said on Reddit- I can't wait for the issue where 13 year old Talen is executed by a commissar for abandoning the Astra Militarum. That will be a fun-filled time for the whole family!

Already have and i have to say, they made me grin in a fun way. In fact i sent the link to my neice and two nephews about half an hour ago and they already want to read them

Well blacker than the blackest black clearly stopped sell well. it limits potential customers and also limits new fluff and models. besides giving the imperium a little bit of hope only makes the fall much more painful.

I disagree. The setting has never been the problem for GW, its the strongest part of the IP. People love it because of how brutal it is. It stopped selling well because 40K has always been a terrible game rules wise, other companies started filling in the missing gaps GW was leaving for them on a competitive level, and GW refused to communicate with their customers. Never mind having a huge cost of entry to many of their games.

GW will probably never reach the scale of something like Star Wars because it isn't Star Wars. Does that mean they should abandon what made it great to begin with just so they can reach that level of profitability?

Lets not turn GW into the History channel. They don't show actual shows about history anymore because it's more profitable to make terrible "reality" shows. Can they honestly call themselves the history channel if they don't show history? Can GW call it 40K if its not a brutal, nihilistic, fantasy opera in space?

That’s actually a very good example of just how much you can get away with with kid’s shows, if you’re cunning.

There, two imperial officers are clearly decapitated - but none of it is seen, and there’s no double clunk as the heads hit the floor.

Also, consider this scene from Clone Wars.




It’s pretty brutal, for a kids show. Spesh when the flamethrowers are called up. None of us can be blasted. None of us ever risk a lightsaber to the face. But being set on fire and burning to death?