Vale and Farewell, John Blanche (1948-2026)

By Rick Meints, Chaosium president.

John Blanche's art graced the covers and pages of hundreds of Games Workshop products from the late 1970s until he retired from the company in 2023.

As the gaming titan of the UK, Games Workshop's titles didn't appear much on game store shelves in the United States, so I didn't discover the art of John Blanche until I moved to the UK in the 1990s. 

Within a few months of living in the UK, obtaining the back catalog of Games Workshop RuneQuest related product consumed my "collecting budget." (Until then I knew virtually nothing about Games Workshop and my only contact with their products came from buying a single issue of White Dwarf magazine (#27) for $1 in 1981 from the Rider's Hobby shop bargain bin.)

I purchased all five of the Games Workshop RQ3 hardcover books (yes, the one softcover as well), plus a few dozen boxes of Citadel RuneQuest miniatures, and every issue of White Dwarf that included RuneQuest related content (#4 through #101).

John Blanche's color art appeared in many of those products.

John's passing provided me with the opportunity to rediscover and reminisce about his art: his Broo caught my eye in particular.

Yesterday I went through my stacks of White Dwarf and grabbed a few issues where he painted the covers. I loved looking through the Games Workshop RQ3 books to gaze at John's art again (I just hope that their notoriously poor binding doesn't lead to more pages falling out).

John's iconic work defined many more products than what I briefly list above. I wish I could have met him when I visited Games Workshop up near Nottingham back in 2000.

Thank you, John, for adding so much to the look of RuneQuest.