This illustration is a quintessential piece of Ian Miller’s early work, a brilliant showcase of his ‘Tight Pen Style,’ a term Miller himself uses to describe his meticulous, almost obsessive attention to fine detail. Known for his mastery with black ink and Rotring Isograph Technical pens, Miller creates a world drenched in precision. His technique, involving a wash over artboard, is breathtaking in its intensity, and this particular work is an early testament to his artistic genius. The limited color palette he employs only heightens the stark, haunting beauty of the scene.
Commissioned for the cover of Konard, one of the first novels in the Warhammer universe published by Games Workshop Books—long before Black Library existed—this piece is legendary. The artwork captures the protagonist, Konrad, bound within the twisted embrace of bronze Chaos armor, enslaved to its malevolent power, and tethered to an otherworldly steed. The visual storytelling is immense. Every line, every shadow, whispers of his torment, trapped in the cursed armor that compels him to slaughter.
In the story, Konrad roams the Empire’s borderlands, driven by the insatiable bloodlust of the cursed armor. It forces him to kill anyone in his path to feed its malevolent hunger, slowly consuming his soul in the process. His enslavement continues until he is finally captured by a powerful wizard, who, in a gripping moment of salvation, shatters the curse and frees him from the armor’s wicked grasp.
This discovery of Miller’s Konard artwork is a thrilling moment for collectors, as it is one of just six pieces he created for book or box covers. Sadly, the cover for Siege, a supplement to Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition, was lost to catastrophic water damage, and another, Halls of Horror, is thought to have been tragically discarded. Yet, the survival of Konard preserves a piece of Warhammer’s early visual history, a striking example of Miller’s dark and detailed vision that helped define the aesthetic of the universe.