Concluding a 40 year Quest!

It has finally happened.  I fought my Adult ADD and actually completed a project, or maybe better put an obsession.  I have finally completed my White Dwarf collection.  Let me put some qualifiers on that.  First I'm referring to what I call the complete first run of the White Dwarf.  This is the one that started in back in 1977 and ran as a monthly publication to January of 2014 in the States when it then changed to a short lived weekly publication until returning to the monthly format.

Qualifier number two, while I have pictured WD #1 here I don't actually own issues 1-10, just copies.  Due to my frugal nature, or plan old cheapness, I refuse to pay the ridiculous amounts for these early issues.  I guess I'm not that obsessed after all!  If someday I happen upon those first ten issues at a reasonable price I'll certainly pick them up but until then I can live with my printed internet copies.

Why this nearly 40 year quest?  This wonderful little magazine was my gateway into Games Workshop, Citadel Miniatures, and the hobby in general.  The early issues of the magazine were actually dedicated to RPG industry and featured articles on everything from Dungeons and Dragons to Tunnels and Trolls to RuneQuest to Games Workshop titles like Golden Heros, Judge Dredd, and eventually Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer Fantasy Role Play.

What current gamers might not realize is how scarce actual brick and mortar stores were back in the day.  The RPG/Wargaming industry was just evolving and not as readily accessible as it is today.  You had to buy them wherever you could find them or via mail order.  And I don't mean via mail as in find it from a Internet vendor I mean look through the mail order ads in the back of a magazine.  I got my first RPG, the boxed D&D Beginners Set, at a very unlikely place.  The Spencer Gifts in the mall!

I also had some occasional luck at the B Daltons or Walden bookstores but they never carried much stock.

I was fortunate enough to have a few options here in Ohio, the first of which was my favorite haunt as a kid, the Tin Soldier down in the Dayton area.  I used to beg m parents to take me down there and I would spend hours flipping through the miniature blisters on the walls or sit on the floor right next to the magazine rack reading the latest issue of White Dwarf or Citadel Compendium or Citadel Journal.  Once I hit 16 and acquired an old beater car I was able to expand my options and often ventured to Columbus to visit the Drowsy Dragon a great little shop on the east side.

I was off to college, close enough to still visit Columbus occasionally.  And then I landed my first job in Cleveland.  I had a job and disposable income.  I found myself in the middle of the Golden Age of Citadel Miniatures with money and a hobby shop less than 3 miles away in Brecksville!   Emerald Games if I remember correctly.  Besides buying way more lead than I could ever paint, I was finally able to get a subscription to the White Dwarf and that is when this little journey began around issue 117.

I carried the subscription from the late 80's well into the 2000's until the price versus return on investment just didn't work for me anymore.  Content steady went down hill from general RPG coverage to becoming a GWS in-house rag.  I didn't mind the in-house shift at first since it was still rich with content.  

Background articles, full army lists, scenarios, Eavy Metal spreads, and the occasional template for a card house or vehicle modification, I still enjoyed it.  But later the cost versus what I was actually getting out of it seemed to diminish to the point where I dropped it altogether.  I had young kids and just couldn't justify it anymore.

This was about the time I lost interest in the hobby, again with young kids my free time seemed to be at a high premium and painting just didn't seem to make the to do list.  One thing that did keep me connected was the opening of the Half Price Books chain in Columbus which had not only old games but also the occasional White Dwarf back issue.  And these went cheap, I mean really cheap as in 50 cents tops and often I could get a stack of 10-20 mags for a dollar.  I was ecstatic when I stumbled upon them.  

I started to fill in my collection and slowly over years of effort I arrived to the point where I only had 4 issues left to acquire.  While I have purchased a few off eBay when the price was right I generally stayed away from this source since I felt they were often over priced.  I did find a 4 pack that had 3 of the missing souls for my collection and grabbed it.  

At that point it hit me, the brass ring is right there!  I can see it, heck I can even smell it!  I departed from my conventional wisdom of buying on the cheap and grabbed the remaining issue off eBay.

It arrived today, still in the shrink warp.   And it finally sunk in as I held it in my hands.  It was over.  I relate the drive to collect the back issues over the years to the scene of Pinto in Animal House with the little devil on his shoulder tell him to do all those inappropriate things to his passed out date.  

My crazy little voice would coax, encourage, even demand that I go check a book store or try just one more location.  That voice was gone.  I didn't hear it anymore!  While I was happy to have the last piece and have that complete collection I also felt a bit sad.  It sounds crazy but that search actually gave purpose to my many trips to used book store.  Now don't worry I haven't totally lost it,  There are no plans to lock my self in my hobby cave and disconnect from the real world but I will miss that excitement of checking the magazine areas for a missing back issue.  Knowing myself pretty well I am sure that I will find a replacement quest for that little guy in red to take up and encourage me to complete!