Marc Gascoigne Announced as new Fighting Fantasy Brand Manager

LONDON, UK  |  23 JANUARY 2025

Steve Jackson and Sir Ian Livingstone, the co-creators of Fighting Fantasy, have recruited Marc Gascoigne as Brand Manager of the bestselling gamebook series. The classic series of adventure gamebooks, which began in 1982 with The Warlockof Firetop Mountain, continues to thrive with new titles being published by Scholastic UK, together with digital and audio editions, role-playing and board games, miniatures, and a growing range of licensed merchandise.

With more than 20 million books sold in over 30 languages, Fighting Fantasy remains a truly global phenomenon. The series will be returning to US bookstores in mid-2025 with 10 titles being published by Steve Jackson Games Inc (run by the other Steve Jackson in the USA).

Marc will be supporting existing Fighting Fantasy licensees, as well as seeking out appropriate partners for new ventures. Long-time Fighting Fantasy fans will already be familiar with Marc’s work from the legendary sourcebooks Titan—the Fighting Fantasy World and the Fighting Fantasy monster collection Out of the Pit, the gamebook Battleblade Warrior, and two Fighting Fantasy novels. He was also the series’ consultant editor in the 1990s for Puffin Books, before building a career in fantasy fiction as publisher of Games Workshop’s Black Library range of Warhammer novels, and later with his own award winning imprint Angry Robot.

Sir Ian Livingstone said: “We are delighted to have Marc join us to further promote and build Fighting Fantasy worldwide. A respected expert of the genre, he will be an invaluable member of the Fighting Fantasy team. May his STAMINA never fail!” 

Sir Ian Livingstone and Marc Gascoigne at Dragonmeet 2024.

You can read the full press release here.

Chris Achilleos (1947-2021)

We were very sorry to hear the terrible news that renowned fantasy artist Chris Achilleos passed away after a short illness on Monday afternoon.

Ian Livingstone posted this tweet in response to the announcement:

For many young fans in the 1980s, the cover of Temple of Terror was their first introduction to the work of the legendary artist, although he had already painted the cover for Space Assassin, and would go on to produce others for the series, including Armies of Death and the seminal background lore books, Out of the Pit and Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World. His painting appears in The Fighting Fantasy Poster Book an unprecedented four times!

Chris (full name 'Christos') was interviewed about his work for YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, and even provided the cover for the second volume. This was what he had to said about the creation of the cover painting for Temple of Terror:

“I was dealing with Ian and he called me and said, ‘I’m going to leave it to you to design me the creature for this new book I’m writing. I’m going to tell you the scene and you come up with the creature, because you probably don’t need guidance on this from someone like me.’ And I said, ‘That sounds great, yeah. Then you can describe it from my painting.’

“It was a guardian of this gate and it was a desert scene – a city half buried under sand – so I designed this creature that lies in wait, buried under the sand... It was something I’d seen in a wildlife programme, these desert snakes that hide in the sand and just have their eyes out and then they pounce on you. So I imagined the same creature sort of lying in wait for someone to try and pass the gate. I drew that and he was delighted with it. In fact he bought the original from me.”

This trust that the writer had in the artist, also resulted in Chris producing one of the most recognisable cover paintings in British fantasy gaming, that of Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World:

“With that Ian said, ‘Just draw a dragon picture, Chris,’ and then left it to me. So I had to consider first of all that’s it a double spread… and then come up with something. When you don’t get a manuscript or a story that already describes what you need to do, when you’re left to yourself, you tend to go round in circles with many ideas and not focusing on one, not knowing quite what to do. Time flies and you’re still wondering which way to go.

“In this case, this was what was going on. I felt like, I’ve got to stop here; it’s not working. So I made up a story in my head about a shape-shifting wizard, who is attacking this city, in the form of this giant dragon, being held back. He’s destroyed the army that you can see… The drawbridge is down, he’s holding onto one of the chains – the other one’s already been broken – and the rest of the bridge is broken and down… The best of the knights have been killed. In desperation the baron comes out with his magicians, or druids or priests, to do magic with the dragon – not to hold him, not to destroy him, but to turn him back into human form and conquer him.

“The clue I put in there that the dragon is not just an animal – it’s a shape-shifting being, a super-being if you like, a magician – is that I put earrings and bracelets on him. That’s what that’s saying. That’s also why it’s called ‘Dragon Spell’. They’re putting a spell on him and trying and revert him back to a human being so they can defeat him. The question in that picture is, will he turn back to human or will he just snap out of it and literally bite the heads off them? That’s what the picture’s saying. People either see that consciously or unconsciously.”

Chris also had the honour of providing the cover art for the first Fighting Fantasy novel, Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars:

“I was given the outline of the story and it was left up to me. I quite liked the concept of an orc fighting off a disgusting skeleton.”

Fans will be deeply saddened by the passing of a great artist and a fine man, but Chris leaves behind an immense body of work that has adorned everything from Doctor Who novels to Whitesnake album covers, as well as FF gamebooks. But certainly, the worlds of Fighting Fantasy would be diminished without Chris's contributions, and our thoughts remain with his friends and family at this difficult time.

In memory of

Chris Achilleos

1947-2021

Steve Beales' Galleykeep

The worlds of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have inspired readers, writers and artists ever since The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was first published in 1982.

One of those so inspired is amateur model-maker and miniature painter Steve Beales. You can see many examples of his Fighting Fantasy-themed models on his blog Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold. For his most recent conversion he took inspiration from Steve Jackson's FF novel The Trolltooth Wars, not to mention his seminal gamebook, Creature of Havoc.

Zharradan Marr's aerial fortress, the Galleykeep.

The Galleykeep was Zharradan Marr's ultimate fighting machine: a majestic sky-galleon with billowing black sails which caught the wind and drew the vessel smoothly through the air. As a spectacle, its magnificence was unsurpassed. Those on the ground who saw the Galleykeep pass above believed they were watching the gods themselves sail past. As a transport vessel it could carry a thousand troops or as much cargo as passed through the Trolltooth Pass overland in ten weeks.

From The Trolltooth Wars, by Steve Jackson.

You can find out how Steve went about converting his model here, on his blog. And you can still buy PJ Montgomery and Gavin Mitchell's graphic novel adaptation of Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars here.

Carl Sargent (1952-2018)

We were very sorry to hear the news, late last night, that the prolific RPG writer, author, and parapsychologist, Carl Sargent, has passed away.

Carl will be better known to Fighting Fantasy fans the world over as Keith Martin, author of seven gamebooks in the series, written between 1988 and 1995 - Stealer of Souls, Vault of the Vampire, Master of Chaos, Tower of Destruction, Island of the Undead, Night Dragon, Legend of Zagor, and Revenge of the Vampire.

However, his work appeared under his own name when he collaborated with Ian Livingstone on the quartet of four short novels - Firestorm, Darkthrone, Skullcrag, and Demonlord - which featured the exploits of three heroes from Legend of Zagor*.

Just as he enriched the worlds of Greyhawk, Warhammer, Shadowrun and Earthdawn with his work, the world of Titan would have seemed a much smaller place without Carl's contributions.

And so tonight we shall be raising a glass of fine Mortvanian claret, drawn from the cellars of Castle Heydrich, in his memory, and our thoughts remain with his friends and family at this difficult time.

In memory of

Carl Sargent

1952-2018

* Which was itself based on the board game designed by Ian Livingstone and published by Parker Brothers.

Terry Oakes' Fighting Fantasy Art

For fans of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and novels, Terry Oakes will need no introduction. His stunning art graced the cover of adventures such as Beneath Nightmare Castle, Slaves of the Abyss, Dead of Night and Tower of Destruction, and the novel Demonstealer.

He also contributed a painting of a Brain Slayer to The Fighting Fantasy Poster Book, and produced the cover art for The 10th Anniversary Yearbook. And then there was the cover of Warlock magazine #3.

If you have particularly fond memories of Terry Oakes' Fighting Fantasy art, you should make sure you head over to Intercept Studios, where prints of his work are available to buy. Not only that, but enter the code FFPRINT10 at the checkout to get 10% off orders, until Monday 27th of August!

Tell them the Warlock set you.

Marc Gascoigne to attend Fighting Fantasy Fest 2

FightingFantasy.com is delighted to report that Marc Gascoigne will be one of the guests attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 2 on Saturday 2nd September, at the University of West London in Ealing, London.

The name Marc Gascoigne is almost as familiar to fans of the FF gamebooks as those of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, Marc having worked on the original Out of the Pit and Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World source books. He also wrote Battleblade Warrior (FF31), co-created (with Pete Tamlyn) the Advanced Fighting Fantasy books Dungeoneer, Blacksand!, and Allansia, and wrote the FF novels Demonstealer and Shadowmaster - all whilst working as consultant editor on the Fighting Fantasy range.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2 is going to be a memorable occasion indeed, with a host of special guests in attendance, demo games, comics, traders, signings, and a cosplay competition. So don't delay - grab your ticket today!