Our Ongoing Animal Obsession

Here at Osprey we seem to have a bit of an obsession with animals. Wherever you look, you are almost certain to stumble across an animal reference in one of our books. It is truly strange. Take for example the majestic Mustang. By the end of 2010 we will have published 9 books on the Mustang. Nine! And not a single one of them contains a photograph of a galloping wild horse.

Then take a look at our New Vanguard series. All sorts of animals seem to have hidden themselves in this section of books. There are Tigers, Scorpions, Leopards, Panthers, Hellcats (possibly a very angry tabby?), Black Hawks, Cobras, Crocodiles, Crabs, Fireflies, Staghounds and War Elephants.

It is a veritable menagerie in there!

In all seriousness though, New Vanguard 150 War Elephants is a great book, and sold fantastically well. I am still rather disappointed that it didn't contain the usual cut-away artwork that we tend to have in New Vanguard titles - but if you want to see how the art was put together, Peter Dennis did a step-by-step blog showing the different stages of the process. NVG 150 also got me into a spot of bother. Following on from the success of the book I decided to do an animal themed April Fool joke on the website.

So, I put together a blog post about the launch of a new Osprey series, and posted it up under Phil's name, without his knowledge of it. The new series - set to launch in 2010 (or so I said) was to be called War Animal. I even went as far as to announce the first 15 books in the series:

WA 1: Pack Mules of World War II
WA 2: Messenger Pigeons of the Western Front
WA 3: Cavalry Horses of World War I
WA 4: Soviet Canine Messengers
WA 5: Mine Detection Animals 1940-2009: Rats, Bats, Pigs, Dogs and Sheep
WA 6: US Navy Dolphin Squads
WA 7: Persian War Rhino
WA 8: Soviet Bear Mascots
WA 9: Norwegian Penguin Officers
WA 10: Dickin Medal Winners
WA 11: Napoleonic Ship's Cats: The Rat Hunters
WA 12: Camels, Oxen and Reindeer: Novel Military Transporters
WA 13: US Navy Seals: The Aquatic Mammal Version
WA 14: Romanian Werewolf Squads: 1939-1989
WA 15: Transylvania's Vampire Bats:  From Vlad to Dracula 1431-1897WA 1: Pack Mules of World War II
WA 2: Messenger Pigeons of the Western Front
WA 3: Cavalry Horses of World War I
WA 4: Soviet Canine Messengers
WA 5: Mine Detection Animals 1940-2009: Rats, Bats, Pigs, Dogs and Sheep
WA 6: US Navy Dolphin Squads
WA 7: Persian War Rhino
WA 8: Soviet Bear Mascots
WA 9: Norwegian Penguin Officers
WA 10: Dickin Medal Winners
WA 11: Napoleonic Ship's Cats: The Rat Hunters
WA 12: Camels, Oxen and Reindeer: Novel Military Transporters
WA 13: US Navy Seals: The Aquatic Mammal Version
WA 14: Romanian Werewolf Squads: 1939-1989
WA 15: Transylvania's Vampire Bats:  From Vlad to Dracula 1431-1897

Then, a couple of designers got together and mocked up a cover for the series, using some artwork gleaned from a recent book on the Chindits.

All in all it was a great little April Fools joke. But unfortunately it was a little too good - and a few people took it for a genuine release, and were not pleased to discover that it was a bit of fun.

So to everyone out there who fell for this - a big apology from me, and keep your eyes open for next years installment.

PackMules