Chapter 2: Page 26
An entire tribe of their own people is a pretty hefty down payment! Ashtor just wants to be sure it won’t be for nothing.
One of the regular little treats for me as we go through this story is that Rachel’s extensive animation and storyboarding background leads to some great expressions from our characters. When she has trouble envisioning a specific expression, it’s not uncommon to see several stabs at trying to nail that one, right moment in the character’s line where their face wraps perfectly around the mood we want to set for a panel.
Last week, Hardin’s expression in panel two was one of my favorites of Hardin because it gave such a wonderful window into his state of mind — but Ashtor’s expressions in the first three panels of this week’s page do more than show a specific moment or attitude that conveys the state of a character. These three panels show that wonderful progression leading from initial surprise, the natural segue into suspicion, and then that direct challenge. Sometimes even when there is no dialog in a panel, one can surmise sounds a character may be making — in panel two of this week’s page, one can almost hear that sharp, long intake of air as Ashtor leans back to collect himself.
I’ve mentioned in the past that showing a scene in the comic medium isn’t as easy as just picking moments in time and drawing them to tell a story — you’re consolidating many different actions, many different points in time, into a single tableau. Sometimes, though, it can be nice to show a series of back-to-back snapshots of time, a bit like a storyboard, when we want to show a progression of emotion or action in a very short period of time. We see this mostly in action sequences, but as with Hardin’s pause last week as he considered telling Ashtor why he was committing to a dangerous plan, and this week where Ashtor moves through several emotions before his response, it can work for slower-paced scenes as well.
This week we’ve got a bit of a surprise on the guest art front! The übertalented Jerome Jacinto is currently in the planning stages of a wonderful new Western Deep piece that will hopefully grace the upcoming hardcover release. As such, he has been sending me some fun doodles of Hardin and his Sratha-din to try and capture their looks and movements. This is one such doodle sheet:
Bevan’s high-flying pose in the center there is particularly awesome — you simply don’t mess with a dagger-wielding Ermehn in a hood! Hopefully I’ll be able to post some more concepts and doodles as time goes on. As always, if you have any fan-art or other fan-related works, we’d love to see them! Send them in to thewesterndeep (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll post them up with a page!
Hope you all had a happy New Year, and here’s to a wonderful upcoming year!
What is Ashtor looking at in the second panel? The map?
He’s looking past Hardin, down at Deltrada :)
It’s almost tempting to say that very little actually happens in this page – and, in terms of action, that’s entirely true – but sometimes physical action/plot advancement can take a back seat to a key moment of more personality-based content and still work wonderfully. We get that here, since the name Clovis clearly means a great deal to Ashtor (something personal, perhaps, or just the Canid general’s reputation?) and his multi-panel absorption of and reaction to this revelation makes this a great page, even if it’s only three lines of dialogue taking up a few moments stretched out over four panels. Variety is the spice of life, and alternating pages like these with the more action-driven or scene-setting ones will, over the long haul, provide “BWD” with the depth of tone and pacing that will really help it stand up over time. Great work, as always!
And, speaking of great work, always fun to see more of Jerome’s output, in any context! Nice score, getting him to do the cover art for your upcoming hardcover volume (of which I must buy at least one). Can’t wait to see the finished book, both for the cover as well as the previously-unseen “bonus material” you’ve tempted us with … and, of course, just to see “BWD” in ANY form that can be held in my greedy little mitts. Best of luck with that endeavor, as “BWD” forges ahead into the New Year!
Thanks for the comment and critique as always, Highwing! I do love these quiet character moments just as much as the awesome action sequences (sometimes even moreso :)
Jerome’s art won’t actually be the cover — that honor goes of course to Rachel! The cover is not only meant to grab the eye, but must indicate what lies within the pages, and that’s just as much about the art style as the characters and situations you’re showing! No, Jerome’s art will be included in a guest art section at the end of the book, similar to other collected comic anthologies like “Mouse Guard.”
I swear Highwing, between you and Saraa, there is not much left to comment on :).
I can’t wait for this book. How will we be able to buy it?
We’re aiming to debut it at either Boston Comic Con or Baltimore Comic Con in 2014. Boston is in August and very close to where I live, so I might go there just to test the waters. Baltimore is in early September, and Rachel and I will both be in attendance.
After Baltimore Comic Con, our plan is to set up an online store so readers can buy the book and any extras we’ve produced. Any additional details we’ll be sure to post here first!
awesome
Well, this is a great little series of frames. Ashtor’s expressions are great and really capture his progression of thought. There seems to be a general ‘hate’ for Clovis and I have to wonder what particular incident occurred to make wise ol’ Ashtor’s resolve become so compliant to Hardin’s mass sacrificing. I mean, he was pretty much against the whole idea and then Hardin drops one name and *boom!* it’s all okay. Alright, he maybe still apprehensive, but Ashtor seems okay with it now as long as Clovis is in the mix somehow.
I can’t help but wonder if it is because Ashtor now sees Hardin is placing himself in as much danger (maybe) as the others by presumably going up against the Canid General. That is, of course, if that’s the course of action. Really at this point, I’m not sure how this is going to turn out.
That’s great to hear about the book and I’ll definitely be up to purchase a copy. And some art from Jerome Jacinto’s is always interesting and exciting.
Great work this week, and I think Ashtor is quickly becoming one of my fav characters. ;)
Cheers and sharp quills,
FT
I love all of the faces Ashtor makes. Different mediums have so many different pros and cons and various ways of getting across what they need to, and it’s interesting to think what his gesture would’ve been in other forms– one sentence in a novel, a few seconds in an animation (but infinite more frames), the shift of tone in one line of dialogue, etc.
Ah, Clovis. The weapon the Canid basically released during the latter part of the war, along with his brother, though Clovis was far more physical about the “let me win your heart and mind or I’ll burn down your damn house” factor. Ermehn love him.
Clovis would be about the same age as Kenosh, wouldn’t he? I mean, if Quin’s grandfather was the (or one of the) ‘war hero’ on the Sungrove side of things, and Kenosh served as well (presumably as a young officer, but maybe I’m wrong), then Clovis would have to be at least the Lutren captain’s age if not older. I can imagine he is just as intimidating and blustery, but age has a way of stealing strength to back up those two factors… perhaps Hardin has bid his time for just the right moment…
… Or he’s just out of hair, I mean ‘fur’, products and so is literally and figuratively having a bad enough day that he MUST ACT NOW!!! Jks… Ahem… *serious face*
Hmmm, it’s too bad there wasn’t like a timeline somewhere…
Actually, if anything, Clovis is younger. He and his brother Tosch were prodigies inducted into the military early. Clovis, even earlier. They didn’t receive the title of general until after the war. If anything, the third general is probably Kenosh’s age or older, but not the brother generals.
Freya: There is indeed a timeline we’re using to keep track of all this stuff, though because it reveals numerous plot threads and characters who haven’t even shown up in the story yet, we keep it as a personal reference only :)
Saraa: FWIW, the old fourkingdoms blog isn’t always 100% accurate in terms of comic canon. The script went through a few revisions between the blog posts and when the comic officially started in 2012 (and continues to be tweaked and revised as new pages are added).
Ah, okay. Will keep that in mind!
Gotcha ;)
So how does Kenosh know where Clovis resides? Is there an ermehn sympathizer among the canid ranks? Seems unlikely, but odder things have happened in love and war before.
And once again, good. Ashtor and his snaggletooth is adorable!
*sigh* I hate myself sometimes. I hope I can do a better job from now on.
I, for one, would read plenty of fanfic about cub Ashtor and his snaggletooth. Or just regular old Ashtor and his snaggletooth. Either one, really.
Ashtor is a very likable character, he’s the grumpy but kind grampa of the group. I’d imagine that hugging him would feel like coarse old rug, with the smell of camphor, outdoors, and wet dog.
(I’m not sure why I’d imagine that in the first place, but it just came to my mind.)
That’s adorable.
I suppose most has been said already but I just have to point out how much I like that last frame with it’s view of the mountains that are so tall that they are cut off xD
It appears that Clovis isn’t normally stationed in Deltrada. If he is in fact a powerful warrior/leader then I would assume that his movement to the garrison was accompanied by a large group of soldiers which means that the garrison will most likely be harder to take.
It looks like Hardin is going to sneak around and seize Clovis because he knows he cannot take the garrison by brute force.
I should have said this earlier but the Ermehn remind me of being a mixture of Native American and Scottish Picts.